Published at 31st of August 2019 1:31 pm

Volume 12, Chapter 02: A heartfelt Duplicate Key

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

…Ah, such a nice dream. I thought so with still drowsy eyes.

An unusual sweet fragrance hung over the bed. I was sleeping with my cheek on the pillow, which gave off a pleasant fragrance, whereupon my shoulders were lightly shaken. When I opened my eyelids,

“Ehm, good morning, Master <3”

My vision fell onto a girl with cool and finely chiselled features. For some reason, Gogyou Hijiri was wearing maid clothes and her prideful black hair sparkled from the morning sun. She smiled shyly.

“Breakfast is served. Please get up soon, Master.”

“…Good night, Maid.”

“Ehh!? Such a weak reaction!? That’s not what Kaoru-san promised me!”

Apparently even the Hijiri in my dream was being tricked by Kaorun. She made a slightly surprised voice and mumbled about something like “Guess I have to do that to please him after all…”.

I had my eyes closed and this time she called out to me with a bashful voice from above my head. “Shinobu-kun--- No, I mean, Master, if you do not get up soon, I will do something amazing.”

“This situation itself is already amazing. I have nothing to fear anymore. Thanks for the sweet dream.”

But soon I would have to wake up from this dream. Or so I thought, but today’s dream seemed rather long. Hijiri’s voice still reached my ears.

“…I’ll really do it, you know? Just to tell you, I’m really embarrassed too.”

“Throw away your shame, Babe.”

I replied a bit cool now. I could do so precisely because it was a dream. I felt somewhat satisfied, whereupon I suddenly received a squishy soft sensation on both my cheeks. Moreover, these two round things started to move bouncing on my face. Warm and abundant swellings. A balmy fragrance like flowers tickling my nasal cavities. And Hijiri’s voice coming from above again was extremely bewitching with moans mixed in with it.

“Mm… Master, if you do not get up… Hah… I’ll get more vehement.”

“---Come on.”

“I, I don’t know why you’re using English, but okay. This is just like Kaoru-san predicted. This makes you happy, right Shinobu-kun— I mean, Master? Then I’ll be more vehement now.”

Along with a somewhat animated voice, the bewitching vibrations became stronger and a sweet sensation dashed over my whole face.

“Uah… Somehow, I’m starting to feel good… too… Hah… What about you, Master? Does it… Ahh… feel good for you?”

An inexpressible feeling for sure. This dream was way too sweet. I could feel an incredible elasticity from the voluminous round swellings and I inadvertently wanted to enjoy the warm sensation of these swellings some more. When I modestly nuzzled my face against them,

“Hahn… Mastah… I’m servicing you… so don’t move… Yahn…”

Even though I had only moved my face a tiny bit, the soft swelling trembled writhing on both my cheeks, then slowly got away from me.

Aw, over already? When I opened my eyelids regretfully, there were absorbing huge breasts in front of the tip of my nose. Oh. Hijiri had shaken her breasts on my face while I was sleeping on the bed, huh. No wonder it felt so pleasant.

However, I timidly looked up to Hijiri while opening my eyes wide.

“…Hijiri? Watcha doing?”

“G- Giving you a Puff Puff, Master.”

“—Once more please.”

This must be a dream for sure. There was no way Hijiri would say “Puff Puff” with a red face like that. Since this was a dream, I excitedly put up my index finger with the request, but unfortunately a continuation didn’t come. Hijiri knitted her eyebrows troubled, fixed her posture and looked at me.

“Uhm, are you still not quite awake? Usually you get all bashful too, Shinobu-kun…”

“Aw, no more calling me Master? Quite the unsympathetic dream.”

“I- It pains me to see you so disappointed, but you must be hungry. Breakfast is all done, so get up now, okay?”

Gently pulling away my blanket, I straightened up my upper body with Hijiri’s help and looked around again while sitting on the edge of the bed with a yawn. I spotted cute accessories and decorative plants, obviously this wasn’t my own room. This should be Kaorun’s room, if I wasn’t mistaken.

However, how did I end up here? When I stared in puzzlement on this cloudy situation, Hijiri rested her hand on my shoulder with a giggle.

“Shinobu-kun, please recall yesterday— wait, don’t go back to sleep. What about breakfast? Both Kaoru-san and Hisame-chan are waiting, you know?”

Giving me a fair warning, Hijiri moderately shook my shoulders, but I was strangely sleepy and closed my eyes again while I absent-mindedly recalled the last day like she told me to…

* * *

…Could I get friendlier with Hisame-chan from now on?

The orange sunlight shone into the Gogyou Dojo. Conducting my exorcist training there by myself, I recalled the earlier happening and made a small sigh.

A gentle evening. At the return to the Gogyou Mansion, Kaorun exchanged warm words with Hisame-chan. I had watched over them and then Kaorun took my arm to introduce me to Hisame-chan.

But apparently Hisame-chan had previously heard about me from Kaorun.

“I saw you in a picture that Kaoru-sama carries around with her. You are Nanjou-sama, correct? I heard that you are a manly gentleman that not only has Hijiri-sama as his lover, but Kaoru-sama as well. Kaoru-sama was happily telling me: ‘Shinobu-sama is my one and only.’ In other words— You are my enemy!”

As soon as she recognized me, she suddenly gave me a declaration of war. I thought about breaking the ice first.

“Oh, jealous? You don’t have to worry about that. I won’t take your beloved Kaorun away.”

I gave my idea of a mature reaction, but she was either embarrassed about me hitting a sore spot or simply scared… as she totally snarled at me.

Amidst that, Kaorun gave her a weird advice of “Hisame-chan, if you are going to bite him, you better make it play-biting” and during the self-introduction after that, Hisame-chan kept giving me a passionate scowl with an inexpressiveness face… I was really worried if I could hit it off with her from now on.

But I renewed my spirits and thought about doing some training since I was already here before going home, so I visited the Gogyou Dojo and thus was conducting my training like this now.

…But thinking back on it now, I could have gone back to my normal life with Luna if I had simply went home back then. While I diligently trained, Sougo-san suddenly showed up in the Dojo. With an expression of mixed feelings, he said isolated while looking at me.

“You’re… Itsuki-san’s son alright.”

Itsuki was the name of my father. But I never expected to hear it from Sougo-san, so I blinked my eyes a bit, whereupon he called out to me surprised.

“…Hijiri told you nothing?”

Being asked that made me remember. Previously Hijiri told me that Sougo-san had been surprised about me not taking over my grandfather’s dojo and starting exorcist training. He must be familiar with our family. While recalling the contents of my conversation with Hijiri quite a while ago, I casually replied to Sougo-san.

“Reminds me, that stupid and random father of mine is your friend, isn’t he?”

“Unfortunately he is. Nowadays we’re just quarrelling, but in the past we often let our fists speak. That said, Itsuki-san wasn’t just talented in martial arts, he also has a gift for exorcism. As a result, I never won against him even once.”

“Let’s go beat up that idiot together next time— Is what I would like to say, but seeing as he has a talent for exorcism, he must know about the exorcists.”

“Because the Nanjou family is originally a branch family with exorcist roots. Your grandfather is informed too, not just Itsuki-san. They even worked as exorcists once.”

I never heard anything from my father or grandfather. Why didn’t they tell me? While I became doubtful, Sougo-san knitted his eyebrows a bit and opened his mouth.

“I’m sure he didn’t tell you out of parental love. The exorcist work is dangerous after all. Without doubt he didn’t want you to get dragged into it. Anyway, Itsuki-san always did what he wanted like not taking over the family dojo, seducing female devils during work or trying to make them his lovers…”

Interjecting a sigh in the middle of his sentence, Sougo-san knitted his eyebrows even deeper.

“The next thing I hear from him at the wedding with his wife is ‘I’m quitting the exorcist job! I don’t wanna work anymore! I never wanna work again! I’ll be Tomoe’s pimp!’. To the bitter end, he only cracked jokes without being serious once, so I can’t deal with him. He’s a fool beyond help.”

“I guess we really should beat up that idiot together next time?”

Sougo-san showed a pale expression, but his words were somewhat filled with warmth. So he replied to my joke with “I’ll think about it” and a serious expression, then continued with “By the way” just like that.

“That fool called me the other day.”

“Called you? Even though he rarely calls or texts anyone expect my mother or sister?” with that I asked back surprised, whereupon Sougo-san showed a wry smile and nodded short.

“I’m sure he was worried about you. I don’t know where he heard it from, but he apparently knew about you getting exorcist training here. But it seems like he doesn’t want you to become an exorcist after all. He yelled at me angrily as soon as I picked up the phone.”

“…I’m getting a bad feeling, but what did he say?”

“I think he spouted something like ‘Bastard! How do you dare to snatch away my beloved Shinobu-kun! Give him back at once or I’ll set your house on fire, damnit!’.”

“I think that was his idea of a joke?”

“Of course I know that, but I go way back with him, so I reflexive answered with ‘Go die, Scum!’ and then ended up telling him everything about you.”

It might be that Sougo-san quite liked my father. As he remembered his exchange with my father over the phone, he looked up to the ceiling of the dojo and showed a faint smile on a rare occasion.

“Still, Itsuki-san is treasuring you a lot. After hearing me out, he joshed with ‘Then my Shinobu-kun is living with a devil right now!? That’s not good! I have to return at once! Though I actually only want to see Tomoe. Tehe~’ and hung up.”

“Next time he calls, please ask him ‘When will you die at last?’… Oh, right, didn’t you say I’m my father’s son alright when you came in? What did you mean by that?”

