The World the Goddess Only Knows

When I returned home, my younger twin sister was on her phone in the living room. My sister's name is Uzumaki Naruko. She has blue eyes and long blond hair she usually tied into long twintails. She dressed herself in a cute black and orange outfit and wore matching hair clips. Both her ears are pierced and her long fingernails are manicured to a glossy shine. Her face is attractive enough to turn heads just by itself, but she always makes sure to carefully apply her makeup. She carries herself with an air of maturity almost unseen in high school age. Her frame is tall and slender, but her figure is undoubtedly filled out in all the right places. If only she also had a knack for singing, she could have easily been a popular idol in the entertainment industry. Moreover, she's also attended a prestigious all-girls school in Tokyo, being invited as an honor student with very good grades.

I'm not just saying these things because I'm her brother. My sister is truly refined. It's also not as if I want to portray her as the perfect sister. My male friends often tell me they're jealous of me for having such a sister, and while I can understand where they're coming from, I really wish they wouldn't joke around like that. Honestly, I wonder if other people with sisters might understand my position. In reality, though, my sister isn't that great. Well, at least to me she isn't. Take this as an example: in a typical high school class, there are usually a few closely knit groups of friends. Within those groups, one group stands out as the most outstanding. This is the group with lots of remarkable characters, the popular student who gets along with everyone, the genius who's also quite handsome, and the incredibly cute girl, among others. Even within that outstanding group, one girl still stands out as the most refined, and that girl is my sister. She's the kind of person who lives in a different world, who you always hesitate before talking to, after all, she won't really be interested in what you're saying, right? She is the so-called "highest level girl." People might think that this sounds like a good thing, but she's the kind of girl who doesn't pair well with the average guy. Now, imagine being related to that kind of girl.

"I'm home." I decided to go for a rather polite greeting, but not only did she not respond, she didn't even glance in my direction.

Donning her sailor fuku uniform, Naruko was sunk into the sofa, her legs crossed under her very short skirt. She was on her phone with an amused expression, chuckling occasionally. "What? Seriously? Why'd he do that? Ahaha, what an idiot."

The true idiot is me, for trying to talk to you! Cursing mentally, I looked inside the refrigerator. I found a bottle of cola, and pouring it into a glass, I downed it in a single gulp. Feeling refreshed, I left the room.

"Uh-huh, uh-huh… alright. Let me change and I'll go right away."

It's already getting so late, but she's still going off somewhere? Well, in any case, it doesn't concern me. My heart murmuring, I went up the stairs. My home consists of a single house built with two stories. Since my father had long passed away, my family only includes my sister and me, along with our mother for a total of three people. We're a reasonably well off and wholly unremarkable household. My room and my sister's room are both on the second floor.

After relaxing in my room for a few minutes I went back downstairs. Before starting to study, I wanted to use the restroom. Incidentally, when I go down the stairs into the entryway, on my left hand side there is a door to the living room.

"Ah." Near the entrance, I bumped into my sister, who had also changed out of her uniform. There had always been a blind spot here in our house, so it wasn't unusual to bump into people here. My left shoulder lightly crashed into Naruko's chest. The impact itself was not very impressive, but in that instant my sister let go of her bag and its contents spilled onto the floor.

"Sorry." After my simple apology, I tried to reach down to the various cosmetic products that had spilled onto the floor, but when she saw what I was doing, Naruko quickly swept my hand away with her open palm.

"Wha—" Looking back up, I was left speechless by the sharp glare I found waiting for me.

"It's okay. Don't touch it." Only saying that much, she began to quietly gather her spilled belongings by herself.

Whoa… she gave me a bad feeling there… is it that bad if I touch the stuff she was holding? I looked silently down at my sister as she expressionlessly picked up her things. An awkward tension filled the entryway. My sister turned her back on me, and hurriedly put on her shoes.

"I'm off, see you later." She muttered that like it was an annoying formality, and shut the front door with a "bang." There you have it. This is what my relationship with my sister has become. Well, it's not like I was offended or anything.

Hah, since when has it been like this? I had the feeling that, even for her, there was once a time when it wasn't like this at all. Well, whatever. Whatever. It's a bit irritating, but whatever.

