Watching his brother leave, Horikita suddenly didn't know how to face Yukio anymore.
There was a feeling she'd never known before circling in her chest, hovering around her heart. It felt like something was urging her to talk to Yukio a bit more… Yet at the same time, it also felt like something was trying to push her away, telling her to hurry up and leave, to avoid him.
Because of that emotion, the Horikita standing here now had basically lost all of her usual coolness. It was like she'd lost her grasp on how to deal with Yukio.
One moment she was staring at him nonstop, the next she was quickly looking away again—it was honestly pretty weird.
Yukio was a little surprised too, since her behavior was way too obvious.
"…You're embarrassed?"
E–embarrassed!? Horikita froze. So this strange, inexplicable feeling… was embarrassment?
That was an emotion she had never really recognized before.
But going by the definition of "embarrassed," and comparing it with what she was feeling right now… it… kind of matched?
It… sort of made sense.
Just like she herself had said—back when Manabu lost to Yukio in the Workplace Test, she should have gotten extremely worked up, right?
She should have rushed to defend her brother, refused to admit his defeat, that would've been the normal reaction.
But she knew very well that what she actually did back then… was deliberately suppress her thoughts and avoid thinking about it. She never argued. She never questioned it.
It was as if, deep down, she had accepted that her brother losing to Yukio was… fairly normal.
They'd competed, he'd defeated her, and they'd spent more and more time interacting. Little by little, Horikita had already begun to take Yukio as a given.
In that world of hers where she had always chased after nothing but Manabu's shadow, Yukio had suddenly appeared.
And now that she had started to slow down, to stop imitating that shadow… it was inevitable that she'd grow more and more aware of his existence.
On top of that, he'd just been the one to fire her up and bring her all the way here.
So… was this embarrassment? But embarrassment is supposed to come with… liking someone, right?
The moment that thought flashed through her mind, that feeling surged even stronger. It practically forced her to look away from him. "You're talking nonsense!"
Tsk tsk. Amusement flickered in Yukio's eyes. He loved seeing Horikita's cold mask crumble into that shy, flustered expression.
"You weren't even embarrassed when I made you wear the lady knight cosplay but now you're embarrassed?"
"The only difference between now and then is that you just openly admitted I'm a towering mountain standing on your path in life. Is admitting that in front of me really that embarrassing?"
"I–I…!" Muttering for a second, Horikita simply couldn't withstand the turmoil inside her.
She spun around without looking back and headed for the dorms. "I don't feel like talking to you."
"So cold~." Yukio didn't chase after her.
He just stayed where he was, casually shaking his head with a long-suffering sigh—
like some old man lamenting the decline of morals in the world.
"After all that help, and I don't even get a single thank you?"
"!" Horikita's steps faltered when she heard that last line.
She didn't keep walking away. Instead, she stopped, then turned back—a bit viciously, actually—like she wanted to glare at Yukio.
But for some reason, the moment her gaze landed on his face, her eyes went off-course on their own, drifting away. She couldn't meet his eyes at all.
She did know how to repay kindness. Even if she wasn't too happy about it deep down, she still obediently opened her mouth to thank him.
"F-fine, fine. This time… this time, thank you."
"If it weren't for you, I definitely wouldn't have gone to say goodbye to my brother. We could never have reconciled, never cleared away that old rift. And I never would've been able to make that resolution of my own."
"Exactly." Yukio leaned back slightly, perfectly at ease, waiting for her to finish. Then he snapped his fingers, pleased.
"Since you want to thank me, you should at least show some sincerity, right?"
"You can't just toss out a 'thanks' and be done with it."
"How about this—wear the lady knight outfit one more time. Last time I was too focused on getting you to cook and forgot: a captured lady knight is supposed to get her hands cuffed, you know."
Horikita's cheek twitched hard.
The way she was looking at him was getting stranger and stranger. It was like the words "refined gentleman" were written on his face, but in her head they read as "pervert."
