“Oh~ Little Kotomi, your manga and novels are both quite impressive.”

Arisu Sakayanagi, dressed in Izumi Kotomi’s spare penguin-print pajamas, sat barefoot on the chair. Her small, pale feet, with each toe perfectly shaped and elegant, dangled lightly as her delicate fingers clicked the mouse.

At Arisu’s insistence, Kotomi had no choice but to show her the novels and manga she had created. Originally, Kotomi, feeling too shy to let Arisu directly see her drafts, suggested that she read the chapters serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump or the online version of Sword Art Online posted on Dengeki Bunko’s website.

However, Arisu had refused with the reasoning that she wanted to see the entire manuscript of Sword Art Online. While a few chapters of Chainsaw Man were currently being serialized, Sword Art Online had only a few chapters available online—the ones Kotomi had submitted for the writing competition.

After much gentle persistence from Arisu, Kotomi finally gave in and let her see the original drafts.

After reading for an hour, Arisu set the mouse down and turned her head to look at Kotomi, who was sitting on the floor, engrossed in playing Azur Lane. Quietly, Arisu leaned closer, her lips curling into a playful smile as her gaze fell on the character Le Malin on the screen.

“Hm~ So Kotomi, you like petite types, huh?”

Kotomi’s face immediately flushed red. Although she was currently playing a perfectly normal game… probably, having Arisu see her screen brought back a sudden memory of her sister catching her in the middle of playing an eroge in the past.

“Well, w-well, petite types are cute, sure, but honestly, it’s not about their body type. I actually like the white stockings that Le Malin wears! Stockings are the best—an absolutely perfect, world-changing invention!”

Since Arisu had seen her preferences anyway, Kotomi decided to double down and boldly show off what she considered a relatively “normal” part of her tastes.

Of course, the rest of her preferences—the ones that delved into chaos and darkness—were far too incomprehensible and twisted. It was as if they resided in a cosmic chaos akin to the Court of Azathoth, where countless formless gods revolved blindly around the throne of the mindless, blasphemous deity.

Kotomi knew better than to ever reveal those particular thoughts to anyone.

“You know,” Arisu began with a casual tone, her sidelong glance brushing over Kotomi’s smooth, flawless thighs, “you often wear white tights yourself, don’t you? Do you like them?”

Kotomi, who had already removed her white tights after returning home, chuckled bashfully. “Hehehe, well, let’s just say I like any kind of stockings! Bare legs are nice in their own way, sure, but when it comes to… well, reading certain books or watching certain videos, I really prefer seeing the heroine wearing stockings or tights. Oh, and those silky gloves too—”

Kotomi suddenly froze mid-sentence. She realized too late that under Arisu’s skillful “guidance,” she had said far too much without noticing. Looking up, she saw Arisu’s mischievous smile, which seemed to carry an endless stream of playful intent.

“So this is what Little Kotomi is into, huh~”

“Ugh… I didn’t say anything!” Kotomi cried out, her hands flying up to cover her now blazing red face.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Arisu said with a laugh. “After all, Little Kotomi is just a teenage girl. It’s completely normal to be interested in—or even like—things like that. I’m actually really happy you told me. It shows that you don’t see me as an outsider.”

As she spoke, Arisu gently took hold of Kotomi’s small hands, leaning in closer. Her movements were soft and unspoken, yet her breath carried a hint of greed as she savored every whiff of Kotomi’s scent. She let the fragrance linger deeply in her lungs, thoroughly enjoying its delicate charm.

“I had no intention of telling you any of this…”

Feeling like she had revealed too much of her “XP system” to Arisu, Kotomi slumped in defeat, looking as though all the color had been drained from her body, leaving her like a lifeless sketch.

“Don’t be so reserved with me, Kotomi~ Actually, I have a few peculiar preferences too, just like you,” Arisu said, her beautiful eyes curving into crescent moons as she smiled mischievously.

“What are they?” Kotomi asked.

Neither of them seemed to understand how their conversation had drifted to this topic, but before they knew it, they had started talking about their “XP systems.”

Two girls suddenly discussing their personal “preferences” — something about this felt completely off!