After taking a piss and washing my hands, I dove straight into the sofa in our living room. Picking up one of my Rolling Stone magazines scattered about, I lie on my back with my legs crossed. Wasn't I supposed to start studying? Lying down like that, flipping through and staring intently at the magazine, my mood was filled with an extreme emptiness. This isn't the time to be doing this! My brain was yelling at me, but my extreme sluggishness prevented me from listening to reason.

Ahh… dammit. I really don't want to study. This type of emptiness is probably pretty common for us high school students. Shaking my head like a dog that had its face splashed with water, I finally rose to my feet. Leaving the living room and entering the hallway, I spotted a strange-looking thing.

Huh? It was lying behind the shoebox in our entryway. I hadn't noticed it before, but now I could see half of a gold thin case in the gap between the shoebox and the wall. Well honestly, my curiosity was just another way to procrastinate. As "I don't want to study, I don't want to study," repeats in my head, my brain is constantly trying to find a reason to keep me from studying. Even if doing something like just picking up this strange object only really takes a few seconds. It's really all the fault of the lazy haze I'm in right now.

I dragged out the object from behind the shoebox. What the hell is this? It was definitely not something that I would expect to find in this house. This is… well… what? I held the case between my fingers and took a good look at it, but I still wasn't sure what it was. It was definitely a DVD case. I knew that much. I've seen these types of cases often at video rental stores… well also, "DVD" was clearly written on the case. But, the contents of that case I could make neither heads nor tails of. I'm sure my facial expression right then was one of puzzled suspicion. On the DVD cover, there was an outrageous drawing of a winged girl with a black and gold theme.

There is so much gold in this girl… l continued to inspect the case like some detective examining evidence. It wasn't just the character; the entire DVD package had plenty of golden colored. Well, that much is fine. But the problem is… what's with this get up? This girl was wrapped in a black and gold costume. She has golden eyes and her long braided hair was red scarlet colored. She wore a puffy gold dress with two shiny gold bows arranged at either side of her skirt, and straps on her shoulders. She sports two matching bows in her hair, supporting her long braided hair, as well as a red choker around her neck, which is tied in a bow in the back. The front of her torso has a pale-yellow segment surrounded by black frills with a black placket that has red buttons. And black puffy sleeves with gold and black frilly ends held by red sleeve cuffs. In between her shoulder blades and just below her neck, there is a bird-shaped hole in the back of her dress. Her skirt's ends are akin to a flower's petals; there are seven separate petal-shaped segments of her dress, it has a red brim and black flower-like designs on it, lay atop a black donut shaped petticoat, which is frilly underneath. She also wears a pair of black gloves with red cuffs around the wrists, black, knee-high stockings with frills, and red heels with ribbon laces, her outfit resembles that of a ballerina. In the upper half of the package, what was probably the title was written in a very round font.

Zodiac Angel… Heartfilia…? First time… limited edition? What's this? I could go on and on picking out small details, but in short, this was obviously a mahou shoujo anime. I might have been initially confused because I hadn't seen something like this in a long time.

Then… why is something like this here? I held this "Zodiac Angel Heartfilia" thing with both hands and stood still in the entryway. Suddenly, the front door to the house swiftly opened right in front of me.

"I'm home… huh, why are you rolled up like that in the entryway?"

"D-Don't worry about it, Mom. I just wanted a change of pace."

Too close! I thought my social life was going down the toilet! But she wasn't mistaken. The instant the door opened, I fell to the floor and rolled up, hiding what I was holding.

Phew… I made it just in time, didn't I? Although I don't know the culprit, maybe this was a trap set for me. If someone witnessed me holding something like this, I would be the laughingstock of the family. I could already imagine Naruko's disdainful stare, as if she was looking at a pile of garbage.

Mom, holding a few bags of groceries, looked down at me sympathetically. "You know, I heard from one of the neighbors. Mental counseling for students is pretty popular nowadays."

"W-Wait. Don't be rash. I'm not insane. It's just… today I studied a bit too much, I guess."

"What a lie. There's no way you would stress yourself out so much over studying, is there?"

Ah, even my mother is saying such things to me. Have more confidence in your own son, will you?

