Chapter 18 - Miasma (1/2)

Miasma

◆Seiji Sanada◆

“Nii-san, what happened?”

Upon entering the game shop, Sana came after me. She noticed my frantic searching and looked around, too. What happened, indeed. She didn’t follow us, right..?

…Ah. Something moved by the store’s entrance.

Sa-sa-sa

I only saw the shadow, but that was definitely Hiiragi-chan. Stop trying to be so sneaky in such a weird place!

“No, it’s nothing.”

“Oh, really?”

Sana, tilting her neck, put her arm around me and cheerily said “Nii-san, this way” and pulled me away. She’s pretty lively today, huh?

“It’s a game two people can play, and recently I’ve thought it’s pretty interesting, but…”

Based on my standards 10 years ago.

I hadn’t gone shopping like this with Sana before. I definitely hadn’t gone anywhere with her, especially with our arms around each other, nor had we eaten crepes together. History is said to be exaggerated, but a lot of weird things have happened due to dating Hiiragi-chan.

“Sure… why not?”

Where are you, Hiiragi-chan? Or rather, what happened to working? What’s bugging me is that it’s like she said, “Eh, whatever” and then just stopped working. She’s an adult, this is something she should be more careful of.

My phone moved with a bu-bu-bu. Just as I expected, it was a message from Hiragi-chan.

“I came because seeing you gives me the drive to work harder!”

What a quick excuse! It’s not that I want to be careful about meeting up, I want to be careful about her slacking on work! I’m honestly happy that my beloved girlfriend came to see me. But, that’s another story. Getting excited over this won’t work out well for Hiiragi-chan. It’s got upsides, but it also has its downsides.

“As a teacher, please properly do your job. Then we can hang out!”

“Oof, keigo… the distance hurts…” [1]

Sana stared at me when I received that message.

“Nii-san, which one do you want?”

“Yes.”

“Ugh, you’re not listening at all!”

Sana filled her cheeks with a puku. It’s cute when she’s in a good mood. It’s practically a brother complex, what with her arm was wrapped around me.

“Nii-san, focus on choosing a game. There’s even Battlefield and Paradise.”

Sana hunts for used games on sale at Wagon Sale. Seems like she wants a game to kill time while she waits for new ones to come out.

“Should I even buy anything? They’re pretty expensive, like a thousand yen.”

“Nah. What are you thinking? What failures, your pride wouldn’t allow it.”

Oh, little sister. Aren’t they being sold on clearance like this because they aren’t popular? But for a high school student, a hundred to a thousand yen is pretty significant.

“There’s lots of games, and they’re cheap!”

At a different Wagon Sale, a woman read off that monotonous line.

For a game store or similar places, she was wearing unusually nice, fresh clothes.

It was Hiiragi-chan.

“If she was just an acquaintance, I could buy her a present…”

Chira. Chira-chira. [2]

She’s definitely looking this way! If I talk to her now, it feels like she would say something like, I’ll buy you a game. It was definitely giving off that impression. Sensei, it’s such a coincidence seeing you here.

No way that’s the case!

“Should I buy two… or three…?”

Chira. Chira chira.

That’s right, there’s no way I would be willing to believe that she just happened to come here at the same time. She was definitely inviting me over…

Sensei, hello, is it true that you’ll buy us some games? She was definitely inviting me to say something like that to her.

If I talk to her, my time with Sana will officially be over!

“Ah, Sanada-kun, Sana-chan, it’s such a coincidence. Do you guys have plans for lunch? Sensei will treat you guys! Let’s go let’s go.”

It’ll become like that. Definitely. Sana put a little bit more strength and squeezed my arms.

“Hiiragi-sensei is over there. …Does she also like games?”

“I-I wonder. Who knows?”

I decided to act completely oblivious. Really, I hope that Hiiragi-chan would hurry up and get back to work. There are probably negative effects to her being here after all.

“So Sensei as well, also hides the fact that she likes games, anime, and manga from others like Sana does.”

You’re wrong, sister.

“Coming out on a holiday as a girl, all alone, while getting all excited at a wagon sale like this. That has to be the case.”