But for some reason, there was this strange little flutter inside her chest again, making her feel more and more uncomfortable.
Unable to tolerate that awkward emotion, she turned her back on him again.
This time she didn't leave right away. She just stood there with her back to him—as if that feeling in her heart was telling her: Don't face him. Don't let him see you like this.
Her mind was a mess. Right now, Suzune was a tangle of contradictions. She'd thought that once she saw her brother off, she'd end up bawling her eyes out.
Even if they'd reconciled and she should be smiling and happy… The reality was that she wouldn't be able to see him again for the next two years.
There were still so many things she wanted to say to Manabu. So many words she'd been storing up for years that she never got the chance to speak.
But she couldn't hold him up just because she wanted to talk. She couldn't keep him from leaving the school on time.
With all of that bottled up inside, at a send-off like this, it would be perfectly normal to feel like crying.
Yet now, this emotion stirred up by Yukio kept her thoughts in constant turmoil.
Just like before, she didn't have time to think too much about her brother. Her head was full of Yukio instead.
It was either the earnest guidance from that day at the sports festival… or that wicked grin he'd worn when he proposed their bet and made her put on the lady knight costume…
The more she thought about it, the hotter her face felt and the more bewildered she became.
She had no idea what any of this meant. All she knew was that she wanted to keep her back to Yukio and not let him see just how awful she looked right now.
Problem was, with things this entertaining, there was no way Yukio was going to let her go.
He strolled casually around in front of her, then blinked when he got a good look.
"You're blushing even more?"
"Y-You!" She looked nothing like the usual icy Horikita now.
Right this second, she was more like a little animal that had just been cornered by a big, bad wolf—instinctively trying to bolt.
But Yukio reflexively caught her by the wrist and tugged, pulling her back toward him.
Maybe he misjudged his strength a bit, because she ended up stumbling and bumping right into his chest.
Heart in chaos, emotions surging up and down after a huge swing in just one afternoon… and on top of that, she'd barely slept the last three days while agonizing over whether to come send her brother off or not.
Her vision went black, and Horikita simply passed out.
"…?" Yukio was holding her wrist with one hand and supporting her with the other, utterly confused.
What the hell?
Don't tell him she was trying to fake an accident and extort him or something? How did she just pass out like this?
Then he remembered what she'd looked like when he'd gone to find her this morning—those exhausted eyes and the deep dark circles under them.
Given that, along with how she hadn't been sleeping properly for three days, this little fainting spell… wasn't that surprising after all.
Seeing her quiet down, without her usual sharpness, without the cold face—only a lonely, fragile softness remained.
It made Yukio sigh under his breath. "You two siblings are such a pain…"
…
"Mm… ngh…" When Horikita woke up again, the sky was already growing dark.
She blinked her dazed eyes, and then, all at once, the memory of what happened right before she fainted came rushing back.
He'd seen her bright red face…
Right—where was Yukio?! With that thought hitting her, she snapped fully awake and forced her eyes open.
The first thing she saw was Yukio's calm, relaxed sleeping face.
Huh? She blinked again.
Only then did she realize—her head had been resting on Yukio's lap.
She immediately scrambled up, turning in a circle to survey her surroundings, trying to figure out where they were.
Turned out they were still at the school gates.
Yukio was leaning casually against a tree, asleep at some point along the way—and she'd just been lying there using his lap as a pillow.
There was even his school jacket draped over her.
"What the…" Horikita muttered something under her breath, feeling something hard to describe.
She crouched down properly and pulled his jacket off her, then carefully laid it over his chest.
"If a lady knight really got captured by you like this, and you treated her this well… She would've run you through with a sword ages ago."
Thinking about it a bit more, Horikita still didn't feel that was enough. She took off her own school jacket and laid it over him as well, covering him more fully.
Only then did she rub her own arms for warmth, shivering slightly.
For some reason, she found herself grinning like an idiot, unable to stop.
....
For every 100 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter.
Read 50+ chapters ahead on Patreon! [patreon.com/METARLN]