I felt my own expression getting somewhat stiff, whereupon Sougo-san averted his eyes from me a bit awkwardly and opened his mouth hesitantly.

“Well, I thought at first that you don’t resemble him. Because you’re sincere, unlike him. But well, you got a gift for exorcism too and like to joke around as well… And you’re a natural gigolo like Itsuki-san.”

“Uhm, excuse me if I sound rude, but may I smack you on the head?”

“…Itsuki-san was often cracking a joke like that too. And he often attracted the affection of women. Just like you.”

Personally, I wanted to think differently. But Sougo-san said with mixed feelings again.

“Earlier in the living room, Kaoru happily told me how nicely you treated her when she stayed at your house. Hisame was present too and got a bit sullen, you know?”

“…Sounds like she’ll snarl at me again.”

“I’m afraid I can’t deny that. Actually, I’m off to work again now. I’ll be gone for two or three days with my wife, but when I told Kaoru about it, she asked a favour of me.”

“It’s rare for Kaorun to ask a favour.”

Most likely Kaorun was fawning on Sougo-san too. While giving an agreeable response, I felt my cheeks forming a faint smile, whereupon Sougo-san lightly shrugged his shoulders for some reason and continued with a sigh.

“To requote her: ’I am worried about leaving no man in the house. I would like to have Shinobu-sama stay over while you are away. There is a possibility that he will turn me down, so please ask him for me, Papa Sougo. Come on, please hurry up already. It is a favour for your cute daughter’.”

“Haha, you sure have it tough too. Then I’ll excuse myself now. A blonde lady and a happy family are waiting for me at home…”

Swiftly turning on my heels, I tried to go home in an escape, but Sougo-san grabbed my shoulder from behind with “Wait, Nanjou-kun”.

“I’m sure Kaoru wants to thank you somehow for taking care of her. Besides, Hijiri had sparkles in her eyes too. I don’t want to disappoint my daughters and I believe it’s fine to entrust them to you. So I ask you to grant Kaoru’s wish, please. I beg you, Nanjou-kun, no— Shinobu-kun.”

“I, I don’t know why you’re suddenly calling me by my first name, but I see that you’re an unexpected doting parent. Well, I don’t mind if it’s only for a few days.”

There was no way I could turn him down when he was lowering his head. Still, she was worried about having no man in the house… Just what was Shuu-kun then? To be honest, I felt rather doubtful, but I resisted to retort and decided to take on Sougo-san’s request…

* * *

Still sitting on the bed with my eyes closed, yesterday’s memories went by in my only half-awake head while Hijiri in maid clothes gently shook my shoulders.

After the Dojo, I had went to the living room and told the members of the Gogyou Family that I would be staying over for a few days, whereupon Hijiri had shown a bright smile, Hisame-chan had made a slightly displeased expression, Shuu-kun had shown a bitter expression with “I’m a man, you know? So you have a man in the house, right?” and Kaorun had left for somewhere as soon as she had heard my words.

But it seems that she went to my house. When she came back, she had a bag with my change of clothes and apparently even told Luna and the others about my circumstances versed.

Afterwards, next to dinner and a bath, I played a game in Kaorun’s game until late at night upon her invitation, so I had fallen asleep without even noticing it. Maybe I had even slept together with Kaorun?

I didn’t clearly remember that part. I felt a bit regretful. When such thoughts crossed my mind, Hijiri moderately shook my shoulders and called out to me hesitant.

“Shinobu-kun, if you don’t get up already, then, well… I’ll change your clothes of my own accord.”

“Take my socks off lastly.”

“Ehm, I would say the socks come first of all… Ah, you were sleeping with your socks on! Please wait a moment. I’ll properly do it for you.”

…What was she going to do?

A bit curious, I opened my drowsy eyes, whereupon my vision fell on Hijiri still in her maid clothes. She formally sat down on the spot with grace. Next she took my foot, as she was going to take off my socks, and lead it onto her thighs.

…In no time, my foot ended up on Hijiri’s thigh. Feeling the elastic sensation of her thigh on the back of my foot, my sleepiness was blown away at once.

“Hijiri, I’m feeling bad about this. You don’t have to go this far. Or rather, this manner is…”

“Kaoru-san taught me. I don’t really get it, but boys prefer it this way, right? Don’t worry about me and fully rest your foot on my thigh.”

Then I would truly step onto her thigh. I wasn’t so shameless that I could do such a feast. But still, first the maid clothes, then the breast squeezing. Most likely Kaorun talked her into something weird again.

But Hijiri herself made a face like she was happy about taking care of me, and gently slipped off the sock from my foot on her soft thigh in a somewhat pleased mood. It made me afraid to stop her.

However, being serviced by a cool beauty like Hijiri made me rather restless or more like my heart was making flips… Either way, it didn’t change the fact that it was embarrassing.

Indifferent to these feelings of mine, Hijiri remained seated after taking off the socks on both my feet, and suddenly flushed her cheeks for some reason. She touched my thigh caressingly with her slender fingertips, only to then look at me with an upturned glance, whispering quietly.

“…Shinobu-kun, I’ll do this properly too.”

“Be gentle— As if. What do you even want to take my pants off for? I don’t remember raising you as such a lewd… wait, reminds me, weren’t you a sullen pervert?”

“I, I wasn’t trying to do anything weird! Please don’t get the wrong idea! I’m just changing your clothes! Even Luna-san does it for you every morning, right!?”

“Nah, not at all. Luna isn’t that extreme.”

She just often woke me up by play-biting my ear. I added so in thought, whereupon Hijiri raised an agitated voice even while blinking her eyes in surprise.

“But Kaoru-san told me ‘I saw it at Shinobu-sama’s house. Luna-san was waking up Shinobu-sama by giving him a Puff Puff breast squeeze while wearing maid clothes, and even helped him to get changed. Moreover! During the evening bath, she washed his back with her huge breasts. You cannot let her beat you, Hijiri-chan.’.”

“…After hearing this, what were you going to do in the evening bath?”

“Kaoru-san pointed it out too, but it’s not really genuine when I do the exact same as Luna-san, right? Therefore, well— I’ll wash your chest with my breasts! It’s embarrassing, but I’ll do my best!”

“S- So bold. I don‘t dislike that characteristic. But just how much do you love Koarun? I know that you want to trust your older sister, but you better doubt her a little bit.”

When I told her somewhat gentle, Hijiri turned even redder and looked down with her hands still on my pants.

“Then… Kaoru-san was lying to me after all?”

“Mh? Wait a sec. What you mean by ‘after all’? So you too were kinda aware of it? That means, you actually just wanted to do something perverted to me after all…”

“N- No, Shinobu-kun! I only thought it was something Luna-san would do!”

Apparently losing her cool, Hijiri jerkily pulled on my pants with a red face.

“I only wanted to please you… But now that you mentioned it, it seems like it was only for my pleasure so far. Wh- What should I do, Shinobu-kun? I guess I’m more perverted than I thought?”

…Only so much that you would lay hands on my pants right now. Thus I can’t deny it. Swallowing down a joke like that, I reached out my hand for Hijiri and petted her head in an apology for teasing her. Upon that, Hijiri seemed to calm down a bit, flushed her cheeks and smiled faintly.

But on a closer look, this posture was extremely risky. Hijiri, still sitting formally on the floor, leaned her cheek against my thigh with her hands on my pants while I sat on the bed. And I was petting her head like that. An outsider would misunderstand this situation for sure. I should separate myself from Hijiri as soon as possible.

Like that, I got a bit impatient in my heart, whereupon the door suddenly yanked open without even a knock and an inexpressive girl aka Hisame-chan came inside right away. As soon as she did so,

“Shinobu-sama, how long do you intend to sleep in Kaoru-sama’s bed? The breakfast Kaoru-sama made will get—”

Hisame-chan started to speak displeased at once, but when she noticed our situation, her eyes widened and her inexpressive face turned bright red, as she might still be innocent. Turning on her heels, she raised a hysteric voice while rushing out into the hallway.

“K- Ka- Kaoru-sama! Hijiri-sama is being indecent! So very indecent! Nanjou-sama is holding back a disgusted look, yet Hijiri-sama tried to forcefully remove his pants! To think the all so gentle Hijiri-sama would be actually so indecent—!”

“Ehh!? H- Hisame-chan! That’s going too far! It’s a misunderstanding! An incredible misunderstanding! Please don’t report weird things to Kaoru-san!”

Hastily raising a falsetto voice, Hijiri ran out into the hallway in chase after Hisame-chan.

In regards, I laid down on the pillow once more and went back to sleep to escape reality— Nah, if I were to do that, Hisame-chan might snarl at me again. Feeling a chill, I swiftly stood up, dressed myself quickly and went to the living room of the Gogyou Mansion…

In a way, it was like a dreamy state even after waking up.

Breakfast time in the living room of the Gogyou Mansion. Lined up on the table were steaming white rice, clear miso soup with wakame seaweed, fish with an aromatic fragrance and somewhat charred omelettes. And in my field of vision were three girls in maid clothes: Hijiri, Kaorun and Hisame-chan.

Well, in Hijiri’s case it was a cosplay instigated by Kaorun, but it wasn’t all too bad to be surrounded by maids. Inadvertently forming a faint smile, I talked big while nodding short.

“Mhm, if Luna were here too, it would be heaven.”

“…Shinobu-sama, I can understand that you are lonely without your beloved Luna-san, but please only have eyes for us now and make do with only us.“

While hitting my sore point, Kaorun lightly slapped my cheeks somewhat sulking.

