[Chiba, Japan — park near Sobu High]
After a stretch of quiet waiting, Hikigaya Komachi came bounding into view — a stray tuft of hair sticking up like an antenna she could never tame, her cheeks flushed pink from running. She waved her small hand the whole way, sneakers slapping the pavement in an uneven rhythm.
"Have you been waiting long, Nozomi?"
The words came between breaths, her chest — small but unmistakably filling in — rising and falling under her uniform blouse. Behind her, at a lagging half-jog, Kawasaki Taishi trailed.
"Komachi, you're running way too fast!"
"Ehehe — I was just in a hurry to see the handsome onii-chan. I heard the whole thing got resolved, Nozomi. Is that true?"
Komachi tucked both hands behind her back and tilted her chin up at him, eyes bright as fresh-polished coins.
Faced with such a textbook little-sister-type, Hozuki Nozomi couldn't help himself — he reached out and ruffled her hair.
"Of course. Who do you think I am? For the details, you should let Saki tell it herself."
Komachi's eyes narrowed under the weight of his palm, a small pleased smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.
She thought: Onii-chan keeps warning me — playboy this, playboy that — but Nozomi's actually really gentle. His hand is warm. I bet he smells nice too.
Kawasaki Taishi shuddered visibly, his gaze slipping past Nozomi's shoulder toward the figure stepping out from the shade of the vending machine bank behind him.
"S-Sister!"
Because the woman rounding the corner was none other than Kawasaki Saki — in a slate-grey pantsuit, cream blouse, her long blue-black hair pinned into a low twist that made her look five years older than her age.
"Wow, Saki-neesan is so pretty and stylish!"
Komachi's whole face lit up.
Saki smiled softly and reached out to stroke Komachi's hair, mirroring what Nozomi had just done. "Komachi-chan is cute too. Thank you for taking care of my useless little brother."
"Hehe, it's really nothing — friends helping each other out, right?"
Unlike her lonely-hero of a brother Hachiman, Komachi had a whole roster of friends at school and knew exactly how to work a warm sentence.
Taishi stared at his shoes, stealing anxious glances up at his sister's face before lowering his gaze again.
...
"Nozomi, come with me over there — I suddenly have so much to talk to you about!"
Komachi tugged Nozomi cheerfully away by the sleeve, leaving the Kawasaki siblings a private radius of dry grass and afternoon sun.
Saki gave Komachi's retreating back an appreciative glance.
"Taishi, it seems you've made some good friends at school."
It was hard to imagine — that dead-fish-eyed Hachiman Hikigaya could produce a younger sister as bright as Komachi.
At his sister's words, Taishi's fists clenched at his sides. "Nee-san — just tell me now. About your work."
"Of course. That's exactly why I came."
"Here's my work ID. You'll understand once you see it."
Saki drew a laminated card from an inner pocket and passed it to him. Taishi took it, and his whole face lifted.
"Virtual Reality Game Company... Operations Department, Senior Maintenance Engineer?"
"Nee-san, no way — is this the company I'm thinking of?"
"That's right. The one that produced the Aincrad-series full-dive VRMMO hardware."
Saki said it with a small proud smile.
"Then why did the owner of that place — what was it, 'Angel's-something', that trashy-sounding name — call the house looking for you?"
Taishi still looked half-lost.
Saki couldn't help herself. She rapped her knuckles lightly against the top of his head.
"Ow — hey, that actually hurt!"
Taishi gaped at her in genuine disbelief. His sister, who had never once raised a hand at him, had just knocked him on the head. His eyes went a little wet at the corners.
But Saki didn't soften. She kept her voice steady and serious.
"That's because I'm the one negotiating the acquisition with the owner of the nightclub 'Angel Beats'. Our company plans to convert the venue into a licensed FullDive gaming lounge — fitted out with NerveGear-generation pods."
"That's a company secret. Until the deal closes, I can't tell anyone. Now that the paperwork's done, there's no harm."
"Taishi. I'm telling you very seriously now — you don't need to worry about any of those strange rumors anymore."
"Your onee-chan is not that kind of woman. You just need to be like Keika — go to school happily, work hard, become someone worth becoming. That's all."
"As for tuition and living costs, I'll handle everything."
"U-uu... Nee-san... I'm sorry. I misunderstood you."
Taishi couldn't stop the tears rolling down.
The worry he'd been dragging around like a stone in his stomach finally rolled loose, and something in his shoulders slackened for the first time in weeks.
He thought: Idiot. Idiot. I called Nee-san so many terrible things in my head. And she was — she was doing all this. My chest hurts. Where's a tissue.
Meanwhile, across the park, Nozomi let Komachi lead him by the hand to a low bench beside a bed of half-wilted cosmos. The wind carried the faint sweetness of turned soil and cheap park-vendor takoyaki.
….