"It's not like that. My grades are plenty decent, you know?"

"But that's because of Erza-chan, right? Having such a talented cousin tutoring you, how exactly can you be patting yourself on the back like that? When have you ever liked studying by yourself?"

Dammit, she hit the bulls-eye with that one, and I couldn't respond. After all, up to five minutes ago I was lounging around reading a magazine.

Crawling along the floor like a worm, I hid "Heartfilia" underneath my shirt and tried to escape from that place. Behind my retreating back, my mother called out.

"Haruto? I don't mind that much, but in the future, please try not to read your ero book in the entryway."

Dammit, how depressing. Then again, it's to be expected that Mom would guess such things by how strangely I was acting. After all, she had once cleaned my room and accidentally unearthed my secret Icha-Icha collection. But this time, the thing I was hiding did not have such kind of meaning.

Carefully letting my mother walk past, I held the DVD to my chest like a rugby player would hold a ball, and ran up the stairs. Flying into my room, I shut the door, and finally let out a sigh. I slowly took the article out from underneath my shirt, and held it carefully in my right hand. Using my left hand, I wiped the cold sweat off my face. Mission complete. Really, though, I'm used to doing things like this. I won't go into the reasons, but I believe that any healthy high school student would be able to sympathize.

I ended up bringing it up here, didn't I? Squinting at this Heartfilia thing in my hands, I grumbled. Well, it can't be helped. If, in the middle of my excuses for not studying, I had suddenly gone "Hey, here's this thing I've also been hiding from you," then I'm sure that would have attracted unwanted interest.

My examination studying time having been cut short by such unavoidable circumstances, I began my inspection of the thing in earnest. My room is six tatami large. There's a bed and a desk. Reference books, manga, CD, music magazines, etc are stored on my bookshelves. And I also have a closet. My carpet was colored red, and my window curtains were white. On my room wall, there are some posters of Liverpool FC and the Beatle. Other than that, there is a small mini-computer, CD Player, Radio, and audio system. Also, I had already pretty much given up hiding my ero books, so they were being stored in cardboard boxes under my bed. I had once begged my mother, kowtowing to her on the floor, to never clean under my bed. But, I have no reason to believe that she would honor such an agreement, and even if she were checking my collection every so often, I had no way of knowing.

Ugh, I don't even want to think about it! My pride really wouldn't be able to handle that. But at least my collection was not that risqué, so that even if my mother discovered my ero books this wouldn't lead to a family crisis. That's the best defense plan as far as I can tell. I wonder how people without their own private room try to hide things like this… but, in any case, I've never really thought of anything but leaving my door open. I guess it would be pretty spoiled of me, to be troubled by not having a lock on my door. For a few seconds, I mulled over these thoughts.

Then, I sat on the bed and crossed my legs. I took the DVD case in one hand, and rested my chin in the other hand. The more I look at it, the more out of place this thing seems… bathed in the light of a fluorescent lamp, Heartfilia's smile sparkled as she raised her whip-like sword.

Hm… well then… who exactly does this belong to? In turn, I went through all the other people in our household. As I thought, there was nobody who I would expect to own such a thing as this Zodiac Angel Heartfilia And, I don't remember ever seeing this DVD being played on the television in our living room. So… what do I make of this? Why was something like this lying there? While I continued my musings, I opened up the case with a click.

Wha—?! I was more puzzled than ever. Much more intensely puzzled than when I had been just looking at the cover. In short, there was no Heartfilia DVD inside the DVD case. In its place, there was some other DVD. I guess this kind of stuff happens a lot. For example, after listening to CDs on my CD Player, putting each CD back into their matching case is such a bother that I often end up shuffling them around. But then, I soon have no idea what CD is in which case, and chaos ensues. This is probably what the owner of the Heartfilia DVD did; the owner probably put in the DVD, not really caring whether it was the right DVD or not.

Ahh, I understand now. This stuff happens often, after all. But… uhh… why is the title of this DVD "Loving my Little Sister"? What the hell are you trying to get someone to do? And what's with this quaint little "R-18" label?