“I want to take you to heaven as a thanks for taking care of me the other days. Taking advantage of Papa Sougo’s leave, I will service you plentiful, okay? Please look forward to it. For starters, let us take a bath together tonight.”

“Haha, can’t wait for it. But next to you, a scary girl is glaring at me, you know? Seems that scary girl will snarl at me again, so I’ll pass, sorry.”

“Scary girl? There is no one of this description here. Next to me is only a cute girl from whom we seemingly can expect adorable contractions in her exhibited characteristics in the future. She even helped me out with cooking this morning, you know? Even if Hisame-chan snarls at you, please forgive it with a smile.”

“You’re pretty soft on her. Just like this omelette.”

I believed that Hisame-chan helping out with the cooking meant that she made this lightly charred omelette. Even while I replied with a sigh to Kaorun, I ate that omelette and smiled with “So good”, whereupon Hisame-chan lightly flushed her cheeks and jerkily pulled on the sleeve of Kaorun’s clothes.

“…Kaoru-sama, what should I do if Nanjou-sama asks me ‘Cook for me every morning’ now?”

“Please sink your teeth into his carotid artery with a smile then.”

“—I understand. I will do so and not stop until he cries.”

What a scary conversation. Moreover, Hisame-chan’s eyes were serious. I looked at Hijiri next to me for help, but she looked somewhat sleepy and when she noticed my gaze, she seemed to get the wrong idea, as she smiled sweetly and dropped her gaze onto the fish.

“Should I take out the bones for you?”

“—After that I’ll feed it to you mouth-by-mouth. I wuv you, Shinobu-kun <3”

Must have been her usual joke. Kaorun interjected with an imitation of Hijiri. On the other hand, Hisame-chan inexpressively rocked her eyes upon hearing that, as she was innocent after all, and quickly averted her eyes from us.

“…I will keep my eyes shut, so please do not mind me and enjoy yourself to your heart’s content.”

“Nah, not really working if you say it with a red face like that. Anyway, stop it, Kaorun. We have a little girl present here.”

“I, I am not little!”

I might have stepped on a landmine. Hisame-chan unusually exposed emotions and shouted at me with a glare.

“Sure, it may appear small at times! But they will grow bigger from now on! They will be all bouncy! Just wait, they will definitely become as big as Kaoru-sama’s!”

While shouting, Hisame-chan dropped her gaze onto her own chest and made a rather bitter expression. Looking at her humble chest, I cheered her on with

“Don’t lose hope” in my heart, whereupon Kaorun fiercely glared at me for some reason.

“Shinobu-sama, what is up with these eyes saying ’The developing type isn’t bad either. Let’s do it the Hikari Genji way. Nibble me all you want, my green fruit’. I will not forgive you if you lay hands on Hisame-chan. If you want to lay hands on someone, please make it me. Or rather, why are you not laying hands on me!”

“Hisame-chan sure’s fond of you. Even though you’re a full throttle perverted maid just like right now.”

“Kaoru-sama is not a perverted maid!” As I ended up stepping on another landmine, Hisame-chan temporarily stopped her words, then continued with a louder voice.

“---Kaoru-sama is a horny bitch!”

“Even worse! What’s wrong with you! Even Kaorun’s crying now!”

When I inadvertently retorted at full power, even the sleepy Hijiri widened her eyes and Kaorun had indeed teary eyes, but Hisame-chan tilted her head puzzled.

“I previously heard on TV that a horny bitch is an incredible woman, who is popular with men, though… Could it be, that is wrong?”

For her own sake, I should properly tell her now without brushing it off. I told her the meaning of the word horny bitch with a gentle tone, but as soon as she heard it, she became totally crestfallen… and things got a bit awkward. Kaorun petted her head to console her. Being glared at by Hisame-chan again, I made an heartfelt apology, then brought up a subject to Kaorun to change the atmosphere.

“A- Anyway, where’s Shuu-kun? I haven’t seen him today yet.”

“He is… currently living in a park now, I guess?”

“Why’s he suddenly homeless! Don’t tell me you chased him out?”

“I would not do something so cold-hearted. I was joking about the park. This morning he left with lowered shoulders saying ‘I lost the DVD I borrowed from my friend. Ah, but it’s not a S&M DVD or anything! There’s no dominatrix appearing or so, so rest assured! But to make up for the DVD, I have to work as a butler at the house of my friend for a while’.” …Oh my god. I had a clue about the DVD Shuu-kun mentioned. The day before yesterday, when we infiltrated the Gogyou Mansion, Kaorun should have seized a S&M DVD from the fainted Shuu-kun. While recalling this sad memory, I faced Kaorun wearily. “You haven’t given that DVD back to him yet?”

“Ah, no, there are unavoidable and painful circumstances to it. I will tell you all about it, so uhm… please do not get angry, okay?”, after empathizing on that part, Kaorun started talking with a sigh. About the reason why she couldn’t return the DVD to Shuu-kun…

* * *

It happened yesterday at dusk. When I heard that my beloved Shinobu-sama would stay over at our house, I went in high spirits to the Nanjou house with the car. Next I explained the circumstances to everyone in the Nanjou Household with a smile, so that I could borrow some change of clothes for Shinobu-sama. Incidentally, everyone was incredible depressed upon hearing it and while I feel terrible sorry about it, that is not important now. After giving my regards to Luna-san and the others, I secretly infiltrated Shinobu-sama’s room. Since I was already there, I should go home after I got a hit off my favourite smell. I rested my cheek on my favourite pillow from Shinobu-sama and after forgetting about the time for a while, I took out a DVD from my pocket. It was the light S&M DVD that Shuu-kun was holding onto last night. I did not remember raising my little brother into a S&M lover, but I was glad that I secretly brought it with me then. I should place this under Shinobu-sama’s bed now. I was certain that Shinobu-sama would give me the usual sweet abuse and then smile at me with “There‘s no help for you.“ without doubt when noticing my prank. As a matter I fact, I happened to love that smile to no end. While imagining Shinobu-sama’s smile, I quickly tried to hide the DVD under his bed, but it seems my delusions took too much of my attention, as I did not notice her presence. The door suddenly opened and Luna-san showed up. I thought my delicate heart would stop beating. Well, Luna-san widened her eyes as well, but suddenly a certain premonition swept over my mind and I called out to Luna-san rebuking. “Seems you are natural erotic after all. Making use of Shinobu-sama’s absence, you planned to do perverted things on his bed, correct? I cannot approve of that.”

“W- Wh- Wha- What are you saying, Kaoru-san! Sure, I am lonely without Shinobu-san! But I only wanted to lay down a bit on his bed! Anyway, what are YOU doing here…” with that, Luna-san blushed flustered, but as soon as she looked down onto my hands, she turned bright red this time. “K- Kaoru-san, did you… find that beneath Shinobu-san’s bed?”

“…Want to see it?”

“No, I should not wilfully take a--- wait, S&M!?”

It was a bad habit of mine. Her flustered appearance was just so cute that I ended up teasing her. Slowly standing up, I showed her the cover of the DVD, whereupon Luna-san coloured herself surprised here and there, but she would surely forgive me if I apologized and cleared up the misunderstanding later on. So I proudly cracked a joke at once.

“Luna-san, each person has it’s own tendencies or tastes. Even if Shinobu-sama is fascinated by S&M, please treat him like you always have. That said, I could gladly offer him my assistance in his S&M plays at any time and any place.”

“Even I--- will gladly participate in the S&M play!”

“A- An unexpected opposition!?” That was beyond my expectation. However I could not back down. If this girl with the soothing aura at maximum, would even dominate the abnormal parts… then my character would fade into the background. Cladding myself in composure, I called out to her persuading. “Luna-san, please think about it carefully. It is S&M, you know? Dominatrix and all, you know? Is that not too much for a soothing character like yourself? Please leave that kind of field to me and pleasure Shinobu-sama in a different way.”

“Th- That will not do! I also want to satisfy Shinobu-san with the best method and make him smile at me! Even I can be a dominatrix! Please watch me!”

S- Seemingly Luna-san could become as bold as Hijiri-chan when it comes to Shinobu-san. Pretty much like putting up something like a glass mask, she slowly closed her eyes and whispered numerous times “…I am a Dominatrix.”. When she slowly opened her eyes again, her usual gentle emerald green eyes showed a clear sadist colour and she looked at me with them.

“---Kaoru, I want to see that DVD. Hand it over.”

“Y- You just called me casually? Even though you are always kind and polite? H- Huh? You are Luna-san, right? Could it be that you are angry?”

“Shut up, Kaoru. Less talking, more moving your hands. Give me that DVD.”

“Ah, no, what can I say, it might come a bit late, but this DVD actually belongs to Shuu-kun…”

“---Kaoru, do not make me repeat myself.”

“M- My deepest apologies! Please forgive me! I present you this DVD, Queen Luna!”

My body would not stop trembling. As a matter of fact, I did not enjoy to be chastised unless it was done by Shinobu-sama. Forgetting to clear up the misunderstanding in my fear, I ended up offering her the DVD, whereupon Queen Luna smiled at me peacefully, as she apparently finally return to being herself. “Thank you, Kaoru-san. I will get Tomoe-san to teach me how to watch this DVD right away. I will give my best at studying it, so that I can please Shinobu-san once he comes back.”

“Uhm, permit me to remark, it seems you are already rather familiar with S&M…”

“---What did you say, Kaoru-san?”

