"Hmph! Arata, do you like that girl so much? To come back at this hour... Really... Why don't you go and live with her?"
Eyes as pristine as fire crystal behind round glasses, and long, silky pink hair tied in twin tails. Saya gave the impression of a little jealous girl seeing me return home late at night, like a wife waiting for her unfaithful husband. In this case, for her onii-chan.
I tell her with a mocking tone.
"Won't you even give me a proper welcome like we agreed before?"
Saya startles with wide eyes, and her cheeks turned crimson at an alarming speed as if someone had painted her cheeks with red watercolors.
"S-Shut up... It's just that... Well..."
She bites her lower lip and pinching the hem of her skirt with her fingers, looks away from me to the side with a "Hmph!" before starting to say with a trembling voice.
"W-Welcome back... O-O, onii—"
"Hm? I'm not hearing you. What did you say, Saya?"
I lean toward her bringing my ear closer exaggeratedly.
"I said welcome back, silly onii-chan!"
She kicks my leg hard and I make a sound of pain.
"Ouch!"
Then she tells me with a red face.
"Don't tease me again or else...!"
"Or else what?"
I look at her with a provocative smile.
She blushes even more and with a voice tinged with fury...
"Nothing! You better shut up!"
At that moment, Saya seems to realize something about me, and using that as currency to change the subject, asks me with curiosity and suspicion.
"Why are you wearing your hood? Wherever you go with that, you'd look suspicious. What are you hiding?"
"Ah, that..."
I scratch my cheek under the hood and start sweating coldly.
'Shit.'
The reason I returned late at night was because although I had left the 24th Ward at three in the afternoon, while I was on my way here I discovered something amazing and problematic.
My current appearance.
It's impossible to hide it with simple excuses.
Then I had the brilliant idea to return at night so that Saya and Mrs. Yuriko would already be asleep and I could sneak into my room. Who would think Saya would be waiting for me in my own room?
I find a sudden excuse that I know sounds stupid but I say it anyway.
"Ah, right! It seems I forgot something at Touka's house. I'm going right now, won't take long!"
"Hmph! Where do you think you're going?"
Saya grabs my arm tightly, and although with my current physique I could easily break free from her grip without effort, I don't want to hurt her so I sigh inwardly.
"Seriously... How many times is it? Every day of the week... All day long!"
Suddenly Saya becomes furious and locks my room door before turning toward me with abrupt movements.
'Huh? What happened? Why does she suddenly seem so terrifying?'
Well, I know it's my fault for putting that excuse at the beginning to disappear every morning for more than a month, still... It seemed Saya was really damn jealous.
With a dangerous look I'd never seen in her before, she approaches me slowly.
She starts saying with a voice... Eh, well, I don't know if I should say it's a sweet or threatening voice.
"Tell me, onii-chan... What's so good about that Touka or whatever that you always go to her house? Ohhh, are you madly in love? Hey, answer me..."
She gets closer.
"Is she so important to you? More than Rei and more than me?"
'Terrifying.'
I start sweating again for a completely different reason.
An aura that not even the terrifying Mr. Vampire who killed me can have escapes from Saya at this moment...
'Is this the fury and jealousy of a tsundere little sister?'
No. Clearly it's not.
I realize then something I hadn't noticed before despite the obvious signs.
It seemed Saya really loved me, not as an older brother but as something deeper.
And remembering, Rei also showed similar signs.
I always thought I wasn't worthy of that kind of affection, and tried to ignore those feelings directed at me justifying it in a thousand ways. Maybe that excuse worked along with a brain that's been rotten until today at two in the afternoon.
Moreover...
That terrifying aura escaping from her...
It certainly wasn't just a form of literary description, but I can see it physically as a crimson manifestation pulsing around her.
Once I evolved, in addition to some powerful new abilities related to blood, I obtained a huge boost in each of my existing abilities. That includes my perception of a person's mood through frequencies. Now I can see manifestations of moods in the form of auras, and be able to feel them clearly.