Calm down! Beads of cold sweat gathered on my forehead, and my breathing became ragged. This was bad. This was really bad. I thought about what could have happened in that little scene back there with my mother if she had found this. If I was discovered with this, I would probably have to kill myself. Is this really some sort of trick someone's trying to play on me? I might not deal with this kind of thing often, but my instincts were letting off loud warning bells in my head. What was this dark aura emitting from this title?! Even without the R18 label, the title itself is plenty! The more I thought about it, the more I knew that this was something I definitely could not continue to hold onto—

"Haruto… are you studying properly?"

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Giving out an agonizing cry, I dove under my futon. Peeking out towards the door, I saw my mother looking dumbfounded at my strange behavior.

"What the heck are you doing?"

"D-Don't worry about it Mom. It was just speaking practice… but please, please knock next time!"

"I see, I'll be sure to do that from now on." With a forced smile and a knowing expression, Mom left and shut the door.

No good… it's a good thing I managed to hide this thing at the last second, but Mom definitely has the wrong idea now…!

Dammit. Today has been such a terrible day… and all the blame is on this thing. Still under my futon covers, I stared at the puzzling DVD case.

Dammit… at this rate, I have to find the owner; I won't be able to live in peace until I do that. I burned with angry determination to find the culprit. But… there's too much I don't know. That is, there's too much I don't know about the owner of this bizarre DVD. The owner of this Zodiac Angel Heartfilia case, in which there was this very suspiciously titled Loving my Little Sister thing. If I had to make a prediction, I'd probably guess that whoever owned Heartfilia was the same person who owned Loving my Little Sister. And, considering I discovered this article behind our family's shoebox, there was a high probability that the owner was someone in my family, either me, my sister, or my mother. Of course, it's not as if outside people never went in and out of our house, so I can't completely reject the possibility that someone outside our family is the owner. But seriously… who would deliberately come to our house and drop Loving my Little Sister in a Zodiac Angel Heartfilia case behind our shoebox? I can't even imagine how that would happen.

Well, for the time being, I feel it would be useless to consider the possibility of an outside owner. For now, let's try to wring the identity of the culprit out from inside the family. Me, my sister, and my mother… out of these three people, one is supposedly the culprit. Objectively speaking, which one is the most suspicious…? Zodiac Angel Heartfilia and Loving my Little Sister (18), who would be the most likely owner of these things…?

Well, the answer would be me, and that's annoying.

No, no, no. Of course it's not me!

But certainly, I guess that I would be the most likely suspect. Man, saying that about myself makes me kind of sad. But that thing obviously isn't mine. Because I really am not that interested in anime. There are a few people in my class who would talk about anime, but we rarely talked about it. But, I mean, I could said the same for all the other members of my family…

Concluding that, I held my head under my arms, troubled.

Ok. Well, it can't be my mother, right? And my sister… well, she was the first one I had excluded. About five years ago, she may have watched stuff like mahou shoujo anime, but lately she's only been into mainstream dramas and music programs, right? Such childish anime is definitely quite far from Naruko's hobbies and interests. No matter what, I can't possibly imagine her going so far as buying this Heartfilia DVD and then watching it. And, as for Loving my Little Sister, even thinking she would do that would be repulsive. So, could it possibly be Naruko? The popular high school girl? Just today even, there's no mistaking that she went out to hang out with her friends…

I give up. I'm beyond stumped. My ship of reason had finally run aground. As I thought, the culprit couldn't be in my family, but if I expand the sphere of suspicion to include people outside of the household, there would be so many people to consider that I would surely make no progress. This is useless. I guess I really am not cut out to be a detective.

Well then, what now? This is so annoying… maybe I should just give up? No… as I thought, I can't erase this from my mind. I will definitely find the person responsible.

It was strange, but I had become unusually determined. The usual me would have stopped this investigation right now, and then would have taken a nap until dinner. And, if I had done that, the peaceful life that I had before now would have continued. But, that didn't happen. With purpose, I had decided not to give up the search. Of course, at this point I didn't know why I felt this way, but for better or for worse, I was determined now to be the decider of my own fate. In this case, I decided to go and tread on a huge landmine.

***

In our house, dinner happened at seven o'clock sharp. If you weren't at the dinner table at seven, then you weren't going to be eating dinner there at all that day.