Looking down at the small snow-white hand still curled around his fingers, Nozomi sat and asked, smiling:
"So, Komachi. What did you want to ask me?"
Komachi released his hand then, her cheeks a soft radish-pink. She placed both hands behind her back, turned in a half-circle on her heel, and pinned him with a sparkling stare.
"If I ask, will you answer honestly?"
"Of course. I wouldn't lie to a cute imouto-type like Komachi."
"Then I'm really going to ask. I heard that Nozomi-onii-chan is playing the field — dating several beautiful upperclasswomen at school at the same time. Is that true?"
"Mm. It's true. But — which beautiful upperclasswomen did you hear about?"
Nozomi looked at her with lazy interest.
Komachi clapped both hands over her mouth. "It IS true — and you actually admitted it!"
"Onii-chan was right — you really are a playboy!"
"As for who — obviously Yukinoshita-senpai, Yuigahama Yui-senpai, Shiina Mahiru-senpai, and even the very famous Miura Yumiko-senpai—"
"But now, I think Kawasaki Saki-neesan should also be added to that list. Did I guess right?"
"Very sharp. That one you got dead-on."
Nozomi reached over and stroked her hair. She didn't flinch away — instead she leaned an inch closer, grinning like a satisfied cat.
"So — aren't you a little afraid I might set my sights on you next? You know I'm a very, very bad playboy."
"Hehe. I don't think Nozomi-onii-chan is bad."
"If you were really bad, Yukinoshita-senpai would've dumped you by chapter one. None of them are leaving. Doesn't that just prove your charm, onii-chan?"
"So — has Komachi been charmed too?"
"Not yet~. It's just that Onii-chan spends every night complaining about you, but his words are always dripping with jealousy, so I got curious."
Nozomi looked at the cute little loli in front of him and laughed under his breath. "And has your curiosity been satisfied, Komachi?"
She shook her head so hard the tuft of hair whipped side to side.
"Not even close!"
"I'm more confused now than before."
"Nozomi-onii-chan — are you a light novel protagonist? Why do all these gorgeous senpai want to stay by your side?"
"I'm just an ordinary high school boy. How could I be a light novel protagonist?"
"Komachi's imagination is running a little wild."
He said it lightly, hiding a smile in his sleeve.
"Eh — is it really?" Komachi's mouth rounded into a small, theatrical O.
At her age, and already she knew how to hand out emotional value like coupons at a station front. Just like Haruno — a natural social operator with a fox's smile.
"Definitely not."
"I don't believe it. Besides, Nozomi doesn't look ordinary at all."
Komachi said it with mock gravity, then flashed a mischievous grin.
"That last line scores super high in Komachi's dictionary~."
Nozomi laughed and rubbed her hair again. If Hachiman had witnessed this exact moment, his soul would probably have escaped through his mouth.
She thought: His hand's bigger than Onii-chan's. Warmer too. Ugh, my ears feel hot. Focus, Komachi, focus — you're doing recon, not falling.
Komachi didn't dodge; she practically melted into it.
Because the truth was — Nozomi, inside and out, was a caliber of handsome you did not encounter on the walk between classrooms.
And Komachi was a girl. A precocious, well-adjusted, socially fluent girl — but a girl. Which girl doesn't secretly want a shoujo-manga panel to open around her?
The same way boys gravitate toward pretty girls, girls gravitate toward good-looking boys. It was symmetric. It was math.
In short — after formally meeting Nozomi and spending five minutes in his orbit, Komachi discreetly filed all of Hachiman's warnings into a mental drawer labeled 'later, maybe never'.
Not long after, Nozomi took Komachi to the ice cream cart at the park entrance, bought four cones, packed two into an insulated bag, and led her back to the Kawasaki siblings.
...
"Here — Taishi-kun, onii-chan's treat."
Komachi passed him the cone with a bright smile.
"Ah — thank you!"
Taishi accepted it with both hands, red-eyed but composed.
"And for the beautiful Saki-neesan — here."
"Thank you, Komachi-chan."
Saki had always been gentle with children, and doubly so with cute girls like Komachi. Who could be sharp with someone this radiant?
Nozomi turned to Taishi, one hand in his pocket. "It looks like the misunderstanding got sorted out?"
Taishi lowered his head, the tip of the cone melting onto his knuckle.
"Yes, Hozuki-senpai. I was wrong. I'm really sorry for the trouble I caused this time."
"It's fine. The problem's solved — the commission's fulfilled."
"Just — study hard from here on out. That's how you actually help Saki-neesan."
"Mn. I will!"
Taishi nodded with the vigor of a boy who'd just found his second wind. He shot Nozomi a sideways glance, and the image of Yukinoshita Yukino's illegally elegant face and figure flickered through his skull unbidden.
He thought: A girlfriend like Yukinoshita-senpai. Someday. Definitely.