It’s not like I actually have any so-called peculiar preferences. I just… like you a lot. A lot. If that even counts as ‘peculiar’… Arisu thought to herself. But she knew it wasn’t the right time to say that aloud. Instead, she flashed a playful smile and teased:

“That’s a secret~”

If she hadn’t said anything, it might have been better. But now that she had, it only deepened Kotomi’s misunderstanding, making her think that Arisu’s preferences might be just as unusual as her own.

So Arisu also has some preferences she’s too shy to admit. Looks like I’ve learned something new about her. Kotomi thought to herself. Feeling like a kindred spirit, she patted Arisu on the shoulder in an exaggeratedly dramatic way, like the mentor figure from a coming-of-age movie who shows up to guide the confused protagonist.

“Arisu, I understand. The human XP system is free!” she declared solemnly.

“Eh?”

This time, it was Arisu’s turn to be completely dumbfounded.

Kotomi stood up and extended her hand toward Arisu. “Arisu, I’ll go get you a chair. Let’s play some games together! My computer has a ton of fun games installed.”

Of course, she wasn’t referring to those games hidden on her D drive. She meant her collection of games on Steam.

Although… she did have plenty of “adult-oriented” games in her Steam library as well. But those were totally not why she bought them! Absolutely not! She just liked the puzzle-solving elements in games like matching tiles, finding hidden objects, or completing jigsaw puzzles. That was all.

“Well…” Arisu said, laughing softly. “To be honest, now that we’re in your room, I don’t really feel like sitting. I’d rather lie down on the bed.”

“Oh, I get that. If my mom wouldn’t scold me for it, I’d probably move my computer onto the bed too,” Kotomi replied casually.

“Hahaha, that’s so typical of you, Kotomi. But really, unless it’s a laptop, moving a computer onto the bed would be impossible,” Arisu chuckled, amused.

“Alright then, let me think about some games we can play together on the bed!”

Since Arisu would not only be staying the night but also sleeping in her room, Kotomi found herself becoming more excited and enthusiastic.

Arisu, on the other hand, silently gazed at Kotomi’s focused expression as she pondered.

Although tonight’s sleepover had been part of Arisu’s plan all along, it wasn’t until now, after spending time in the Izumi household, that she realized just how warm and welcoming the atmosphere was.

And now, as she sat here with so much uninterrupted time alone with Kotomi, Arisu finally recognized something she had always felt deep in her heart but had never fully acknowledged—

I truly love her.

“I wish… I could live with you forever…” Arisu murmured softly to herself. Her voice was so quiet that even she could barely hear it, much less Kotomi. She suppressed the volume intentionally, afraid that Kotomi might overhear.

Loving someone is sometimes like standing before a fragile glass sculpture—yearning to reach out and touch it, to possess it fully in your hands. But at the same time, fearing that your touch might shatter its delicate beauty into pieces.

In the end, not only would you fail to possess it, but the sculpture could never return to its original form. You might even lose the privilege of admiring it from afar.

As though something soft in her heart had been stirred, Arisu unconsciously began leaning toward Kotomi. But just as she was about to move closer, her sharp ears picked up the sound of footsteps.

Someone was coming—Aimi’s footsteps, heading straight for this room!

In an instant, Arisu straightened her posture, returning to her previous seated position. She grabbed the phone she had set aside earlier and pretended to be casually playing with it.

The next moment, Aimi pushed the door open. A towel hung in her hand, and her damp hair suggested she had just finished showering.

“Onee-chan, Sakayanagi-senpai, the bathroom is free now. Which one of you wants to go first?”

“Arisu, you go first. I’ll take the last shower,” Kotomi said.

“Alright.” Arisu stood up, leaning on her cane as she prepared to head downstairs.

“Does Sakayanagi-senpai need my sister to help you? Or, Arisu, how about you shower together with Sakayanagi-senpai?”

Though Aimi felt an overwhelming pang of jealousy that Arisu would be able to bathe with Kotomi, she quickly let go of the thought when she glanced at Arisu’s reliance on her cane.

Arisu’s legs weren’t in the best condition, and she might need a maid’s assistance to bathe. Since her maid wasn’t here today, Aimi figured Kotomi might need to help her instead.

Helping her bathe, huh…? Hmph, I’m not jealous at all. Not one bit! Ugh, okay, fine—I’m super jealous! I haven’t bathed with my sister since I graduated elementary school.