It was six forty-five. Scratching my head, I left my room and went down the stairs. But, I suddenly stopped mid-descent. Right beneath my eyes, I saw the figure of Naruko around the entryway.

Ah, so she came back. Now that I think about it, Naruko's curfew was 6:30 pm. Setting aside whether that time was too early or too late, it seemed that she honored her curfew.

Today, Naruko had on a black and orange striped T-shirt, as well as a black something that looked like a mix between shorts and a skirt. I don't really know, but it looked like something of the Sesi brand. If she were called a fashion model, then everyone would probably believe it. Pretty cute, isn't she? But I didn't really want to approach her. Because she seemed to hate me, it was probably best that we keep our distance from each other. But no matter how often I repeated that to myself, it wasn't like we could stop being brother and sister. I just have to deal with it, I guess. So I waited there on the stairs for her to go to dinner.

Hm? But this was quite weird. The living room door was right next to her, but she did not head towards the living room, and instead just stood in the entryway looking dazed. What exactly is she doing? Well, I didn't want to look like an idiot just standing there, so I descended the rest of the stairs. I stood in front of the living room door, my hand on the knob. Suddenly, I turned my head.

"Something wrong?"

"Huh?"

Whoa, what an intense stare…

Dammit. Knowing this type of thing would happen, why did I have to open my mouth? Am I an idiot?

"It's nothing." Clicking my tongue, I turned the living room door knob forcefully.

On the dining room table was tonight's dinner of curry and miso soup that I had made (Mom and Naruko can't cook, so I'm one who's in charge of cooking in this house). This room where we gathered to have our meals functioned as a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen, so it had no dividers and was very spacious. My sister and I sat down in empty seats, directly across from our mother. The newscaster on the television chattered away about overseas exports as well as other current events. My mother was chewing some pickled vegetables. Her name is Uzumaki Kushina. She has red hair like mine and violet eyes. From her appearances, Mom looked like a 20 years old woman despite her age who's already in late 30s. My sister was very silent. In this family, my sister was fundamentally unsociable. Silently eating her meal like that, I thought she really looked like our late father… Incidentally, I've been told that I take more after my mother. Our family's dining room was also a typical, normal family table, and for that I was grateful.

Eating my curry silently, I looked for an opening to enact my plan. It was, of course, a plan to identify the owner of the DVD. Although, it isn't as complicated as I make it sound. It was a simple plan with no twists and turns. In a word, because pure logic would not get me anywhere at that point, now that all the suspects were gathered in one place, I could fish for the culprit a bit.

And then, there was the opportunity I was looking for. Draining my clam miso soup, I spoke to no-one in particular. "I'm going to the convenience store after dinner. Does anybody need anything?"

"Ah? Then please buy me some of the new Haagen Daaz ice cream. The seasonal one."

"Sure." After this conversation with Mom, I nonchalantly started talking again. "Oh right. One of my friends has recently gotten into some girl's anime. Umm… I think it was a zodiac girl something, or something like that."

"What's this, so suddenly?" At my bait, the first response I got came again from Mom. Could it really be that…

"Well it's nothing, just that he thought it was interesting and recommended it. I was wondering if I should give it a try…"

"Eh, that sounds like something an otaku would do, doesn't it? Come on, I learned about this kind of thing from the media. It would be bad if you turned into something like that, wouldn't it?"

Honestly this stuff generally doesn't leave a good impression, does it? For me, I don't really care what hobbies other people choose to take up. After all, it has nothing to do with me. But, objecting to my parent's words would be really annoying, so I just responded with a noncommittal "uh-huh."

Well, I guess Mom is not the culprit after all. She never faltered at all at my comments. I'm speaking, of course, about the owner of the DVD. So then… by process of elimination… the only one left is… I discreetly glanced at Naruko out of my peripheral vision. Naruko was intensely biting her lip. She had stiffened with all her might, to the point where the tips of the chopsticks she was holding were trembling.

Wha—? …Could this mean…

"… What's wrong, Naruko?" Mom called softly to Naruko upon detecting her unease.

"Nothing… thanks for the meal."