“Nothing. Please give your best at studying. I wish you the best of success.”

Fleetingly sadistic eyes. In front of these eyes, I could not say anything. In that moment I vowed in my heart to never again play a weird prank on Queen Luna. But even though I brought this on by myself… I did something really outrageous, did I not? I had no idea how to make it up to Shinobu-sama and Shuu-kun. Shamefully getting close to tears, I thought while I laid down once more on Shinobu-sama’s pillow to forget this painful reality, that I should repay Shinobu-sama with my own body.

* * *

“---That is what happened and thus, Luna-san is currently studying about S&M.”

As she was remembering yesterday’s happenings, Kaorun smiled awkwardly even while shivering a bit.

“Shinobu-sama, Luna-san’s S&M play awaits you on your return. Good for you.”

“…So this will be your last words.”

Swinging my fist with a joke, I asked “Any other last words?”, whereupon Kaorun smiled uneasily with “T- Teheporo?” and I kneaded her cheeks in a non-serious mood.

“Ahh! Please stop, Shinobu-sama! I was really paralysed by fear and could not say anything! I will do anything to make up for it, so please forgive me--- wait, why is Hisame-chan biting onto Shinobu-sama after this story now? That is out of sorts!”

Yeah, I wished she would stop. While I was in the middle of working on Kaorun’s cheek, Hisame-chan suddenly attacked me. Hearing Kaorun’s warning, she reluctantly stopped biting me, but she glared at me with eyes that were saying “I will bite you again if you tease Kaoru-sama”.

…What was up with her? Just how much did she love Kaorun? To seek help again, I looked at Hijiri next to me, but as she probably lacked sleep, Hijiri had been rather quiet for a while now, because she was dozing off on a rare occasion. As she usually had her act together, seeing her so off-guard was incredible heart-warming. While I smiled faintly, Kaorun slowly got closer to Hijiri and softly called out to her by placing her hand on her head.

“Hijiri-chan, instead of forcing yourself to stay awake, why not take a little rest in your room?”

“Ah, but Shinobu-kun specially came over…”

“He will not leave so easily. Besides, you cannot play with him sufficiently in your state, can you? I will properly wake you up at noon, so please get a bit of rest. They say that everything comes to those who wait and sleep. Please look forward to the noon. I will guarantee you that there will be something wonderful.”

Contrary to her extremely kind tone, Kaorun made a suspicious face like she was hatching a plot, but Hijiri didn’t notice that and left the living room with faltering steps, leaving behind the words “Thank you, Kaoru-san. I’ll go sleep for a bit then”.

After watching Hijiri leave like that, Kaorun giggled and shifted her gaze back to me.

“Hijiri-chan must have been really happy that you came over, Shinobu-sama. It seems she could not fall asleep from the excitement while she thought about various things in her room to please you.”

“…I barely got any sleep last night either. Because you wouldn’t let go off me.”

“We indeed played quite a lot. But you did not let go off me in the bed either. You were fast asleep, so I carried you to the bed, but you suddenly kicked up and forcefully hugged onto me… Ah, I am joking, you know? Stop it, Hisame-chan.”

Hisame-chan had quickly taken a pose for another bite attack. While stopping her and petting her head, Kaorun returned her gaze to me and declared by showing a bright smile.

“I will properly thank you as well for taking care of me before. Please look forward to this noon. Especially after lunch, something wonderful will be waiting for you. Though if you cannot wait that long, I would not mind giving you a kiss right here and now.”

“…Hisame-chan would bite me again, so no thanks.”

But speaking of a thanks from Kaorun… I could only feel anxious about it, as rude as it might be. I should be especially careful after lunch. Let along looking forward to it, I decided to wait a bit warily for the noon…

…I might have let my guard down since it was still before lunch. The Dojo of the Gogyou Mansion lit up by the bright sunrays. In the middle of it, Hijiri was hung up beautiful. Moreover, in just her underwear. Both her hands tied up above her head, the rope that restricted her was attached to a hook on the ceiling and Hijiri was standing partly on her toes. Also, since she was in her underwear, I could see her deep cleavage of her voluminous fruits clad in a black brassiere and even her slender waist, beautiful thighs and black panties were in plain view. Undoubtedly because of this situation, Hijiri had flushed her smooth cheeks…

Not good. This wasn’t the time to get fascinated. I quickly averted my gaze and looked at the nearby Kaorun.

“…Hey, what’s this? Is that the thanks you mentioned?”

“Shinobu-sama, the real thing will come after lunch. This is some light special training.”

First time I heard about the light part, but Kaorun had told me about some special training before lunch. I thought for sure that it would be some exorcist training, so I went from the living room to the dojo together with Kaorun… only to find Hijiri hung up here like this. I really had let my guard down. Moreover, this was a light. What was waiting for me after lunch then? When I broke out a cold sweat, Kaorun plainly started to explain the special training, indifferent to my worries.

“As you may know, Shinobu-sama, Hijiri-chan is an exorcist. Her profession is to seal or exorcise devils. As such, exorcist often incur their enmity and sometimes end up being caught by devils on a failed mission. Rather scary, would you not agree?”

“…You’re the scary one. What are you doing to Hijiri?”

“I also had great difficulty in doing it. When caught by a devil, the exorcist gets tortured for information--- That is what Mama Misaki speculated before.”

“I’m not the least bit envious about this kind of imagination.”

“However, Mama Misaki mentioned that it does actually happen. It would be devastating if Hijiri-chan were to get tortured by devils while she is still pure. I believe it would be better to train her mentality against torture while she still can.”

“…Wouldn’t it be better if we train you a purer mentality?” This too probably was part of Kaorun’s repayment. And I admitted that in a way it certainly was a situation that attracted a boy’s heart. However, I had no confidence to accept this overly bold good will and retorted half wearily, but Kaorun wasn’t affected at all and threw a glance at Hijiri. “Well then, Hijiri-chan. Shinobu-sama will torture you now. Please think of it as special training. I am sure you are happy about it, but please do not forget to act opposing, okay?”

“Uhm, I was already tied up when I woke up… but will this really please Shinobu-kun?”

“…Arguably, you might be the one getting pleased, Hijiri-chan.”

Smiling roguish, Kaorun returned her gaze to me just like that.

“Shinobu-sama, this is for the sake of Hijiri-chan’s special training. I am sure it must be hard for you, but please steel your heart as much as possible and play the villain role. Well, it should suffice if you behave like always.”

“What do you mean by that? Stop taking me for a brute. To begin with, I’m a gentleman. You think someone as tender as powder snow like me would do that to a girl that can’t resist?”

“…Incidentally, if you insist on refusing to help out on the special training, I will hang you up from the ceiling just like Hijiri-chan and conduct the service called torture myself.”

“Actually, it has always been my dream to torture a captive beauty.”

Even while telling such an obvious lie, I still couldn’t bring myself to torture her. I should release Hijiri behind Kaorun’s back. I gallantly went over to Hijiri.

Upon that, Hijiri, in her underwear, faced her eyes filled with a rather complex expression of shame, yet a bit of anticipation for the torture, at me while her arms were still tied up above her head, saying “Shinobu-kun…”.

“—I got aroused. The school idol Hijiri was exposing herself so defenceless in front of me. All the other boys at school must be envious of me. I could do whatever I wanted now to the body of that idol. First I should remove the brassiere to release the constrained breasts.”

“Hey, Perverted Maid. Stop making up dirty monologues for me.”

When I turned around at the same time I gave that reprimand, Kaorun held a rope, wherever she got it when I wasn’t looking, in both her hands like a whip and declared with a smile.

“Shinobu-sama, you will not be able to untie Hijiri-chan so easily. Should you show any strange behaviour, I will gently tie you up right away too. I would like to confirm if you are S or M on this occasion anyway. Because it would allow me to please you in various ways in the future.”

If possible, I would like to keep it at the thought alone. Neither did I want to torture, nor get tied up.

…For now I should pretend to torture Hijiri. Since it was Kaorun, she surely would then join in with her usually perverted Maid tendencies at full power and get distracting by sexually harassing Hijiri. I would use that chance to constrain Kaorun instead, then release Hijiri. Afterwards Kaorun would get a small lecture.

Nodding firmly in my heart, I returned my gaze to Hijiri and changed my tone for the act.

“Kukuku, finally got my hands on an exorcist girl. What should I do with you?”

“…Please be gentle.”

An exorcist that didn’t resist from the very beginning was questionable. Hijiri rocked her eyes with still red cheeks. Since she was usually dignified, this expression was a bit brisk. Moreover, on a closer second look, her defenceless underwear pose with both her arms raised was incredible erotic.

The thick rope extended from Hijiri’s ankles straight up to the hook on the ceiling. Due to that, she was robbed of her freedom in her arms. If I wanted to, I could do any— wait, not good. Hang in there, my reasoning. While strongly keeping my act together, I softly placed my hand against Hijiri’s cheek and said with a soft tone.

“Hijiri, tell me right away when I’m going too far. I’ll properly stop then.”

“Okay, as long as you’re gentle… it’s fine.”

When Hijiri dampened her eyes somewhat, her cheek got hotter and I slowly moved my hand caressing to her neck even while I was a bit agitated.

“Ahn… It… tickles a bit…”

Hijiri leaked a rather sweet voice. In regards, I let my fingertips crawl down to her waist, avoiding her chest, but feeling her slender waist made me inadvertently widened my eyes.

…This was amazing. Even though it looked pretty firm, her skin was super soft, warm and extremely smooth. It might become dangerous if I kept touching it.

