Volume 1 Chapter 1 part 3
I was forcefully dragged along while we were running on our way to school; finally we reached the place with the traffic mirror where we were supposed to meet up with my best friend. On the other side of the roadway was an old naked guardrail which was reddish brown from the rust.
As we somehow ran out of our house pretty late, there was a person already waiting while looking bored and I called out to him.
"Haa….. we just barely made it?….. Mornin" Jouji." (Karato)
"Jouji-kun, mornin"!" (Sakura)
The other party who noticed that gave a bright reply.
"Oh, yo! You siblings are also really close today!" (Jouji)
"No, it"s more like immoral siblings desu." (Sakura)
"Sakura, stop that. I couldn"t really wake up even though the G.o.ddess Amaterasu was shining into my room." (Karato) [TN: Amaterasu is known as the G.o.ddess of the sun guy"s name is Jouji Miyairi. He is a male student who is in the same cla.s.s as me. His height is a little bit taller than me and has some cold looking eyes which looked like two slits. Indigo blue strands could be seen in between his black hair; as the hope of the basketball club, he is popular with the girls unlike me. Even though he was in our friend, he had established a position as a "popular character".
"By the way Karato, what do you guys mean by "immoral"?" (Jouji)
[TN: Immoral is in English]
Jouji asked while laughing without any malicious intent.
"… You"re the same as always…" (Karato)
"Jouji-kun, you"re stupid as ever…" (Sakura)
Jouji was lacking some knowledge about some special vocabulary that"s why he was treated as a "stupid child". While he was seen by the others as close to perfect, the only one who noticed his shortcomings was his junior Sakura who also attached "kun" to his name for this very reason. Well, that gap is also this guys defining point.
"Well then, won"t we hurry and hurry to school right now? We"ll be late otherwise." (Karato)
"Yea!" (Jouji)
"Retsu go!" (Sakura) [TN: Very bad j.a.penglish version of "Let"s go"]
Jouji fired up himself, while Sakura gave a carefree command.
Then even today we continued our silly conversations while we walked to school.
It was an ordinary, but peaceful kind of everyday life that didn"t particularly have to change for the better.
"Come to think of it, Sakura do you have club activities today?" (Karato)
Sakura"s cooking club had club activities twice a week after school. Therefore I had to handle my dinner somehow on days when Sakura had club activities as even my old man wasn"t at home. Well although I said that, I"m at least capable of making some instant ramen for myself.
"No, not today, I have club activities tomorrow. That"s why I"ll make Onii-chan"s dinner today, ne!" (Sakura)
Sakura fired up herself and panted heavily through her nose.
"You don"t need to force yourself that much. I have instant ramen, that"s good enough, like I already said." (Karato)
"I"ll cook it either way, so making enough for two portions is the same as making just one portion." (Sakura)
"Is that so?" (Karato)
"Do you have anything you want to eat?" (Sakura)
"Well then, fried instant ramen is good enough." (Karato)
"Alright! Well I"ll give my best to fry them, crispy and crunchy, those firm noodles, so that they"ll pierce through your gums… wait, what! What"s the point in doing so! Why would you fry them! U-CAN-NOT-TAKE-THAT-BACK!" (Sakura)
As Sakura"s expressions changed like a spinning top, the place became cheerful because she followed the flow and went along with the joke.
"Well… if you always receive the same homemade cooking you will get bored of it…" (Karato)
After I said that Sakura let out a deep sigh and asked with a docile expression:
"Haah… hey Onii-chan, one question." (Sakura)
"Hm?" (Karato)
"You still don"t want to enter in any club? You"ll just go home quickly and spend your time doing nothing anyways. They"re still recruiting second-year students, you know?" (Sakura)
Sakura looked at me with a half worrying, half given-up expression as if she was looking at a 30 years old person who was starting to be a NEET.
[TN: Not in Employment, Education or Training = NEET]
Certainly there were times when I didn"t know what to do with my time after school, that was because I didn"t enter any kind of clubs, on the other hand I didn"t really have anything I wanted to do when I went home.
"Ooh, our basketball is also still recruiting! Why don"t we work off some sweat together?" (Jouji)
Jouji was always trying to take the opportunity to recruit new members.
"Basketball is great, ya know." (Jouji)
"Why?" (Sakura)
"If you think calmly about it, why would you desperately chase after the ball and try to put it in the net? It"s that feeling that I"m talking about, ya know. What"s the meaning behind this act?" (Karato)
"Uwah, this guy hates ball games to the extreme…!" (Sakura)
Sakura quickly gave up her expectations.
"Well, well then, what about the cooking club? We don"t have any male members at the moment, but it would be a big help to have a male a.s.sistant and you could also learn how to make meals!" (Sakura)
After saying that Sakura was fidgeting around while she bashfully casted her eyes down.
"A-also… I would be able to be together with Onii-chan even more…" (Sakura)
"No, I"ll pa.s.s on that, too." (Karato)
"Ehh, why! Why are you so apathetic!" (Sakura)
"Rather than apathetic, I just simply try to avoid group activities." (Karato)
"Soo… if that"s the case then if it"s just the two of us it would be ok, right? Or I"ll be the link between Onii-chan and the others!" (Sakura)
"Mh, that"s also bad… No matter if it"s Jouji or Sakura; I can"t just cling onto the both of you just to use you to mingle with other people like an add-on or a parasite." (Karato)
"Par-!?" (Sakura)
I turned down their opinions in an abrupt way.
"Isn"t doing anything at all the most comfortable option?" (Karato)
The moment that Sakura heard that, she blew up her cheeks to show her objection.
"Muu! Onii-chan you"re such a hikkikomori! Mou, I don"t know you anymore!" (Sakura)
[TN: hikkikomori = shut-in]
"Now, now, Sakura-chan, it"s because Karato is such a kind of person." (Jouji)
Sakura got mad and Jouji tried to calm her down.
"Hahaha." (Karato)
While laughing I turned it aside and looked up at the blue sky. The clouds above my head were drifting across the sky very fast.
—Aah.
This is a world which is completely in harmony. Even if I didn"t exist the planet would continue to rotate. So it would be ok even if I didn"t partic.i.p.ate in that world at all.
Thus another day in a peaceful world would pa.s.s by today.
"Onii-chan! What"s wrong? Let"s goo~?" (Sakura)
Before I knew it I seemed to have stopped walking and Sakura called out to me from a distance.
"N." (Karato)
And then I started to walk towards Sakura and Jouji again.
Somehow my lower abdomen also started to ache with a dull pain.
Promised Chapter Part, even though nothing happens…