Faced with this type of affection shown at such an early age, one would say it might just be a passing childhood crush. And being honest with myself, even I might have come to think that in the past.
But now, I can see and at the same time feel the intensity of that affection colliding against me like an unstoppable tide.
'Why does a tsundere like Saya have this type of behavior? Is it possible she also had a yandere attribute hidden all this time?'
What caused it?
Ah... It's possible that once again it's my fault for being an idiot.
Ignoring Saya's feelings all this time...
Putting the excuse that I would go see another girl... And moreover, every day of the week for more than an entire month.
Still, isn't this personality change too shocking? From a tsundere to a yandere in the blink of an eye...
It's hard to imagine normal Saya and imagine this Saya before me at this moment. One unable to express her affection properly, and who can only show it through acts like sharp vocabulary and continuous scolding, or even through hits. And the other, at a completely opposite pole, being unable not to show affection for the person she loves in an intense and suffocating way.
Clearly there are some loose screws in this little pink-haired girl's head.
"Pffft! Hahaha!"
Seeing her approach me with a threatening look that should scare me, I can't help but feel this Saya is also adorable and I start laughing out loud.
Saya freezes in place, and with raised eyebrows asks me with confusion.
"What do you find so funny?"
I shake my head while trying to control my laughter.
Inside, I feel relief. Is it relief because Saya loved me and not someone else? That's true, I can't deny it.
If it were before today's evolution, the previous Arata surely wouldn't have realized the reason why Saya is so angry, despite her affection couldn't have been more obvious to anyone with eyes.
Much less would I have realized my own feelings toward her, confusing the desire that Saya not love someone else as something one would feel as protective concern for a little sister.
Despite the previous me also being capable of feeling others' emotional frequencies, there were quite a few emotions I myself didn't manage to be able to fully understand, and in the end simply stopped thinking about it out of frustration.
With my train of thought heading in that direction, I approach Saya closing the distance between us. She looks up a bit to meet mine, and seems a bit scared suddenly.
By her emotions escaping from her, I realize she's scared because she thinks maybe she's gone too far and maybe she's scared me with her behavior.
Raising my hand toward her, she instinctively closes her eyes expecting who knows what, and with a smile I put my hand on her head stroking it gently.
"Hm?"
Saya opens one eye with a small sound of surprise and looks at me surprised.
I show her a sincere smile, and tell her.
"Don't be silly. I apologize for being away from you too long. The reason I was with Touka is simply because she's my friend, and we both always play video games. It's quite fun."
Although it's uncomfortable to lie that way especially when I can feel guilt growing in my chest, I feel at least this would help prolong a bit more before revealing the truth about myself and what I was really doing.
Saya asks with a low voice.
"Is it true? Playing video games? I know it can be addictive for young people, but... No. Besides, it's suspicious that it's every day and you always come at six in the afternoon, especially today when it's already midnight..."
She pauses.
"I even asked okaa-sama to go pick you up, but she said there's no need to worry about you."
I rub her hair messing it up gently, before lowering my hand and pinching her cheeks.
"Yes it's true. So you don't need to be so jealous, since from now on I'll stay home with you more. Ah, that's right. I remember next week I'll also attend the same school you go to."
Saya's terrifying look gradually diminishes, and her crimson aura that before was violent like a sea of flames now calms down, although it maintains its intense color.
She slaps my hand that was pinching her cheeks while letting out a snort.
"Who's jealous of you? Hmph!"
With cheeks painted pink, she say brusquely.
"What are you waiting for to take off your hood?"
I'm dumbfounded.
'Huh? What the hell? Did she return to her tsundere form?'
"Hah... Damn it."
I suppose today there's no way to escape from showing my new appearance.
Feeling depressed about it, I lower my hood slowly, and Saya who was watching me attentively with narrowed eyes suddenly opens her eyes wide and freezes in place.
"Huh...? Haaaaaa?!"
×××
You can read 20 advanced chapters on my Pa treon
pa-treon.com/OlwinMoriarty