Naruko, looking quite annoyed, rose from the table and briskly walked out of the room. She closed the door with a loud "bang!" I heard the "dan, dan, dan, dan, dan" of her footsteps going up the stairs. The two of us left at the table were dumbfounded.

"… What's gotten into her today?"

"Wh… who knows…" I appropriately answered to my obviously dumbfounded mother. But honestly, I had no idea what had just happened either. What did she get angry at?

Something was said in the previous exchange between Mom and me that really made her angry. Maybe she was the real culprit, and realized exactly what I was doing, but that would be all the more stranger. Normally, Naruko would never get so agitated and be so easily caught red-handed by me. So, why did this happen? Naruko, I don't understand you at all.

But… Naruko's behavior was anything but usual… I also have to take into account that she definitely reacted to my comments. Of course, this wasn't definitive proof that she was the culprit, but at the very least, this heightened my suspicions that the DVD belonged to a family member… but could it possibly be, that the Zodiac Angel Heartfilia DVD I picked up in the entryway belongs to… my sister?

If I assumed that… a lot of things would make sense. The time she dropped the item was probably the time she bumped into me earlier in the evening. At that time, when the contents of her bag spilled out, this thing may have fallen into the crevice between the shoebox and the wall. And then, she went out and realized that this item was missing. And, this also explains why she seemed like she was looking for something in the entryway right before dinner. Continuing along these lines, if my theory about the mismatched DVDs was correct, then Naruko meant to bring Zodiac Angel Heartfilia with her and not Loving my Little Sister.

But still. I can't even begin to imagine why she had to bring this with her when she went out. I thought that she was just going to hang out with friends, and there's no reason for a girl who's going to a mixer like that to bring an anime DVD, is there? I mean, she definitely was going to meet with her friends… I just don't understand. For one, until this day I could not imagine Naruko ever having to do with children's anime. Was I wrong? Is the owner really Naruko? That's impossible, isn't it? It's nice that I came up with this theory of Naruko's guilt, but so far in my heart I was still less than half convinced. Well, for now, let's see if we can set a little trap.

"Thanks for the meal." Having finished my meal, I left the dining room table. I stopped by my room to grab my wallet. Stopping in front of my sister's room, in a forced tone, I spoke, "Alright. Time to go to the convenience store."

I have no acting ability, do I? Well, whatever. It's not like I thought this was going to work. Instead of a trap, this was turning into some clownish sideshow. With a "dan, dan, dan," I went down the stairs. With a "bang," I left the house and shut the door. Leaving the house, I walked towards the convenience store. Rounding the corner, however, instead of going towards the convenience store, I walked along a different path that led me to the back of the house.

What exactly was I planning to do? Well, I guess I was trying to think from the perspective of the culprit. If Naruko was really the culprit, then she probably already knew that I had her DVD. So, then… if I were in Naruko's position, what would I do? Well, she would definitely want to take the DVD when I'm not looking, and then feign innocence… that's the only thing she could do. Naruko was obviously in a strange mood earlier. She lost her cool. And in that state… when I left she may have finally reached the end of her patience and started looking for her DVD in my room. I mean, the chances of this ploy working were pretty low, but I wanted to try something rather simple.

Ahh, as I expected, it's not good is it… or wait… could it be…

I went in through the kitchen door at the back of the house, and sneaked quietly up the stairs. And then, I forcefully threw open the door to my room. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?!"

"Ah!" In the middle of the room, Naruko was crawling on all fours. At my entrance, she paled and swiftly turned her head in my direction.

"I asked you, what are you doing?!"

"I-It's nothing. D-Don't worry about it," Naruko shuttered, with her behind still facing me. She seemed nervous, and her breathing was uneven.

"How is it fine? Freely walking into another person's room and looking around… what would you think if the same thing happened to you?" And also, of all places, wasn't where she was sticking her hand where I kept all my Icha-Icha books?

Instilling my words with a sense of inexpressible anger, I had spoken calmly.

Without speaking, Naruko turned away. Maybe it was from anger, but she began to blush. Then, without a word, she slowly stood up and walked this way.

"Out of my way."

"No. Answer my question, what were you doing here?"

"I said out of my way!"

"Don't play dumb. You were looking for this, weren't you!"

