Someone had entered the house.
“…Who is it?”
Yukina instinctively took half a step back. Her back pressed against the tiled wall.
Under normal circumstances, there would only be one answer to this question—the only relative she had in this world, the original body’s real older sister—
Takanashi Yuna.
But right now, after everything that had happened yesterday, all sorts of terrifying possibilities kept rising unbidden in her mind.
For example…
Yumiko.
Could it be that because she had gotten her shoes wet yesterday, Yumiko had sent someone up here to settle the score?
It could also be the Family.
Could that antagonistic organization have already noticed her in advance and sent people to come and capture her?
Or perhaps… Mashiro.
A Mashiro who had been completely swallowed by the Blood Moon Disease, who had completely lost her reason, and who had decided to come here to claim her life.
For some reason, a certain image floated up in Yukina’s mind:
The wooden door beside her being chopped open stroke by stroke with an axe.
Then Mashiro’s face would squeeze in through the gap, eyes curved, smiling ferociously, and in the tone of a horror movie say to her, “Here’s Johnny!”
Just imagining it nearly made her faint on the spot.
Thump thump.
Her heartbeat was accelerating violently.
Yukina held her breath.
Both hands grabbed a comb and tightly clenched it against her chest.
She focused all her attention on the other side of the door, carefully trying to distinguish who had entered the house when—
Meow.
A lazy meow broke the silence.
It was Huahua’s voice, deliberately drawn out in a spoiled manner.
Accompanied by light tapping footsteps, it headed toward the entrance as if greeting someone.
Immediately afterward came the dull thud of shoes being casually kicked off, the rustle of a plastic bag being set down on the wooden floor, and the soft sound of someone bending down to pet the cat.
“Oh~ Huahua! Good girl, good girl, good girl… Hehe, did you watch the house properly? Oh my, why is your belly so round? Did you just finish a big meal?”
A young woman’s voice came from outside the door, carrying the lazy tone of someone who had just returned home after work, along with a trace of nearly exhausted fatigue.
“Ahh, kittens really are the cutest. Not like those idiots at the company who are about to work this old lady to death. Always going on about how young people should train more and have the spirit of a wolf or whatever. Wolf my ass. Why can’t I just be a carefree little cat?”
Slippers pat-pat-patted down the hallway.
The sound moved from far to near, then from near to far again, accompanied by intermittent complaints.
“Especially that bald section chief. He dumped all the reports on me again. Damn it! Next time I’m definitely going to pluck out those last two hairs on his head!”
From the kitchen came the sound of the refrigerator door being opened, followed by the noise of a plastic bottle being roughly thrown inside.
Yukina recognized the voice outside the door.
“…Onee-chan.”
After realizing that the person who had entered the house was the original body’s older sister, Yukina slightly loosened her grip on the comb and slowly let out a breath.
Thank goodness.
She was safe.
This way she would not have to smash Mashiro’s head with a comb when it squeezed through the wooden door.
Takanashi Yuna.
Yukina’s older sister.
When she had first inherited the original body’s memories and learned that she still had an older sister, she had been extremely shocked.
After all, a small-fry character like herself who did not even have a name actually still had family.
But thinking about it carefully, it made sense. Even if she was just a tool character, she was still a “person.” It was not as if she could have spawned out of thin air.
It was just that the game author had probably never considered that even a random small-fry follower casually killed by the female protagonist by the roadside still had a home, and still had someone waiting for her to return.
In the original body’s memories, this older sister treated her extremely well.
A little too well.
To what extent?
To the extent that even if her younger sister was in the wrong, even if she had actively picked a fight and gotten into a physical altercation with a classmate, she would still mindlessly take her sister’s side.
She would even, in front of everyone, order that person to apologize for injuring her sister’s hand with their face.
In short, she was an ultimate little-sister complex.
Of course, she was not completely unreasonable either.
Afterwards she would still lecture her younger sister, saying that fighting was bad, and that the next time she wanted to hit someone she should smash her little fists hard against her own body instead.
In short, she was a bit beyond saving.
But it was also not impossible to understand. After all, a major upheaval had once occurred in this family.
One day, the parents of the two sisters had suddenly disappeared, leaving behind only a huge mountain of debt.
The older sister, who was only five years older than Yukina, had decided to drop out of school and work to support the family.
From then on, her younger sister became her only emotional support.
As long as it did not involve matters related to her younger sister, Onee-chan Yuna was still a very gentle person.
As long as it did not involve matters related to her younger sister.
…
Wait.
Yukina suddenly realized something. Her breathing paused for a moment.
She mechanically turned her neck, little by little rotating it toward the direction of the mirror, and stared wide-eyed at herself in the reflection.
It was over.
It was over it was over it was over it was over it was over it was over.
If Onee-chan saw her in her current tattered state, everything would be completely over.
Yukina could perfectly imagine what would happen next.
The moment this little-sister-complex older sister saw the wounds, she would definitely force her to name the culprit, then rush to the school at the first opportunity, slam a knife onto the desk, point at Mashiro’s face and say: “So you’re the one called Mashiro, huh? Come out and settle this!”