But I was doing it to deceive Kaorun. Mustering my reasoning, I let my fingertips go even lower, cautiously reaching out for Hijiri’s thighs, albeit hesitant.

“Ahh… Your hand… is really big… Mm…”

Like massaging her, I stroked her beautiful firm thigh, whereupon Hijiri gradually started to leak bewitching moans. I was sure that Kaorun would join in any moment now. I gave her a fleeting glance to check upon her, but… to my surprise, Kaorun remained composed.

“Shinobu-sama, that will not do as torture. Hijiri-chan would not get angry about it, so this much is nothing.” with these words, Kaorun swiftly got behind Hijiri and to show me how it’s done… she started to fondle Hijiri’s bottom.

“Yahn… K- Kaoru-san, suddenly going for my… Kyahn…”

“To explain it for you, Shinobu-sama, since you cannot see it, I am currently tightly grabbing Hijiri-chan’s juicy hips and lewdly fondling her bottom. Hijiri-chan must be sensible here. Every time I move my hands, her bottom trembles shivering.”

“Uah… Kaoru-san… Stop… Ahh…”

“This is also part of the special training, Hijiri-chan. Let us have Shinobu-sama take a look at this perverted bottom as well.”

Sweetly smiling, Kaorun grabbed Hijiri’s tied up ankles, placed her other hand on her shoulder and turned her around to me. Instantly my vision fell onto a beautiful bottom with soft buttocks. Probably due to Kaorun’s fondling, the black panties had wedged into her bottom. While my agitation grew more intense, Kaorun casually brought up.

“As the opportunity arises, why not touch her bottom without reservations too, Shinobu-sama?”

“Ah, no, I’m in the mood for boobs today.”

The words I spontaneously spilled to flinch from it, seemingly brought about the worst case scenario. Kaorun placed one hand on Hijiri’s back and tried to turn around Hijiri to the front again with the other hand.

However, her fingertips seemed to have gotten caught in the hook of the brassiere. The hook loosened while Hijiri was turned around and her voluminous breasts spilled out of the underwear jumping, bouncing around innocently like that.

Right away, Hijiri turned bright red and twisted her body upon noticing that.

“Aww, my breasts, so embarrassing…”

Since her hands were restricted by the rope, Hijiri could only shake her body to the left and right with red cheeks, even if she wanted to cover her chest. At the same time, her breasts bounced around again and the black brassiere slowly fell onto the floor of the dojo. This wasn’t good. I would feel bad for Hijiri if they weren’t covered quickly.

Her well-formed and voluminous breasts. As soon as I confirmed that their pinnacles were coloured in a light pink, I reached out my hands with attitude after a panic, and covered Hijiri’s breasts by pressing my palms on them. Problem solved. Perfect. Well done, if I may say so— As if.

“Hahn… Your hand… on my… Nhah…”

“C- Colour me surprised. It happened as an accident, but you are grabbing her breasts as soon as you see them? You are rather wild today, Shinobu-sama.”

“…Naw“ with that, I inadvertently resorted to the Kansai dialect in my agitation. However, it was understandable. After the sexy underwear and bottom, I was even shown her breasts as a finishing blow. Even my reasoning was about to be blown away.

Amidst that, Kaoru suddenly got behind me and whispered into my ear.

“Shinobu-sama, you are still holding onto her breasts, so please fondle them just like that.”

“No, no. That’s certainly going too far.”

“It still falls under training. Besides, Hijiri-chan said ‘I think I wouldn’t mind if Shinobu-kun were to get aggressive with me’ before, so she should not be all that opposed to it.”

C- Certainly, Hijiri had tightly closed her eyes in shame, but her expression showed no signs of repugnance. Was she really not opposed to it?

My reasoning crumbled more and more. On top of that, even though I had wanted to restrain her, Kaorun had gotten behind me instead. Now it would prove difficult to achieve the initial goal. But when I eventually tried to take my hands off Hijiri’s breasts,

“You sure are shy, Shinobu-sama. Let me lend you a hand. This is out of my gratitude as well.”

She might have tried to be nice, but as soon as Kaorun whispered into my ear again, she pressed her beautiful breasts against my back and next she let her palms overlap with my hands, blocking my own movements.

This might resemble the situation a bit where we played the King’s game with Luna and the other in the karaoke box during my date with Hijiri before. Back then, Kaorun had blocked my movements like this too and I had ended up fondling Hijiri’s breasts over her clothes.

If I recalled correctly, Hijiri hadn’t been angry then either, but it was different now. Hijiri was tied up and couldn’t move. She only wore her panties. Regardless of that predicament, Kaorun fondled her breasts through my palms, whereupon

“Nhaaah. Shinobu-kun, if you do that, Ahhn.”

The firm sensation of the pinks buds I felt on my palms. The peaks of her breasts were directly touching my hands. Moreover, Kaorun was gently laying a finger on them through my palms and fondling her breasts, so Hijiri’s seductive voice became louder.

“Ahhhhn, not there, Sto… Haahn.”

When Kaorun took away the hands from the breasts a bit, the light pink buds of each breast boldly perked up to say that they wanted more.

“Noo, so embarrassing, no mor… Ah, Ahh, Yaaahn!”

Unable to finish her protest, a bewitching soprano voice resounded midway. Making a hollow back, Hijiri shivered her body and made a seductive rough breathing. But Kaorun still didn’t stop.

“Stop alrea… Ahhh, Nhaaah.”

Every time Kaorun moved her hands, Hijiri shook her head in denial and shivered her body greatly again.

“Uhn… Really, no more… Please stop… Shinobu-kun…”

…Eh? Me? Not Kaorun?

Hijiri raised a bittersweet voice. Suddenly returning to my senses, I took a closer look, whereupon Hijiri had erotically flushed her cheeks, but the tears that had dwelled up in her eyes seemed to overflow any moment.

Confused from the shame in addition to the blurry vision from the tears, Hijiri maybe mistook me for the initiator of all these continuous sexual harassing actions.

I, I too was at fault for not stopping Kaorun. Recovering my reasoning, I wanted to reprimand Kaorun right away, but when I turned my head around, she continued the sexual harassment in a spellbound state like she had forgotten about the initial purpose for this. With no time for me to stop her,

“Nhaah, no, no. Again, I, Ah, Ahh, Yaaaahn.”

Bending her back even more than before, Hijiri shivered her body convulsive.

“…Shinobu-kun, so mean… Even though… I told you… to stop…”

Mumbling so fragile, she started crying of all things by spilling big tears and now Kaorun must have regained her senses too. Swiftly getting away from my back, she nervously looked around confused… then broke out a cold sweat and made a thump up.

“R- Rest assured, Shinobu-sama. I believe Hijiri-chan is the type to spill tears when overcome with emotions. It is proof that she felt good. These are loving tears.”

“…Stupid… Kaoru-san…” with that Hijiri spilled even more tears, as Kaorun had hit bulls-eye, and I, completely agitated, shouted towards Kaorun right away.

“S- So, ehm, well— Untie the rope, Kaorun!”

“—Screech!”

Maybe she was even more muddled than me. She raised a high-pitched voice like a shocker fighter and went over to Hijiri, albeit a bit stumbling. She apparently noticed something upon seeing her and shifted her gaze back towards me, saying with a shrill voice.

“Sh- Shinobu-sama, excuse me, but could I have you leave? I never expected Hijiri-chan to be this sensetiv— *cough* Forget that. Please leave this to me and kill some time outside the dojo. I will get her changed— No, it is nothing.”

Kaorun hid Hijiri’s body by spreading her arms covering. From her flustered actions and words, I could guess various things, but I felt sorry for Hijiri, so I decided to not think about it too deeply.

After that, I obeyed Kaorun’s request and immediately left the dojo behind me, standing awkwardly in the broad garden of the Gogyou Mansion without anything in particular to do. During that, Kaorun went back and forth between the dojo and the mansion to probably get a new set of clothes, but I remained standing still in the garden.

…Would Hijiri forgive me if I apologized? When I waited for a while worried, the door of the dojo opened and Hijiri in casual clothes came out, as she finished changing clothes. For starters I took a deep breath. Facing Hijiri, I called out to her reluctant.

“Hijiri, that earlier… wait, huh? Hijiri? Hijiri-san?”

St- Strange. This never happened before. Hijiri looked away sullen and passed by me wordless. She must be angry after all. Anyone would be offended after something like that. But I wanted to somehow cheer her up.

I sincerely called out to her without the slightest hint of a joke in my tone.

“Hijiri, I’m really sorry about earlier. Even though you raised such a loud voice, shook your hips so fiercely and shivered your body numerous times, I… Mh?”

W- Why? Regardless of my sincere apology, Hijiri flinched her shoulders every time she heard my words of “loud voice”, “shook your hips fiercely” and “shivered your body”. When she turned around, she had turn bright red and on top of that, she was glaring at me with teary eyes.

“…To hell with you. I hate you, Shinobu-kun.”

O- Ohh? H- Huh? Somehow, something hot dwelled up in my eyes.

Let alone a joke, I couldn’t say anything at all. While I stood there dumbfounded, Hijiri once again looked away sullen and went away. At that moment, Kaorun came out of the dojo with a gesture of wiping away sweat from her forehead, as she probably cleaned up the dojo, and widened her eyes as soon as she saw my face.

“Sh- Shinobu-sama? What is the matter? You look like you are about to cry any moment?”

“…Shinomun’s going home now.”

“Regressing into a child!? Just what happened!? Did Hijiri-chan say anything to you?”