It felt as though Aimi’s heart had just devoured an entire lemon—peel and all.

“I don’t mind helping. Arisu, do you need me to lend you a hand?” Kotomi asked, plugging in her phone to charge as she offered to help.

“There’s no need, but thank you for your concern,” Arisu replied with a casual smile. “Even though I need a cane to walk, I can still bathe just fine without it or without a maid’s help. By the way, is there a plastic stool in the bathroom?”

“Of course there is. It’s next to the bathtub,” Kotomi answered.

When Kotomi and Aimi were younger, they didn’t know how to wash their hair by themselves yet. They would obediently sit on a stool while their mom helped them.

Later, Aimi was the first to learn how to wash her own hair. Kotomi, however, only managed to figure it out a year later. Before that, it was always Aimi who helped Kotomi wash her hair. Even after they learned how to wash their own hair, the stool remained in the bathroom. They eventually replaced it with a slightly larger stool because whenever the two of them bathed together, Aimi liked to scrub Kotomi’s back.

Though Aimi always said things like “A younger sister scrubbing her older sister’s back is only natural,” her real reasons for doing so… were less straightforward. Every time she scrubbed Kotomi’s back, she looked as though she was savoring a gourmet meal placed in front of her. From start to finish, she could barely keep herself from drooling.

“The stool is perfect, then. The reason I can bathe without needing my cane or a maid’s help is that I spend half the time sitting on the stool. After that, I just scoot closer to the bathtub bit by bit,” Arisu explained with a lighthearted laugh.

“And what about getting out of the bathtub?” Aimi asked curiously.

“Hahaha, Aimi, you don’t think I’m one of those frail girls who can’t walk at all without a cane, do you? Quite the contrary—thanks to years of recovery and physical therapy, I can still manage to walk short distances without the cane. Watch this.”

As Arisu spoke, she set her cane aside and slowly walked toward the door. Upon reaching it, she turned and walked back at the same pace.

Her steps were slower than an average person’s, with slight pauses between each one. Even so, it was the first time either Kotomi or Aimi had seen her walk without her cane, and both were visibly surprised.

“Arisu, is this your first time seeing Sakayanagi-senpai walk without her cane too?”

“Mm-hmm,” Kotomi nodded.

“Haha, see? My walking isn’t as dramatic as you might have thought. Alright, I’ll go use the bathroom now.”

“Arisu!” Kotomi suddenly called out to her. “If you feel inconvenienced at any point while bathing, just call for me.”

Arisu turned her head and smiled softly. “With how thoughtful and caring you are, Kotomi, it must be really hard for you not to be popular, huh?”

Hearing this, Aimi immediately picked up on a key detail: My sister is popular?!

“Sakayanagi-senpai, is my sister really popular at school?” Aimi asked directly.

“Aimi, don’t ask stuff like that!” Kotomi tried to stop her, stepping forward to intervene. But before she could say more, Aimi shot her a sharp glare, and the air between them froze.

Aimi’s expression practically screamed, You dare stop me from finding out the truth? Are you hiding something?

Kotomi was slightly annoyed at being accused of “hiding something.” As a dignified and upstanding lady, how could she tolerate such suspicion?

But the moment she thought about what Aimi might uncover—and then remembered her “secret” relationship with Megumi Kato—Kotomi couldn’t help but shrink back, her irritation giving way to guilt.

Indeed, she had something to hide.

Still, Arisu shouldn’t know about her and Megumi’s relationship. After all, Megumi had confessed to her at Aqua Park, a location in Shinagawa far from Chiba City.

Moreover, on the day she and Megumi visited the aquarium, they didn’t run into a single familiar face. Even their first kiss had happened in a space where it was just the two of them.

Thinking about this, Kotomi finally let out a sigh of relief. At least for now, her relationship with Megumi was something no third person knew about!

“Exactly! Your sister is incredibly popular at school,” Arisu said with a playful tone. “Almost every day, when she opens her shoe locker or returns to her seat in class, her locker, desk drawer, and even the surface of her desk are stuffed with love letters. The boys and girls who secretly admire her or confess to her could line up from the school entrance all the way to the front gates.”

“What?!”