Nozomi caught the thought clean off the top of his head and had to press his lips together to keep from laughing. Through his Telepathy trait, the surface-level thinking of any ordinary person was as legible as a printed menu.
Taishi had ambition, at least. A shame that landing a Yukino-tier girlfriend was, statistically speaking, a rounding error away from zero.
….
The matter closed neatly. Saki took the rest of the afternoon off, tugged Taishi toward the supermarket to shop for ingredients, and announced she was going to cook a proper meal for her siblings for the first time in months. Nozomi walked Komachi through the amusement park for another hour — bumper cars, cotton candy, a couple of relatively intimate photobooth shots — then personally saw her back to the Hikigaya front gate before returning to Sakurasou.
A fulfilling day, gone before he'd tracked its passing.
Before he knew it, night had settled over the dorm.
….
[Suimei Art University Affiliated Sakurasou Dormitory, common room, 9:41 PM]
Today, Yukinoshita Yukino had come to Sakurasou. When Nozomi pushed through the front door, he found her cross-legged on the carpet, a black-and-white cat draped across her lap like a sleepy shawl, her long fingers dragging slow lines down its spine.
Sanshokuin Sumireko was there too, sprawled on the low sofa with a second cat kneading her thigh.
It looked like the two of them had synchronized their pet-therapy schedules.
Nozomi didn't disturb them. Some activities were better left for after dinner. And with Sumireko physically present in the building tonight, he wasn't about to let her slip out the door unattended.
Yukino was still smoothing a palm over the cat's ears when a petite girl in a pink lolita dress — fluffy chin-length blonde curls, tiny buckle shoes — burst into the room and immediately ducked behind her.
Yukino blinked, startled, then her eyes went bright.
"Shh — don't tell Suigintou that Hinaichigo is here, or she'll bully Hinaichigo!"
"All right," Yukino and Sumireko agreed in near-unison, both smiling.
They were both well past the acclimation phase with Sakurasou by now.
This newest cutie was clearly another Rozen Maiden. Nozomi, honestly — quietly bringing in a new little doll and not saying a word.
Not long after, Suigintou drifted in on her ink-black wings, chin lifted at a haughty tsundere angle.
"Yukinoshita. Sanshokuin. Have you seen that little idiot Hinaichigo?"
"Hinaichigo?" Yukino tilted her head, expression carefully blank.
"The sixth doll of the Rozen Maiden. A total idiot. She's my servant now, and I have work for her to do."
"That fool keeps running off whenever I turn my back. I don't know where she's hiding, but if I find her, I'm eating every single strawberry daifuku she's stashed in the cupboard."
"AHH! No! Don't eat Hinaichigo's strawberry daifuku!"
Hinaichigo could not restrain herself for another half-second — she rocketed out from behind Sumireko's shoulder.
Suigintou smirked, slow and pleased.
"Well, well. So you were hiding here after all."
Then her scrutinizing violet gaze swung across to Yukino and Sumireko, and she gave a small, cold snort.
Both of them suddenly found the ceiling extremely interesting.
Of course. Hinaichigo was, in fact, just a little idiot. She'd been the one begging them not to expose her, and she'd been the one to break cover on her own.
"Hinaichigo. Come. Time to work."
"U-uu, yes!"
"Do a good job and I'll give you a few daifuku as reward."
"Really? Hinaichigo will work extra hard!"
Right. Now she was directly bought off. Or perhaps — perhaps Hinaichigo genuinely preferred it this way. For a Rozen Maiden, the worst life imaginable was being sealed alone inside a rose-lined case, waiting for a master who might never come home. Afraid of being alone, always wanting someone to play with — that was Hinaichigo's whole prayer.
So even if Suigintou bossed her around, as long as there was a strawberry-shaped bribe at the end of it, she was content.
...
[Sakurasou, Nozomi's room, 11:03 PM]
Nozomi had stretched out across his bed with one arm thrown over his forehead, half-dozing, the paper-and-sandalwood smell of the room settling around him.
Suddenly a pair of cool hands slid across his eyes.
"Guess who I am?"
"It's Mitsuha, isn't it?"
He said it with a smile already forming.
"Hmph. So boring. I even disguised my voice — how did you catch me?"
The corner of Nozomi's mouth lifted. He turned his head against the pillow to take in the mature Miyamizu Mitsuha standing over him — hair longer now, past her shoulders, held back with a faded braided cord; a cream cable-knit sweater a size too big slouching off one collarbone; dark stockings clinging to the long lines of her thighs beneath a plaid skirt that stopped mid-thigh. Her mouth was painted a soft berry that made her lower lip look bitten.
"Because I could never forget your scent."
"You actually used smell? What a pervert!"
Mitsuha took two steps back, folded her arms under her chest — which pushed the sweater tight enough to trace the round shape of her — and scolded him with a laugh that didn't quite reach her eyes. It reached somewhere else instead.