“You see, she said ‘I hate you, Shinobu-kun’.”

“Im- Impossible!?”

After gaping her eyes wide open this time, Kaorun rested her hand on my shoulder and said reassuring.

“Rest assured, Shinobu-sama. I will go talk to Hijiri-chan now. I am sure she will cheer up in no time, so please do not cry anymore, okay? I am here for you.”

When I told her my frank impression “…That worries me” without any flourish, forget about getting angry, Kaorun lightly kissed my cheek with “Mm, *kiss*” to apparently comfort me.

“Shinobu-sama, please wait in the living room. I will bring Hijiri-chan there right away.”

Turning on her heels with these words, Kaorun swiftly rushed away. So reliable. For now I should leave things to her. I headed for the living room of the Gogyou Mansion… wiping away my dwelled up tears.

—Hijiri and I were in a relationship of supporting each other. I had a strong bond called trust with her. So she would surely forgive whatever I do.

That thought of mine might have been somewhat naïve.

Lunch time in the Gogyou Household. A heavy atmosphere lay over the broad living room, Koarun and I leaked a sigh at times, which prompted Hisame-chan to look at us. Her inexpressive face filled a tiny bit with worry and she mumbled isolated by looking up to the ceiling, probably the direction of Hijiri’s room.

“…Hijiri-sama sure is not coming down.”

“Not really surprising, Hisame-chan. After all she said ‘I hate you, Kaoru-san’…”

Unfortunately Kaorun had come back earlier without any success. Tearing up a bit, she gave Hisame-chan an agreeable response and dropped her shoulders just like that.

“My apologies, Shinobu-sama. I had planned to make you happy in the form of some special training. Besides, Hijiri-chan had mentioned before that she would not mind if her beloved person would get aggressive with her, so I thought she would like it as well…”

Temporarily stopping her words, Kaorun interjected another sigh.

“The gentle way would have been better in the beginning. I really guessed wrong… Tehepero.”

“First time I heard such a sad ’Tehepero’.”

“That happens when it does not go like planned. I knew that Hijiri-chan is sensitive, but your hand must have felt extremely pleasant. As far as I know, two times at least from just her breasts, she… *cough*”

“Two times what? She felt like killing me?”

“Please do not joke about it when you already know it.”

It was more of a self-torture than a joke. Tempted by her, I too sighed and Hisame-chan tilted her head with “Two times from just her breasts?”, but Kaorun apparently hadn’t the leisure to heed it and just shrugged her shoulders.

“Well, in other words, if she had felt good to a certain level, it would have ended with ‘Shinobu-kun you pervert’, but she was forcefully made to feel incredible good instead of the gentle approach she desired, which probably was a shock to her, so Hijiri-chan ended up in the ‘To hell with Shinobu-kun’ state.”

“…The ‘to hell’ part was a shock for me too.”

“Earlier when I explained it to her, she also told me ‘I hate you’… Uhh, I simply wanted to make her happy. Yet it ended up making you cry and Hijiri-chan shut herself into her room… I am a failure as your maid and Hijiri-chan’s older sister.”

“You aren’t the only one at fault. Stop prostrating yourself. Please never do that. Listen, it’s true that you started it. However, I didn’t try to stop you for real either. To my shame I have to admit that I got swept away and couldn’t stop. So you aren’t at fault alone.”

That said, if my reasoning had more tenacious, the situation could have been avoided. But there was no use crying over spilt milk. Staying depressed wasn’t good either. Kaorun still looked closed to tears, so I rested my hand on her head this time.

“Kaoru, instead of grieving, we should think about what to do from now on.”

“How kind of you, Shinobu-sama. Especially the part where you casually call me without any honorific is the best. And to think that I caused you troubles instead of thanking you, I want to die a bit… but you have a point. Let us come up with a way to cheer up Hijiri-chan together now. However, just how…”

Kaorun dampened her eyes from being impressed, but shook her head troubled, whereupon

“—Kaoru-sama, please leave this to me.”

Hisame-chan had listened in to our conversation. She calmly interjected.

“I have an idea in mind. I heard it yesterday from the Mistress, when I helped her to pack her things…”

As she wanted to help Kaorun, Hisame-chan started to talk with serious eyes. However, I felt a strange unrest before even hearing her out and only got a bad feeling about it, as rude as it may be.

…Just like I predicted, something bad occurred after a couple of minutes.

After being made to cross-dress by Kaorun, I was now wearing maid clothes and a cat-ear hairband on my head. I stood in front of the door to Hijiri’s room in that outfit while a sexy cat and an inexpressive kitten at both my sides were meowing at each other.

Apparently having found it in Misaki-san’s room, Kaorun was wearing a separated tiger-pattern outfit while showing off her navel, and was also equipped with a chocker, a cat-ear hairband and even with cat paws and a tail, all together in a tiger-pattern.

On the other hand, Hisame-chan wore a black one-piece outfit. Her cat paws, tail and hairband were black too. Her silver hair looked attractive over the black outfit and as she was happy to be in the guise of a cat, she looked somewhat satisfied.

However, how did it come to this?

According to Hisame-chan: “The Mistress told me that these outfits are the most suited to cheer up a depressed person. I am certain that if we happily play around in these in front of Hijiri-sama’s room, then her interest will be piqued and she will come out of her room right away.”.

And according to Kaorun: “If that is the case, then let us show Shinobu-sama in a maid outfit with cat-ears and Hisame-chan in a kitten outfit to Hijiri-chan. That should cheer her up a bit.” or something like that.

Well, odds are that it works, but… what was up with this abnormal atmosphere? Would this really work? I couldn’t cast off my worries.

Kaorun and Hisame-chan had been quite into it for a while now. Kaorun snuggled up her slender body to my arm, raising bewitching meowing like seducing me. But without biting me out of jealously from seeing that, Hisame-chan was in a good mood, as she liked cats after all. She kept talking to us cattish the whole time. Needless to say, I had no clue what she was saying.

However, I would feel bad for ignoring her, so I should play along for a bit. Somehow keeping the worry in my heart to myself, I replied with a dandy “Meow” purr by making a thumps-up while ignoring Kaorun, who started to lick my ear without a word. For a while I laid-back tried to converse with Hisame-chan in cat language.

Upon that, Hisame-chan cheerfully sparkled up her inexpressive look in the middle of the conversation for some reason and surprisingly clung to me with an animated “Meow!” purr. I seriously didn’t get it, but I got the feeling that I unexpectedly got closer to her. I suddenly felt a small satisfaction, a little bit of happiness. The faint smile on my face— vanished at once in the next moment.

“Wh- What are you doing in front of my room?”

In a way, our plan worked. However, the timing for it was just too bad. Hijiri peeked out from her room. As soon as she saw our situation, she darted her eyes about and Kaorun hastily removed her lips from my ear, whereas only Hisame-chan might have considered the plan to be a success.

Still clinging to me, she smiled somewhat faintly and faced Hijiri.

“Would you like to join us, Hijiri-sama? It is really enjoyable— this cat play.”

“C- Cat play!? That’s what you were doing in front of my room!?”

“Yes. The Mistress taught me about it. It was more exciting than excepted. Nanjou-sama, who looks really great in maid clothes, told me ‘You’re really cute’ just now.”

…For the record, I had only spoken out “Meows”. But Hisame-chan lightly flushed her cheeks for whatever kind of conversation was unfolding inside her head, and continued.

“I myself was surprised too by being told that so suddenly, so I asked ‘Do you really mean it? I wonder if I will ever be able to become like Kaoru-sama’. Then Nanjou-sama gave me a cool reply with ‘A toast to your big breasts’. He is the first person to recognize my chest as big.”

“Sh- Shinobu-kun said that… He only met you yesterday, but calls you cute, huh. I have known him for a while, yet he only ever tells me that I’m dignified…”

Hijiri let her hand that held the doorknob tremble a bit with a doubtful smile. In regards, Hisame-chan shifted her gaze onto Hijiri’s voluminous breasts and made a bombshell announcement by opening her mouth with “Speaking of,”.

“Nanjou-sama’s remark about breasts made me remember what Kaoru-sama said in the living room earlier. Apparently Nanjou-sama’s hands felt so good that something happened two times to you just from your breasts, correct? Just what was it? Does is stand in any relation to getting bigger breasts?”

The atmosphere froze in an instant with the innocent question. Even I was completely at a loss for words and Kaorun pitifully rocked her eyes. Giving her a sharp glare, Hijiri let her voice tremble now while filling her eyes with tears.

“Kaoru-san, don’t tell me you told them that I… from Shinobu-kun’s hands?”

“…..Te- Tehepero?”

The first time I saw such a pitiful “Tehepero”. She must have eagerly tried to change the atmosphere by cracking a joke with teary eyes. When I was moved to tears by Kaorun’s heroic attempt—- Hijiri wordlessly slammed the door shut and an awkward silence spread at once.

…Everything might be over. Kaorun and I slumped down on the spot together and even Hisame-chan, apparently feeling responsible, got teary eyes.

To repeat myself, it was no use crying over spilt milk. The question was what to do from now on. After Kaorun, Hisame-chan and I finished changing clothes, we gathered in front of Hijiri’s room once more and were on stand-by there to be ready whenever Hijiri would come out, holding a strategy meeting.

Well then, what should we do from now on? Kaorun and Hisame-chan had sit down in front of the door. For starters I wanted to hear their opinion, so I threw my glance at them.

“Ehm, if you got any ideas, please do tell.”