When that time came the school would definitely be turned upside down.
Mashiro would be expelled, lose her inheritance rights, be assassinated by people from the Family, and enter a death ending.
No no no no!
Absolutely not. She could not let something like that happen!!
But what should she do now?
Yukina raised her head and looked around.
All four sides of the bathroom were walls.
The only window led to the free sky of the sixth floor.
There was nowhere to escape.
She could only hide for now and look for a chance to quietly slip out of the bathroom when Onee-chan was not paying attention.
But where should she hide?
Just as she was turning in circles searching for a place to hide…
Tap.
Her tail accidentally knocked over the cleaner that had been placed on the floor.
The somewhat noisy sounds outside the door paused for an instant, then a puzzled voice came.
“…Who’s there?”
Footsteps gradually approached the bathroom door.
A pitch-black shadow blocked the gap beneath the door.
“Yukina, is that you in there?”
Knock knock knock.
The door was knocked on.
At this moment, the distance between the two of them was only a thin wooden door.
Oh no, she had been discovered…
Yukina was extremely flustered, but in order not to let any abnormality be noticed, she could only take a deep breath and force herself to calm down.
“Ah. Onee-chan, you’re back.”
She touched her neck and tried hard to make her hoarse voice steadier.
“It really is Yukina! Ahh~ Amazing. Just hearing my little sister call me ‘Onee-chan’ brings this whole person back to life!”
It worked. The voice outside the door blossomed with joy.
“By the way, Onee-chan just passed by a bakery and brought you breakfast. Guess what it is~?”
Rustle rustle. The sound of a plastic bag being lifted came from outside the door.
“It’s the strawberry cream cake you like the most!”
“…Thank you, Onee-chan.”
Yukina pressed her lips together, a little unsure how to respond.
“Onee-chan here is exhausted from work. I worked overtime until dawn before coming home. My energy bar is completely drained. Yukina, hurry up and come out so Onee-chan can take a sip of you.”
“I-I’m using the bathroom right now.”
“Then I need to take a sip even more!”
Rattle rattle.
The sound of the doorknob being twisted came through.
Yukina was so startled she staggered and sat down on the toilet, instinctively clamping her legs together.
Thankfully she had locked the door in advance, otherwise she would have been forcibly barged in on.
Was there still hope for an older sister like this?
“O-Onee-chan, go take a sip of Huahua first. I’ll come out in a bit.”
“Ehh… Fine. Yukina has entered puberty too, huh. She’s not even willing to get sticky with Onee-chan while using the toilet anymore.”
A normal person, regardless of the stage of life, would never get sticky with their older sister while using the toilet, right?
Yukina complained fiercely in her heart.
The outside of the door quieted for a few seconds, then Onee-chan’s voice came through again. The tone was a little different from before—lighter.
“Yukina, you’ve been in the bathroom for a long time today. Are you okay?”
Yukina’s heart suddenly clenched.
“…I’m fine, I’m fine. My stomach just feels a little uncomfortable. It should be… those days coming.”
“Impossible. I remember very clearly. Yukina still has one more week until her period!”
Don’t remember these kinds of things about your little sister so clearly!!
Yukina let out a despairing wail in her heart.
“Th-Then I just ate something wrong. It’s fine. Onee-chan doesn’t need to wait for me.”
Silence fell outside the door for a moment.
“Alright, alright. Then Onee-chan will wait for you in the living room.”
A sigh, followed by the sound of slippers stepping across the floor and moving away, accompanied by the rustling of a plastic bag being carried off.
“Hah.”
Yukina pressed her hand against her chest and had just begun to relax when—
Pink.
From under the door gap, several strands of pinkish-white hair slowly seeped in. Immediately afterward came heavy breathing.
Clearly someone was lying on the floor outside the door, pressed against the ground, trying to look inside through the gap.
“Eek—!!!”
This time Yukina was truly frightened.
Her entire body instinctively shrank backward.
She curled up her knees, toes tensed, and her back slammed into the water tank, producing a dull thud.
“Aiyah, did I get exposed? Alright, alright, Onee-chan is leaving right now. Ahaha~”
The shadow under the door gap lingered for two seconds.
As the strands of hair withdrew one by one, the footsteps pat-pat-patted little by little toward the living room.
Terrifying.
Way too scary.
Liking her little sister to this degree was already completely abnormal, right?!!
This made it even more impossible to let her know about the injuries.
Who knew what kind of ridiculous things she would do otherwise.
But right now every path had already been completely blocked.
Onee-chan knew she was home.
Walking out the door would get her seen.
Hiding in the bathroom would get her dug out. What was she supposed to do…
Yukina hugged her head and sank into deep despair.
Just then, the corner of her eye caught the cabinet in the corner that she had previously opened.
The cabinet door had not been closed tightly.
A section of fabric peeked out from the gap, hanging quietly under the harsh white light.