Rain-soaked fabric clung to her body, and long black hair—barely trimmed at all—hung loose down her back.
With skin kept unnaturally pale from years spent indoors, paired with that rational, clinical air, she looked like the sort of female researcher who lived in a laboratory and only came out when forced.
Arato Sora didn't know what, exactly, had happened to Aoko's sister, Aozaki Touko.
But one thing was certain: it wasn't something good.
And whatever had happened, it was definitely tied to Aoko.
In the middle of the storm, what Touko dragged Arato Sora into wasn't complicated.
She simply reenacted the same things Arato Sora and Aoko had once done together on a typhoon day.
She even made fish soup with a fish the two of them caught.
Only—compared to Aoko, Touko was far more efficient at everything. Catching the fish. Cooking it.
A few clean motions, and the whole thing was done.
Arato Sora tasted the soup and found, to his surprise, that it was actually… good.
Which meant Touko's next attempt—to copy the rock-paper-scissors "loser drinks" game he and Aoko had played—was put on hold.
So—
"Now then," Arato Sora said, sitting at the dining table in the living room, sipping the hot soup Touko had made. "Can you tell me what this is really about, Touko-san?"
At first, Arato Sora had genuinely suspected she might be in trouble and was planning to steal her own sister's boyfriend.
But as time passed and their contact lengthened, he became fairly sure of one thing:
Aozaki Touko—who had only met him once long ago—had no interest in him in that way.
"You can treat this as me wanting to experience something," Touko said. "Or as an invitation extended to someone in the same predicament."
She paused, then corrected herself.
"More precisely: I want to find a helper for revenge here in Misaki Town."
She dipped a spoon into the pot of soup still simmering, tasted it, and frowned slightly.
Apparently, she still wasn't satisfied with the cooking Arato Sora had just praised.
She began adding seasonings with a sort of meticulous intensity.
Arato Sora didn't know if it was his imagination, but he thought he saw a flash of blue light flicker across Touko's palm.
"Try it again," she said.
Touko—glasses on, posture like she was conducting academic research—ladled a fresh bowl and handed it to Arato Sora.
As for the soup he hadn't finished?
She dumped it straight into the sink.
From that alone, Arato Sora could tell: compared to the loud, rough-around-the-edges Aoko, Touko had a perfectionist streak bordering on compulsive.
But she truly was talented.
Arato Sora took the new bowl.
By his tastes, after Touko's adjustments, it really had become noticeably better.
"You don't like fishy smells," Touko said. "So I removed it."
Watching his expression, Touko nodded, seemingly satisfied—at least for the moment.
And only after she said it did Arato Sora realize:
The fishy odor really was gone.
A girl who looked like she barely ever cooked—yet after just a few quick tests, she produced a bowl of soup that was genuinely good.
Small details told you a lot.
Even with a bias toward his girlfriend, Arato Sora had to admit it:
Touko's ability surpassed Aoko's by an absurd margin.
He shook his head, bowl in hand.
"Back to the point. You said 'revenge'—revenge against Aoko? If that's what you mean, I don't see why I'd ever stand on your side."
Touko listened and slowly shook her head.
As time passed, the clothes and hair that had been drenched in the rain had already dried.
Though because they'd been soaked, everything looked a little messy.
And yet when the bespectacled girl spoke, she still radiated a kind of cold, intellectual precision—an aura of the perfectionist.
The two traits mixed into something oddly compelling.
"You'll be dumped by Aoko soon," Touko said.
She stated it like a fact: his near-future.
"Even if that really happens," Arato Sora replied evenly, "it's just a relationship issue. People break up. If we part on good terms, it doesn't become anything dramatic like 'revenge.'"
Men and women separating—this sort of thing didn't rise to the level of revenge.
"Oh?" Touko's voice rose a fraction. "And you'd really be okay with it?"
Her orange eyes locked onto Arato Sora.
In that instant, the woman who had maintained a scholarly calm and air of mystery finally let emotion spill through.
Arato Sora didn't know if it was his imagination—
But the moment Touko stared at him, he felt as if his body had been pinned in place, unable to move even an inch.
Looking into her eyes was like staring at a beast that had already lost everything.
A beast that could pounce at any moment.
Because when you have nothing left…
You can do anything.
A rational scholar. A perfectionist with compulsive tendencies.
That was the impression Touko had left on him in their brief time together.
And now—
He felt like he understood something deeper.
Ring-ring-ring—ring-ring-ring—
As if echoing Touko's words, the landline in the living room suddenly began to ring.
"..."
Arato Sora, who had been about to say more, fell silent.
Under Touko's gaze, he walked to the phone, lifted the receiver, and pressed it to his ear.
A familiar voice sounded on the line.
Aozaki Aoko, on the other end, seemed to be deliberately creating distance between them.
She explained the reason for their breakup.
It wasn't complicated.
Due to "special circumstances," Aoko had recently become the heir of the Aozaki family.
And as the heir, she couldn't keep dating Arato Sora.
In Aoko's words:
"You can think of it like this—I've become a big shot now, and you're completely not worthy of me anymore."
But Arato Sora didn't feel anything special about the way she phrased it.
That was just Aoko.
When she did something hurtful, she'd speak as harshly as possible, deliberately playing the villain.
She didn't want to walk away clean.
At minimum, she wanted the other person to hate her—so they could hurt her without hesitation, and feel justified doing it.
"Aoko… you're really twisted, aren't you," Arato Sora said.
That was the evaluation he gave her final words.
"..."
The girl on the other end went quiet.
After several seconds of silence, Aoko gave her conclusion.
"Anyway, between you and inheriting the family, I chose the family. You can understand it as: I abandoned you and picked something else."
And then—
Beepbeepbeep—beepbeepbeepbeep—
Only busy tone remained on the line.
-------
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