While she glared intensely at me at point blank range, I slowly took out the Zodiac Angel Heartfilia DVD case which I had hidden under my shirt. Naruko's response was quite dramatic.

"T-That's?!" Naruko threw an intensely threatening glare my way, and reached out for the case, but I skillfully evade her hand.

With an excessive look of triumph on my face, I beat my palm against the back of the DVD case. "Hm. So this really was yours, wasn't it?"

"N-No, there's no way that could be mine!" She spoke in a clearly displeased voice and obviously did not want to continue this conversation. Hey, hey, at least make an attempt to make your words and actions consistent, then.

"It isn't yours? I picked this up in the entryway this evening. Isn't it something you dropped when you bumped into me?"

"Definitely wrong… it's not mine… th… that kind of otaku thing… there's no reason I'd watch something like that."

She's completely set on denying it, isn't she? We're not going to get anywhere like this.

"Well, if you weren't looking for this, what exactly were you doing in my room?"

"Well, that is… that is… "

"That's what? What is it?"

Upon my prodding, Naruko once again fell into silence. Her shoulders shaking pitiably, she bit her lip and cast her eyes downwards. It was obvious that my questioning had left her incredibly embarrassed. For example, imagine if someone you hated came up to you and said "Hey, this ero book, it's yours, right? Haha!" that would be horrendous; it would be so embarrassing that you'd want to die.

"… Tch." Her glare was cruel, and her cold hostility struck me… dammit. Why does she have to glare at me so hatefully?

"Hey." I casually held out the DVD case to Naruko. My sister looked up at me with hatred gleaming in her eyes. "This is something important, isn't it? I'll return it, so please accept it."

"B-But, it's not mi—"

"Then take it and throw it away."

"Wha—?" Naruko looked up at me with a puzzled expression. What's with that look? It wasn't like there was any reason I should continue teasing her like this. I was only curious who this DVD belonged to, and now I know that. Why would I want to keep going back and forth like this with her? I didn't reveal these thoughts to Naruko, but I chose my next words to ease the tension.

"My bad. It was a misunderstanding. I know now that this doesn't belong to you. I don't know who it belongs to, but it somehow found its way to me. I'm apologizing, and then please, won't you throw this away for me?"

After I had made that attempt to calm the situation down, Naruko suddenly spoke. "… Uh… i-it's okay. Whatever." With that, she took the DVD case from me.

I stepped to the side, and Naruko opened my door and walked out of my room. I advanced into the center of my room. Geez, that was so unexpected! How many years has it been since I've spoken with my sister like this? I'm so tired…

Falling into my bed with a thud, I stared up at the ceiling. And then, my sister's voice appeared, even though I had thought she had left the room long ago.

"… H-Hey?"

"Huh?" She's still here? How annoying, can't you just leave?

When I turned my eyes on her, I saw that she was shyly looking at me. She wore a charming facial expression that I would have never expected her to normally have.

W-What is this? What's going on?

"What?" I asked, feeling a bit uneasy.

"… Do you… do you think it's strange?"

"What is?"

"That is… okay, this is just hypothetical… it's like this. If I… really owned that DVD… I'm asking you, is that strange?"

"Not really? It's not that strange, is it?" I answered. I wanted to get her out of my room as quickly as possible, and if I didn't answer like that she would just get angry again.

Geez, why did she still want to fight over this? Didn't I return the DVD to her to protect her pride and avoid conflict? After all, her clumsiness is what caused this problem in the first place… she should be thanking me, why is she still so resentful?

"You… really think that?"

"Yeah. Whatever hobbies you might have, I definitely wouldn't make fun of you for it." Because it really has nothing to do with me.

"Really"

"You're stubborn, aren't you? Yes, really. Believe me please." I chose my words a bit carelessly, but somehow or other Naruko seemed to be satisfied with my response.

"I see… alright." Nodding her head repetitively, and holding Zodiac Angel Heartfilia with almost religious fervor, she ran out of the room.

Why did this scene evoke such a sense of nostalgia in me? I feel like something like this has happened in the past long ago… but I've forgotten what.

"… She could have at least shut the door." Grumbling, I collapsed into my bed, facing skyward.