“Here! How about we draw Hijiri-sama’s attention with the cat play once more?”

As she wanted to regain her prestige, Hisame-chan raised her hand with a snap. Even while resting her hand gently on her head with “Hisame-chan”, Kaorun replied with a sigh.

“I am afraid the cats were hardly effective. Hijiri-chan is a dog lover.”

“I, I do not think I will be able to get friendlier with Hijiri-sama then! What is so good about dogs? They make scary faces and often bite me!”

“…You also make scary faces and often bite me.”

Shrugging my shoulders, I gave a weak retort, whereupon Kaorun now raised her hand reserved.

“Shinobu-sama, I would like to confirm something. Do you remember the night before yesterday?”

“I couldn‘t forget, even if I wanted to. After all I infiltrated the Gogyou Mansion together with you.”

“No, not that. I mean afterwards from our return from the park after the infiltration.”

“…I’ll probably remember it forever.”

“Uhm, if you blush like that, I will get embarrassed too, but Luna-san showed up at the crucial time after I declared my love for you on the bed, remember?”

“I want to forget that. Also, Hisame-chan’s getting ready to bite me again.”

However the fact that she didn’t actually bite me could mean that she grew a bit attached to me. I should praise her with some flattery like “Your breasts sure are big” next time. When such thoughts crossed my mind, Kaorun changed her expression into a somewhat serious one, as she intended to get to the real issue at hand.

“Shinobu-sama, I talked to her until dawn together with Elni-san afterwards, but Luna-san remained with teary eyes the whole time. She gave off the sulking impression of ‘Shinobu-san will not spend time with me, even though it is winter vacation. I wanted to talk with him about novels, but he is getting closer to Kaoru-san instead’.”

“I just hope she won’t unload her frustration into S&M plays.”

“I apologize for the case with Shuu-kun’s DVD. More importantly, what did you do for Luna-san? She was so angry before, yet when I saw her again, she smiled with ‘Shinobu-san spoke with me‘. I do not know what you told her, but I believe that Hijiri-chan will also cheer up when you do the same for her as with Luna-san.”

“…I didn’t do anything. I simply said ‘Morning’.”

I spilled a long sigh from my mouth at the same time I dropped my shoulders.

“It seems, for Luna it’s more of a ‘left out of the loop’ feeling instead of jealousy. Strangely enough she often competes with Hijiri, but when it comes to Elni, Machina or you, she fixes her mood rather quickly.”

“How old is that story? The other day, Luna-san was rather competitive with me as well, you know? Please close your eyes for a bit and recall any previous incidents.”

When I closed my eyes like told by Kaorun, only Luna’s smiling face floated in my head for some reason.

“…Damn. I feel like going home now.”

“Just how much do you love Luna-san!?”

“No, I didn’t mean it like that. Somehow when I close my eyes like this, I’m reminded about all the things I left undone at home. Cleaning together with Luna, playing video games with Machina and Nazuna, going on a walk with Luna, getting back the novel that my mother took from me, treating Elni to dinner, taking Luna to…”

…Oh damn. Between everyone else’ faces, Luna showed up incessant.

Feeling bashful, I scratched my cheek, whereupon Hisame-chan rocked her eyes a bit from hearing my story and interjected somewhat envious.

“It appears you have a wonderful family, Nanjou-sama, so you must have become homesick.”

“…You got a wonderful family too. So you should understand my feeling. Just like you feel lonely for not seeing Kaorun, I— wait, I was partly joking, so don’t bite me.”

Still, homesick, huh. If so, then it was rather embarrassing. Hisame-chan got unusually red and tried to attack me. Kaorun held her down on her shoulders. While watching these two,

“But well, it’s not really like I’m homesick, but look at this situation. It might be better for me to go home if I’m only causing trouble for Hijiri…”

Filling my words with a layer of sadness, I put on a bitter smile, whereupon… suddenly the door opened, as she might have listened in near the door, and Hijiri jumped out into the hallway. For some reason she had teary eyes, reached out her hands and grabbed my arm. Then she half-forcefully pulled me to a stand and tried to drag me into her room wordlessly.

However, not only was this unusual for Hijiri, it also came out of nowhere. Due to my great bewilderment, I stumbled as soon as I entered the room and since I was being pulled on my arm by Hijiri, I made one rotation on the spot. Absorbing the fall, I fell onto the floor face-up.

As a result, I ended up pulling Hijiri down with me… To make matters worse, Hijiri was in a posture of hanging over me.

This might be yet another bad development. I got a bit worried, but… apparently it was a needless anxiety. Hijiri must have heard our conversation after all.

“Shinobu-kun… don’t… go home…”

Tightly clinging to me, Hijiri trembled her body a little bit.

“I’m sorry for saying mean things when you took the trouble to come over. I’m no longer angry and will do anything to make up for it… So please don’t leave yet.”

“…If you say so, then I’ll intrude on you a bit longer. But I was at fault, so there’s no need for you to make up for it.”

“That’s not true. I took your and Kaoru-san’s benevolence for granted… and became a meanie…”

Kaorun must have been considerate. While the door quietly shut, Hijiri dampened her dignified eyes and cracked her voice a bit.

“Even though I knew that everything was Kaoru-san’s doing at the dojo, I never thought I would leak such a shameless voice and wondered if you would take me for a perverted girl, so in a weird anger from the embarrassment and shock, I…”

After being at a loss for words for a bit, Hijiri exerted a pleasant strength onto my squeezed arm.

“I thought that no matter how much I sulk or how cold I get, Kaoru-san and you would forgive it. That you won’t come to hate me, nor leave me. So I took your benevolence for granted somewhere in the corner of my heart. But it even made you think that you should better leave…”

“You don’t need to apologize anymore, okay?”

Softly cutting into her words, I showed a smile and continued.

“Sure, a lot happened and I’m exhausted, but… I noticed something pleasant.”

Somehow my chest filled with warmth from the inside and my voice naturally became softer.

“Actually, I’m the same as you. I’m also thinking that you would forgive anything I do and thus took your benevolence for granted too. So please let me apologize as well. Now I’ll do anything for you to forgive me.”

“…Then… I want you to forgive me. I want you to stay here a bit longer.”

“You sure are easy to please.”

Before I noticed it, I was smiling again. Her all too trivial wish. When I replied to it smiling with a nod, Hijiri flushed her cheeks happily while filling her eyes with tears, and showed me a bright smile.

A smile like a brilliant flower. Even while I was captivated by that smile, a thought crossed one part of my mind.

In the future I might end up in a fight with Hijiri due to some incident.

But even if we had a disagreement or quarrelled, in the end we would smile at each other like today. I got this kind of premonition. Besides, I came to know that Hijiri took my benevolence for granted, like I did for hers. Most likely I would continue to depend on Hijiri from now on.

—In any case, the problem was solved. After accepting Hijiri’s hug for a while, we left the room together. At that time, Hijiri softly took my hand. Lightly returning the squeeze on that small and warm hand, I headed to Kaorun and Hisame-chan together with her…

* * *

To be honest, it was quite regrettable.

Yesterday I properly reconciled with Hijiri by solving one problem, but a new problem already started to arise. Of course I wasn’t discontent with my stay at the Gogyou Mansion. If anything, I absolutely welcomed it. It wouldn’t be all too bad to live here forever.

I spent yesterday’s day happily together with the three girls after making up with Hijiri.

Well, I panicked in the evening when Kaorun smiling barged into the bath by saying “I forgot about the service after dinner.”, but the Gogyou Mansion had a dojo, a wide bath and two maids on top of that. I couldn’t ask for more.

Still, as pathetic as it was, I apparently was currently… homesick.

It was probably triggered by the DVD I got from Kaorun. Probably because I talked about Luna and the others in front of Hijiri’s room during our fight, Kaorun must have been considerate to me without doubt. She apparently had shown up at my house in the morning with a video camera in one hand.

“I secretly got everyone in the Nanjou Household on camera while I was out on a stroll. I too wanted to capture everyone‘s cheerful appearance on film, but… I am really sorry for having you stay over here. Next time we will hold a bloomers day too, so please forgive me with that.“

With a strange apology like that, she presented me a DVD recorded by herself, but I ended up getting a bit homesick from watching it.

The living room of the Gogyou Mansion was bathed in the evening sun. After confirming that the room was empty, I sat down in front of the TV and set up the DVD. I should watch it one last time before returning it to Kaorun. With that decision, I shifted my gaze to the TV screen, whereupon Kaorun’s self-recorded DVD started playing already.

Starting with the front gate of our house, the scene moved on to our garden and then the living room. During that, I could see my happy family members. Except for my mother, the girls were all… wearing bloomers for some reason.

Since my foolish mother was filming the girls with a video camera too, she must have been behind this without doubt. But why would they have a bloomers day just when I was out of the house? Was it to spite me? Or my punishment for missing the great house cleaning?

I started to miss my family. Everyone looked so happy in the DVD. Machina’s full bottom was clad in dark blue bloomers. While openly shaking it to the sides, she immersed herself in the cleaning by wiping the table with humming.

Next up, Elni, wearing gym clothes on her slender body, was wiping the windows with all her might and made a peace sign with “I’ll clean Shinobu’s part too!”, as she noticed Kaorun’s shooting midway.

As for my little sister Nazuna… she was purring meows like always. She would make a good friend for Hisame-chan. And amongst all these girls, just Luna was completely and utterly brazen.

For some reason she was wearing bloomers and a gym clothes that didn’t fit her.

