Dum—
With Chiose's fingers pressing the keys one last time, the piece came to an end.
"Brilliant as always, but somehow I feel like it got even better."
Since Chiose Noshiro was wearing her hearing aid, Taki simply spoke out loud.
"No, actually, I think something's missing…"
"Huh?"
Small insects cried out shrilly outside the house. Now that the music had ended, the sounds of nature rose to fill the silence.
"Maybe I've just been playing too little lately. It all feels a bit off. Shouldn't I play a little longer?"
"Tomorrow. It's pretty late already, isn't it?"
"What's this, is Little Taki that eager to hold me while she sleeps?"
"I-I-I… I am not! I'm not! I don't want to! No way! How could I possibly think that… Little Chiose, don't misread me on purpose!"
"Then…" Chiose pressed her lips together mischievously. "How about Taki sleeps in the guest room by herself tonight?"
"Anything but that."
"So silly. Pfft."
How did a mouth that soft get so sharp? Was it because she hadn't kissed it yet?
Chiose was thin, and that was exactly why she looked as graceful as a swan stretching its neck whenever she stretched.
Taki parted her lips, about to say something more, when her sister's call came in.
"Huh!"
Only now did Taki Shiina remember that, apart from last night's message to her sister, a single line reading [Staying at a classmate's tonight], she hadn't sent a word since.
They'd been completely out of contact for a whole day.
"Don't tell me my sister's going out of her mind looking for me."
The corner of Taki's mouth twitched. She truly hadn't looked at her phone for a single second all day.
After all, her broken-winged little angel had been sitting in her lap, nuzzling her chest with that little head. Could any normal human really turn down cuddling with Little Chiose and calmly check their phone instead?
The ones who can are this guy (thumbs-up.jpg).
"I'm going to take a call from home. Excuse me for a moment."
"Okay."
All three calls she'd gotten today were annoying. Every one of them had interrupted her alone time with Chiose.
"Hello, Maki, what's…"
"Shiina! Taki! You've got some nerve picking up the phone! Are you trying to make me die of rage?!"
It was the first time in Taki Shiina's life that she'd heard Maki Shiina shout her name that loudly.
She was so startled that her grip slipped, and the phone clattered onto the floor.
"Sis, calm down. I'm fine."
You're ruining the moment between me and my best sister. You're a terrible person, you know that? All you do is wreck my happiness.
"Where are you right now? Which friend's house? I'm coming to get you right now! Mom and Dad are worried sick, don't you get that?! You send one message yesterday and vanish, you little brat, are you itching for a spanking?!"
My sister is seriously about to lose it, Taki thought.
Even the short-tempered side she normally kept hidden, and words she'd never usually say, were all spilling out.
"So! Where! Are! You! At! Whose! House!"
"Ahem. Sis, I'm at Little Chiose's house."
"Huh? Little Chiose? Who's Little Chi… oh, Chiose Noshiro?"
"Yeah."
"What are you two doing?"
Taki Shiina knew she needed to give an answer right now, one that could shut her sister up.
Damn brain! Move already! You couldn't come up with sweet words for Chiose, fine, but you can't even come up with something shocking?
In the end, Taki Shiina sighed.
At that moment, she thought she heard something hit the floor, just like the sound that had woken her in the middle of the night that other time.
But Taki didn't have the time to go look. Right after, the word tumbled out of her:
"Kissing."
"..."
The line went silent. Taki sensed what was coming, so she opened the fridge and shoved her phone inside.
Sure enough, after only a moment, a piercing blast of noise erupted from the fridge.
"AAAAHHHH! Taki Shiina! You!"
Taki waited until her sister had finished howling before she took the phone back out.
"Me? What about me?"
"Nice work. Then don't come home at all! I'll go tell Father and Mother!"
"?"
That reaction… why was it so strangely positive?
"So…"
"Do you want me to bring you a few sets of clothes? Staying at her place from now on is fine too! You idiot, fourteen or fifteen years without making a single friend, and who knew you'd quietly go and pull off something this big."
The corner of Taki's mouth twitched. Her sister wasn't wrong at all.
She really didn't have any friends. But! Her sister had gotten one thing wrong!
"We just kiss a lot. That's not weird, is it? Don't all good friends do that?"
"Your head really is off, isn't it? As expected of an idiot who's never had a friend!"
"Sis!"
"Enough, I'm going to go report in. You carry on with whatever it is you like doing."
Beep, beep, beep—
The dial tone filled her ear. Marveling at how off her sister was acting, Taki walked back toward the piano.
"Little Chiose, you won't believe this, I… Little Chiose? Little Chiose?"
The scene before her instantly washed away the warmth of a moment ago. Chiose Noshiro wasn't sitting at the piano.
She had fallen.
She lay helplessly curled up on the floor like a poor little child.
"Little Chiose? What's wrong?"
"Taki… I… I don't feel very well."
Instinctively, Taki touched Chiose's forehead. It was scalding hot, yet it sent a chill through her.
How long has this been going on, exactly?
Could it be…
A wretched suspicion surfaced in the depths of Taki's mind.
Could it be from getting soaked in the rain that day?
Then the thud that night, was that Chiose collapsing and knocking against the floor because she felt ill?
"Did I fail her again?"
Taki was overcome with regret, but time wouldn't stop for her remorse, not even for a moment.
She had no attention to spare for anything else. She scooped Chiose up and ran for the door.
In her arms, the girl felt light as a big puff of cotton.
Little Chiose is so light.
Normally, holding her only made Taki think how effortless it was. Only now that Chiose had fallen ill did Taki Shiina realize how unbearable that lightness was.
"Little Chiose! Hang in there, we'll be at the hospital soon!"
"Taki… my head's so dizzy… I was fine… just a moment ago…"
"Don't talk. Rest for a bit. I'll switch your hearing aid to silent."
Taki Shiina was frantic and full of self-blame. While she waited for a ride, she stamped her feet on the spot, her agitation with nowhere to go.
"Damn it, what's wrong with me? I clearly promised to protect my best sister for the rest of my life, so why again…"
In a corner Taki Shiina couldn't see… the corners of Chiose Noshiro's lips curved upward.
And that was how it went.
...
[Coerced Omen: Limited to once per month. After activating this trait, a disaster is randomly generated, causing misfortune for the host or the target. Lifespan cost: minus one month.]
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