Aimi was utterly stunned, unable to stay calm. She had always known her sister was beautiful and that her popularity was inevitable.

But she hadn’t imagined that the situation was this exaggerated!

Kotomi, overwhelmed with embarrassment, covered her face with her hands.

To be honest, just this morning, after the third period, a boy from the neighboring class had come to her, handing her a love letter and confessing his feelings. Without hesitation, Kotomi skillfully delivered a rejection speech she’d grown quite adept at.

After nearly a month of daily confessions—sometimes from people she knew, sometimes from complete strangers, both male and female, and even occasionally from students from other schools—Kotomi had practically developed a well-honed system for rejecting unwanted advances.

In fact, she felt she could write an inspirational self-help book under a pseudonym, something like How to Gracefully Reject Confessions, and it’d probably sell out in no time.

Watching Aimi’s dumbfounded expression, Arisu wasn’t about to stop. She added with a teasing grin:

“Oh, and from the start of the school year until now—barely a month—your sister has already received fifty love letters, all from different people. This month only has thirty days, you know~”

Another bombshell hit Aimi, leaving her staring blankly. Then, her expression shifted into a forced smile as she turned to her sister, her voice dripping with sarcasm:

“Well, Onee-chan, you’re certainly popular.”

“Don’t look at me like that! You’re scaring me!” Kotomi stammered, visibly flustered.

Of course, Arisu couldn’t resist protecting her “wife.” After all, she added with a gentle smile, “Naturally, every single one of them was rejected by your sister. And we’re not just talking about random people; some of them were genuinely handsome or beautiful. Yet your sister didn’t seem interested in any of them and refused them all.”

Then, as if having just realized something profound, Arisu tilted her head, her expression thoughtful and her tone filled with admiration:

“Until now, I couldn’t understand why Kotomi rejected all of them so decisively. But after meeting you, I finally get it. With such a lovely, thoughtful, and graceful younger sister at home, it’s only natural that her standards would be set impossibly high.”

Arisu was skilled at saying the right thing, and Kotomi reluctantly admitted to herself that, in terms of conversational skill, Arisu might be on the same level as her.

At the very least, the words Arisu had just spoken struck a chord with Aimi. Even Kotomi, who was only listening on the side, couldn’t help but feel soothed by the compliment. Aimi, of course, was glowing with pride after hearing it.

Knowing that Kotomi had rejected all her confessors, Aimi’s previously darkened mood vanished completely. Replacing it was a look of satisfaction and smug pride.

“Hmph! Those foolish people dared to set their sights on my sister? Even toads would feel ashamed to compare themselves. My sister has the highest standards in the entire world!”

With her hands on her hips, Aimi radiated confidence and pride.

You’re basically just bragging about yourself at this point, Kotomi thought with an internal sigh.

Still, the exchange between Arisu and Aimi helped Kotomi relax. She couldn’t explain why, but she had been so tense earlier. When Arisu started talking, Kotomi had been gripped by the irrational fear that she might somehow know about her and Megumi’s relationship.

Now, though, it seemed clear—it had just been her overthinking.

Aimi patted Kotomi’s shoulder approvingly, clearly pleased with how decisively her sister had rejected all those confessions.

“Not bad, Onee-chan! Facing so many strange temptations, you managed to stay true to yourself and reject them all. That’s exactly what you should do! Right now, you’re a student, and as a student, you shouldn’t be dating. You should be focusing on learning and studying! Especially staying vigilant against a certain short-haired woman with bad intentions!”

“Haha… uh-huh…”

You’re one to talk. Don’t you feel even the slightest bit guilty saying that? Kotomi thought, twitching slightly at her sister’s audacity.

Speaking of which, who exactly was this “short-haired woman with bad intentions” that Aimi was referring to?

At a Hot Spring Hotel in Hokkaido

“Achoo!”

Megumi Kato sneezed mid-meal, rubbing her adorable nose as she smiled softly.

“Is Kotomi thinking about me? Hehe, we’ve only been apart for less than a day, and she already misses me so much. When I get back, I’ll have to give her lots of love!”

“Megumi, what are you mumbling about over there? During meals, you should focus on eating quietly,” Ikemi Kato reminded her.

“Got it~” Megumi Kato stuck out her tongue playfully.

————————————————————————————————————–

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep