"W- What did you say?"The young Akiho looked stunned as her lips trembled slightly.
She looked at Rito"s face carefully and noted his soft features and a foolish grin.
"It doesn"t feel that it"s intentional... but..."
"Onee-san"
"Onee-san"
Rito"s words kept on echoing inside her mind.
"Hmm? Is something wrong, Onee-san?"
Rito tilted his head to the side and asked in confusion. He felt that he had shown Akiho the respect that an elder sister of a friend should receive.
Meanwhile, Akiho felt that she couldn"t handle Rito"s social conventions. How can he easily call her "Onee-san"?
With a stiff smile, she shook her head.
"It"s nothing. I am Akiho Sairenji, its very pleasant to meet you."
Meanwhile, Haruna looked extremely awkward. Maybe the duo sisters were strange in their own manner as they felt very embarra.s.sed when Rito mentioned Akiho as "Onee-san".
It might be their own strangeness, but they had no way to confront this emotion and could only endure it silently.
"So, I heard that you entered the forest all by yourself, I"d say that it"s very brave of you."
Akiho, in her embarra.s.sment, tried to change the atmosphere by diverting the conversation but failed to take account of the duration of the accident alongside Rito"s emotions concerning the matter.
"Onee-chan!"
Haruna immediately exclaimed and glared at her sister. She couldn"t believe that her own sister, who was going to enter the profession of protecting the people, would speak about such a serious incident in a carefree and mocking manner.
Even Rito"s expression stiffened since he had no way of explaining the true situation. Rito felt that if he tried to defend himself by saying that he was set up by a human without any evidence, Haruna would only try to comfort him by saying that he might be hallucinating.
Seeing that Rito had a strange expression while the air was tense, Akiho only felt stupid and tried to bring things on the right track.
"Eh... um... I didn"t have any intentions on hurting your feelings, I just felt that you may have a good reason to enter the forest without any protective measures."
Rito only smiled bitterly and shook his head.
"I don"t even remember what happened that night. I just recall that I was out buying snacks and the next thing I know, I awoke on the hospital bed."
"I see."
The room fell into an awkward silence.
Haruna was feeling a little bad since her sister had brought out some unpleasant memories from Rito while he still wasn"t fully recovered. But she couldn"t say anything to her since Akiho was her elder sister and she knew her sister enough to understand that the previous comment was a misunderstanding.
Meanwhile, Rito could only think of some topic of conversation to try and bring things to the right track, which, Akiho obviously failed to do.
"Um... Onee-san, which high school do you go to?"
He asked as Akiho looked towards Rito with a slight glare as she felt slightly embarra.s.sed hearing him call her Onee-san.
"... It"s my first year at U.A. Highschool."
She spoke reluctantly. She turned her head sideways and pouted lightly.
Rito felt strange once again and felt that today, his luck was especially terrible as all of the conversations ended with an awkward silence.
This time, Haruna tried her luck and spoke out with a small stutter.
"D-dont"t worry, Rito-san, Onee-chan is feeling low because she couldn"t enter the Hero Department of the facility and was admitted to the General Department."
"Hey!"
Akiho exclaimed from the sidelines while Rito nodded silently and smiled at Akiho.
"Entering the General Department is good enough!"
He tried to cheer for her, but only got a sneer in response. Akiho gave him a sidelong gaze and spoke out lightly.
"The reason I wasn"t admitted to the Hero Department was that I hadn"t trained my quirk. In this year"s event, I will show my brilliance and enter the Hero Department!"
She seemed extremely determined and the sudden declaration caught the other two off-guard.
Rito nodded and asked with slight hesitation.
"If it is not too much, can you demonstrate your quirk?"
Rito knew that some quirks, like generating fire, aren"t safe to be utilised inside a hospital, so he seemed a little unnerved when he asked this.
"Oh, not a problem!"
Akiho smiled immediately and showed her finger to Rito.
In his surprised eyes, the finger turned crimson in colour.
"My quirk is called Blazing Finger. With this, I can turn all twenty of my toes and fingers and make them produce extreme heat capable of melting iron!"
Since she understood that her quirk was still cla.s.sified as dangerous in a hospital, she exhaled lightly and her finger turned normal once again.
She then looked at Rito in a confused manner.
"Why are you so amazed by this? Didn"t you ever see Haruna"s quirk?"
She looked at Haruna and asked Rito. She truly felt confused. After all, Haruna"s quirk was far better than her"s. Not only was it practical, but it was also flashy enough to gain attention and a fanbase.
Rito also looked at Haruna with a questioning look.
Her face turned crimson when she thought of demonstrating her quirk to Rito and hung her head low.
"It"s slightly dangerous to demonstrate it here. I will show you once you get discharged."
Her voice was extremely light and even Akiho felt surprised by her reaction. But soon after, she had a sly grin on her face as she looked at Haruna and Rito.
"Then I really need to get better quickly. I can"t wait to see your quirk, Harunsan."
"... yea..."
Rito then looked at Akiho and made a fist.
"Onee-san, you can do it! With such a wonderful quirk, it won"t be hard to step into the Hero Department!"
Now it was Akiho"s turn to get fl.u.s.tered.
"Y-you bet!"
She managed to keep on her composure and tried to grin naturally.
At this moment, the door was opened once again and a beautiful blonde nurse with a slender yet extremely bust figure entered the room with a kind smile on her face.
Her hands held a tray with breakfast arranged on it.
"You finally woke up. Harunchan and Akiho-chan had been waiting on you for almost an hour now!"
She placed the food on the nightstand and took the role of an Elder Sister berating her younger sibling.
"You shouldn"t sleep for too long and should start with your rehabilitation since you were healed early on. Even when your injuries are treated, the doctor still recommended you to complete your rehabilitation!"
She looked extremely serious. She already felt comfortable around Rito and would naturally have his health and well-being in her mind.
Rito immediately nodded.
"Yes, Tearju-san. I will start my rehabilitation from today onwards!"
Hearing his words and looking at his sincere face, Tearju nodded happily and looked towards the sister duo.
"You should stay as long as you want. It"s always good to have friends visiting!"
She smiled and gently and proceeded to turn and walk away.
"Yes!"
"Hey! I just met him today!"
Tearju smiled at them.
"I hope to see you two again."
With that, she left Rito with the duo.
"You shouldn"t mind us and start eating your food. It isn"t healthy to eat cold meals during the period of recovery."
"Hmm, Rito-san, I will visit you tomorrow."
Akiho and Haruna stood up as they bid their farewell.
"Yes, I will be waiting for you tomorrow, Harunsan!"
"You can also visit me again, Onee-san, it was nice meeting you."
The duo blushed slightly and walked out quickly as Rito waved at them from behind.
After the duo left, he quickly took the tray and started wolfing on the food as he felt extremely hungry after the previous night"s workout.
Meanwhile, he had also decided on something extremely insulting to his pride and all the memories of his previous life and "otaku" experience.