They were obviously one size too small. It was clearly luscious. Her full breasts pushed up her top to show off their ample elasticity and not only seemed her voluminous breasts to burst out any moment, her small navel was in plain view as well.

But that wasn’t all. Luna’s bloomers were red. As they were too small, they were wedged into her beautiful bottom… revealing her sweet hips without any sign of underwear. Dressed like that, the Luna on the DVD seemed to talk with my mother, who kept filming.

“T- Tomoe-san! Please stop filming! It is embarrassing! Sure, I am at fault for losing at rock-paper-scissors, but the size really does not fit. It is tight around my chest for a while now and it is strangely wedging into my bottom…”

“—And since you do not want your underwear to be seen, you did not put any on!”

“Indeed. They would be visible for sure— wait, I think I heard Kaoru-san’s voice just now?”

“Just your imagination. I do not run with the wind.”

“Eh? Are you there, Kaoru-san? You heard her too, Tomoe-san?”

“Luna-chan, Kaoru-chan has been secretly filming everyone for a while now. She probably intends to show it to Shinobu.”

Nothing less from my mother. She noticed Kaorun, even though she should have erased her presence.

However, Luna flushed her red cheeks even more, probably from the worry of being filmed, and was still bothered about her wedged bloomers. She sometimes slipped her slender fingers into the bloomers that were wedging into her bottom and fixed the gulf… This peeping-shot DVD was dangerous after all.

I just couldn’t help but feel guilty and it was unlikely I could watch it to the end. That said, it was a fact that I got swept away by it midway. It would be one thing if I were in own room to concede, but watching such a DVD in the living room of the Gogyou Mansion could cause various problems to—

“Ehm, Luna-san sure is bold. I can understand why Kaoru-san was surprised…”

A problem…already emerged. Suddenly a voice came from behind me. I must have been distracted by the DVD. When I turned around with a flinch of my shoulders, there stood Hijiri in the living room. While I felt awkward and kept silent, Hijiri lightly flushed her cheeks and lowered her head a bit.

“Sorry, Shinobu-kun. Seems I interrupted you…”

From that apology just now I understood. Hijiri must be the type of woman that doesn’t get angry even if she should find a porn book in a man’s room. While stopping the DVD, I made a sigh of relief.

“I’m glad it’s you, who caught me. If it had been Kaorun… wait, speaking of, where’s Kaorun? I haven’t seen here for a while…”

“Kaoru-san said ‘Prospectively we have no other choice but to live together with Luna-san and the others. We cannot have Shinobu-sama get homesick.’ and went out to a certain place. I think she’ll be back soon.”

“I, I’m not really homesick or anything… And what’s that certain place?”

“Fufu, still a secret. I’ll tell you about it before long.”

For some reason evading the question with a smile, Hijiri sat down besides me and softly started talking.

“Shinobu-kun, since you’re here and all, is there anything you want me to do for you?”

“—A book. Gimme a book. As long as I have books, I can live on.”

“Mhm~ I guess in your case, you don’t need just books, but Luna-san as well?”

“Oh, quite rare for you to crack such a joke.”

“…I was somewhat serious. You were thinking about Luna-san yesterday as well, right?”

Even while showing a somewhat roguish smile, Hijiri got back on topic with “Anyway” right away.

“I think Kaoru-san has books in her room. But you sure love books, huh.”

“Though I’m often called an egghead Yakuza or that it doesn’t suit my image.”

“S- Sorry. I was surprised at first too. Of course it’s different now, you hear? You look fantastic while reading too. I guess you loved books from an early age?”

Receiving her casual question, I narrowed my eyes with “Let me think…” and recalled my childhood.

“I started reading around the time when Nazuna came to like cats.”

“…How is that related to reading?”

“Well, it’s embarrassing, since the reason kinda comes from a sister complex.”

While remembering the past, I continued with a wry smile.

“Back then Nazuna wanted to know a lot about cats, since she fell in love with them. She asked me a lot of things and because I wanted to answer the questions of my little sister, I read it up in books and told her. Then she sparkled up her eyes with ’You’re amazing, Brother’… That made me happy.”

Just from being called amazing, I had gotten happy like a fool.

“Nazuna is a kind of genius. It might look like she’s bad at studying, but she got an incredible memory. She can do anything if she gets a bit serious. She even got a knack for martial arts. Compared to her, I’m not really smart, have no talent for martial arts and can’t do anything…”

While peacefully talking about the past, a thought crossed my mind. That I must be able to talk about my weak points so openly precisely because it was Hijiri.

“I’m unable to do anything big brother-wise the normal way. So I wanted to at least study various things and teach it to her— But that’s just a farce and I was actually simply scared.”

“Why were you scared?”

It might be thanks to Hijiri’s warm agreeable response. My words came out without any hesitation.

“I was worried Nazuna would abandon me one day, since I couldn’t do anything as her brother. I thought she would come to hate my weak self like the guys at my gramps’ dojo, so I got scared and well, how can I say it…”

While calmly playing with the words, I slowly looked up to the ceiling of the living room.

“I wanted to become a big brother that Nazuna would stay together with forever.”

I spoke out the feeling that hadn’t changed since then.

“Because Nazuna kept calling me ‘Brother’, as weak as I was. I read and studied various books, so that I could be proud as an older brother. With time that became fun… and before I noticed it, reading had become my hobby.”

Finishing my slightly embarrassing, yet important tale, I lightly shrugged my shoulders.

“Quite the sister complex, isn’t it? It’s embarrassing, so don’t—”

Taking my gaze off the ceiling, I was about to continue with “tell anyone”, but I inadvertently stopped my words.

I felt a soft sensation on my cheek. Lips as sweet as flower petals. It was a short kiss from Hijiri. While my thoughts stopped from the sudden kiss, Hijiri embraced me with somewhat wet eyes.

“Sorry, Shinobu-kun. I couldn’t hold myself back.”

Entwining her arms around my back, she let her voice overflow with warmth.

“You’re a fine big brother, Shinobu-kun. I know now how much you love Nazuna-chan. You’re amazing. You’ve worked so hard. To make Nazuna-chan stay by your side, you’ve always given your best and even now, just like with Nazuna-chan, you’re giving your best for Luna-san.”

Gently increasing the strength of her hug,

“You returned to your granfather’s dojo for Luna-san’s sake, right? You were too weak to do anything, suffered from being compared to Nazuna-chan, yet you didn’t give in and have worked hard the whole time and thought of her. Therefore…”

In her lightly trembling voice was a semblance of hesitation. But,

“I think it’s fine to tell Luna-san your feelings now.”

Her words were filled with a painful kindness.

“It’ll be fine, Shinobu-kun. You’ll be able to stay with Luna-san forever, you’ll even be able to protect her. As you are right now, I’m sure you can pull that off.”

“…I’m still a bit unconfident.”

I got stronger than before. And I came to like myself. But even now a bit of worry and hesitation remained inside me. To push my back,

“Have you forgotten already?”

Like softly dispelling my worries,

“We’re supporting each others, right? I’m with you. Of course not just me. Kaoru-san, Machina, Elni, everyone’s with you.”

Hijiri spun her words with the same kindness from before.

“You protected us, supported us. So we want to protect you too and properly support you for your love.”

She slowly released me from her embrace, but enveloped my hand with hers.

“You don’t have to take everything on by yourself anymore. You can rely on us. If anything happens, we too will protect Luna-san. I’m still in training, but Kaoru-san, Elni and Machina are quite amazing. You should be able to do anything when you’re with everyone.”

Hijiri looked straight at me with her usual dignified and beautiful eyes.

“So isn’t it about time you take a step forward?”

The warmth from her hands slowly dissolved the worry and hesitation in my chest. Hijiri was really warm. It irritated me how I could only reply a “Thanks” to her, but even so, Hijiri flushed her cheeks in a light red and smiled happily.

“This is payback for yesterday. I’m just like Kaoru-san. I want to make you happy too. So I’ll act accordingly today. I think it’ll be any moment now…”

To substantiate her premonition, a noise suddenly resounded from the front door. Hearing that, Hijiri took my hand with “Seems they’re here” and stood up, showing a somewhat sad smile.

“To tell the truth, my parents are coming back today. They called in earlier. So I asked Kaoru-san to bring Luna-san and the others over. I’m sure you’ll see them when you go to the front door. Now your homesickness will be cured.”

Smiling with a rare joke, Hijiri let go off my hand somewhat regrettable and searching in the pocket of her skirt… she pulled out a single key with a dog key holder.

“It’s a duplicate key to our house. I’m giving it to you. With that you don’t need to borrow the key from Kaoru-san like the night before yesterday anymore. Please come to me if anything’s up. Please rely on me. I’ll definitely help you. I told you before, but… I’ll always be on your side.”

“Well, but accepting that would be rather—”

The sentence I started naturally stopped from seeing Hijiri’s smile.

It was okay to depend on Hijiri. I could rely on her. Besides, she wanted me to do so. My chest gradually filled with warmth and I properly accepted the key from Hijiri with emotional words.

“I want you to have a key to our house too, so I’ll give you one next time. I believe I’ll keep relying on you. So you too… come to me anytime.”

“Yeah… Let’s work hard together…”

Faintly blurring her eyes, but walking brilliantly like always, she lined up next to me.

“That’s all from me. Hurry up and go see Luna-san.”

With a soft tone, Hijiri softly pushed my back without hesitation.

—I felt like making a step forward. A kind warmth on my back. The warm-hearted person that supported me. Taking one step by still being pushed on the back by her, I headed out towards Luna…

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