"Nice to meet you. I'm Toyohama Nodoka, Sakurajima Mai's younger sister. Please take care of me!"
Mai hadn't returned alone after finishing her work.
She'd also brought along some extra baggage: her paternal half-sister, Toyohama Nodoka.
As a member of the idol group Sweet Bullet, Nodoka's fame was... modest at best.
Saku rarely heard anything about her individually.
That wasn't particularly strange.
With idol groups, the most recognizable member was usually whoever occupied the center position or otherwise received the most attention.
It was similar to Michiru's band.
Right now, if someone knew Icy Tail, the member they were most likely to recognize was Michiru. Unless they deliberately looked up the others, they might not even remember their names.
Idol groups were somewhat better in that regard, but not by much.
When so many people shared the stage, someone inevitably became the center while the others served as supporting leaves around the flower.
As for whether Nodoka was Sweet Bullet's center?
Saku had no idea.
And honestly, he didn't care much.
「Mai's little sister... I guess sisters really do tend to have little conflicts with each other. Is this what they mean when they say similar people repel each other?」
「It feels like brothers and sisters of opposite sexes often get along better.」
「Take Hikigaya's little sister Komachi. She absolutely adores him, and Hikigaya spoils her just as badly.」
「But none of that is important. What's important is that Nodoka shouldn't be appearing now.」
「When she showed up in the original story, it meant another case of Adolescence Syndrome was about to erupt.」
「Because she wanted so badly to surpass Mai, even to become Mai, the two sisters ended up swapping bodies.」
「After that, she had a brief period of interaction with the male lead, Azusagawa Sakuta. Her feelings toward him went from dislike to recognition, then fondness, and eventually something close to a hidden crush.」
「That last part was never stated outright, but you could see hints of it in the way she treated Sakuta. She probably kept it buried because of Mai.」
Nodoka's mind went completely blank.
She already knew her sister was dating some strange guy whose inner voice occasionally served as entertainment whenever she was bored.
What she hadn't expected was for their very first meeting to result in him dropping a bomb this enormous on her.
Nodoka: 'Slander! He's slandering me! This is blatant slander!'
Utaha folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at Mai and Nodoka.
'Another pair of sisters?'
And this younger sister came with that kind of potential risk?
Coveting her own future brother-in-law?
What a wonderful little sister Mai had.
Nodoka wasn't nearly as shameless as Utaha's imagination made her out to be.
But Saku hadn't explained the details, so Utaha could only judge from what she'd heard.
More importantly, however...
The phrase sister pair bothered her.
Saku had mentioned that particular combination more than once.
That clearly meant sisters held some unusual appeal for him.
And that meant Mai had just brought in another potentially powerful ally.
Not good.
Michiru, meanwhile, wasn't thinking nearly that deeply.
As long as Nodoka was easy to get along with, she didn't care.
After all, Saku was still the best buddy in the world as far as she was concerned.
Mai herself merely looked at her sister with a somewhat speechless expression.
So apparently her side of the family had hidden landmines too.
How unfair could the universe get?
Still, none of those events had happened yet.
Mai wasn't going to hold some hypothetical future against Nodoka.
Besides, if something really did happen...
At least Nodoka was family.
Much better than that thieving cat Utaha.
"Nice to meet you, Nodoka."
Saku smiled.
"I'm Mai's boyfriend. These two are Kasumigaoka Utaha and Hyodo Michiru. They're both my friends."
"She's only staying with me for a few days."
Mai ended that topic immediately.
"Don't worry too much about her."
Then she turned toward Utaha, who was standing beside Saku.
"But more importantly..."
Mai slipped an arm around Saku's and gave him a sweet smile.
"Did you miss me?"
At the same time, the gesture unmistakably declared ownership.
Mai had come today partly to discuss the next stage of Your Name.
She wanted to know whether Saku was willing to play the male lead.
She'd already asked him once before.
Saku hadn't rejected the idea, but he hadn't agreed either.
This would be the final confirmation.
If Saku was interested, Mai would personally teach him how to act.
If he wasn't, she would have no choice but to find another actor.
The second matter...
Was settling accounts with Utaha.
No matter what happened, though, Mai had no intention of putting Saku in an impossible position.
In her mind, Saku had obviously been seduced and tricked by Utaha.
That meant he could be forgiven.
The real culprit was Kasumigaoka Utaha, who had knowingly taken the initiative despite being fully aware Saku already had a girlfriend.
Naturally, Utaha should bear full responsibility.
"Of course I missed you!"
Saku answered immediately.
He lightly tapped Mai's nose with one finger, his affectionate tone making Utaha feel increasingly sour.
Her leg began bouncing impatiently.
Seeing Utaha's agitation instantly improved Mai's mood.
"Saku-kun."
"Could you give us a little privacy?"
Mai smiled.
"I need to talk to Utaha."
Saku's heart skipped.
For some reason, he suddenly felt guilty.
Then he reconsidered.
'Wait.'
'I'm planning to build a harem. Why am I acting guilty?'
His confidence returned almost immediately.
Still...
Mai clearly hadn't come in peace.
And both sides mattered to him.
It wasn't exactly easy for him to intervene without obviously favoring someone.
So Saku pretended not to understand what was happening, nodded, and made a swift escape.
"The fact that you deliberately sent Saku-kun away means you already know what happened between us."
Utaha showed no trace of guilt.
She calmly walked over to the sofa and sat down.
"If you don't want people to know, don't do it in the first place."
Mai's voice remained controlled.
"I don't care what you think, but there's one thing you need to understand."
"In this house, I will always be Saku-kun's first priority."
Mai had considered many different ways of confronting Utaha.
In the end, she'd rejected all of them.
Completely falling out with Utaha would be easy.
But Saku wouldn't want that outcome.
More importantly, even if Utaha disappeared, someone else would eventually appear.
The more outstanding Saku became, the harder situations like this would be to prevent.
So rather than wasting all her energy fighting every girl who approached him, Mai believed the important thing was securing her own position in Saku's heart.
If jealousy and constant arguments only made Saku distance himself from her, she'd lose far more than she gained.
"Hmph."
Utaha looked at Mai's unmistakable main girlfriend attitude and scoffed internally.
"That's difficult to say, Sakurajima-san."
She slowly played with a strand of black hair falling over her chest, wrapping it around her finger before speaking again.
"You're a public figure."
"That means you and Saku-kun will inevitably spend long periods apart."
She smiled faintly.
"I'm different."
"I can stay beside him."
"As they say, companionship is the longest confession of love."
"So your position may not be quite as unshakable as you think."
Nodoka had never encountered anything like this before.
The older sister she'd always admired was actually competing with another girl over a boy.
Her image of Mai shattered into pieces.
'Is this really the Sakurajima Mai I know?'
More importantly...
After listening for this long, shouldn't the person most responsible be Jinnai Saku, the scumbag dating two girls at once?
Why were these two fighting each other?
Nodoka was so stunned she couldn't even speak.
For a moment, she genuinely wondered whether she was the abnormal one.
Michiru was equally lost.
She desperately wanted to say:
'Can't everyone just get along?'
'You like Saku, she likes Saku, and I like Saku too.'
'Doesn't that mean we're all on the same side?'
But she wisely kept her mouth shut.
Something told her saying that aloud would be extremely dangerous.
"As expected of a novelist."
Mai crossed her arms.
"You certainly know how to talk."
"But by your logic, the person Saku-kun loves most should be his childhood friend, Saki Saki."
"After all, nobody can compete with her when it comes to how long she's been beside him."
Mai remained completely unaffected.
"But feelings aren't decided by how many years you've known someone."
People often said that when girls competed over a man, they could become terrifyingly rational.
Mai was proving that point rather well.
"In that case..."
Utaha met her gaze directly.
"Then you'd better prepare yourself for the challenge."
"I'll tell you clearly right now."
"I'm not letting go."
"And that's not all."
Utaha's expression carried genuine confidence.
"Saku-kun and I are going to become the kind of couple and creative partnership everyone envies."
She wasn't merely boasting.
Saku had already finished the illustrations for Your Lie in April, and the book was expected to officially release sometime next week.
Volume three of Utaha's Metronome in Love would be released around the same time.
The publisher even planned to market the two of them as a genius author duo.
Unlike Mai, Utaha didn't need to hide her association with Saku.
In that particular arena...
She held an overwhelming advantage.
"Fine."
Mai smiled.
"I'll look forward to seeing you try."
Nodoka's pupils had long since expanded in disbelief.
Her mind was completely blank.
Only three questions kept repeating inside her head.
'Who am I?'
'Where am I?'
'What exactly am I doing here?'
If she had a choice...
She would've preferred never to have witnessed any of this.
The entire situation was so absurd it felt like a dream.
…