Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai:Teaser1

When I came home from school, my younger sister was in the middle of talking on the phone in the living room.

My sister’s name is Kirino Kousaka. Currently, she’s 14 years old and a student at the local middle school.

Her hair’s dyed light brown, both her ears are pierced, and her grown-out nails have been polished and manicured. She has an attractive enough face even without makeup, but she applies it with great care nevertheless. She exudes such a mature atmosphere that she doesn’t even seem like a middle schooler. She’s tall and slender, but she still has curves in the right places---

As it was, I’m sure that if she could sing well, she could easily become a pop idol admired by all the girls.

I’m not just saying all this because we’re family. In any case, my younger sister is really quite refined.

But I don’t intend to show off my sister as some great source of pride, not at all. It’s just my friends often express their jealousy, and it’s not like I can’t understand their feelings; however, it really makes me want to say “Give me a break” or something.

If you’re someone who has a little sister, then I think you’ll sympathize with what I’m feeling a bit.

Little sisters, they’re really not as great as they’re made out to be. Or at least, that’s how I feel.

For example, picture this. In your class at school, there are probably a number of groups of friends who hang together, right?

Out of all of them, try to pick out a group that stands out the most. Like say, the athletic stars, or the cool and prodigious guys, or the especially cute girls, the groups of people who naturally gather and take center stage.

Even within such a group, if you go one step further, then there’s the girl who’s refined.

Hesitating to speak out and acting as if what’s going on has absolutely nothing to do with her, she’s basically someone living in her own little world. The so-called “elevated girl”. As long as he’s not being picky about appearances, I think the average guy would probably find that type unappealing. I know that’s true for me at least.

So just try imagining having that very girl in your family. Of course, I’m saying to leave the emotional divide intact.

…So what do you think? Do you understand my discomfort at all? There’s nothing good about that, right?

“I’m back.”

Following common courtesy, I tried calling out to her with the usual greeting, but not only was there no response, she didn’t even look my way.

Wearing her school sailor uniform, Kirino was completely absorbed in her cell phone as she sat firmly on the sofa in her super short skirt with her legs crossed, occasionally laughing here and there at something apparently amusing.

Her smile was certainly cute of course, but it was very likely she’d never look at me with such a face.

“Eh~? You’re kidding, right? What the heck. Kyahaha, how ridiculous!”

Ahh, the me who had actually tried calling out to someone like you was just being an idiot.

Cursing mentally, I opened up the fridge. Grabbing a carton of barley tea and pouring it into a glass, I drained it in one go. After exhaling with a ‘phew’ and returning to my senses, I left the kitchen behind.

“Yeah, mm-hm…Got it. So then, I’ll get going right after I get changed, ‘kay---“

It’s already evening, so just where could she be going out to play now, I wonder.

Ah whatever, it’s got nothing to do with me anyway. Muttering mentally to myself, I climbed up the staircase.

My name is Kyousuke Kousaka. I’m seventeen and I attend the local high school.

This is just my own opinion, but I’m a completely normal high school boy. I don’t participate in any clubs, and I don’t have any particularly note-worthy hobbies. Well, I at least follow the trends in popular music, and yeah, I do read manga and novels and so on, but it’s not like I’m so into them that I’d call them hobbies.

After school, I pretty much just hang out around town chatting with my friends, read manga at home, or watch television.

Sometimes, well…I’ll even study occasionally.

All in all, that’s basically what a regular high schooler is like, right? It might be true that such a life is safe and uneventful, but the whole being ‘normal’ thing is of some importance, or at least it is to me.

Being normal means keeping your surroundings and pacing in order, basically living while keeping your feet on the ground.

And then by ‘safe’, I’m talking about taking relatively few risks.

Fortunately, my grades aren’t too bad right now. If things keep going well like this, I think I should be able to get into a relatively good university. After that though, I wonder what I should do about the future---That’ll be something to seriously consider while I’m enjoying my four years of campus life.

For now, it’s probably the ones who are aiming for jobs you can’t obtain through the same means who will have to worry. Chasing a dream---I guess it sounds nice enough in theory. But it definitely doesn’t fit the “normal” label. It’s full of risks after all, and if you actually do make a mistake, it’s definitely not safe. At the very least, it’s not something I would do.

Well, in any case, I’ve already forgotten my childhood dreams and such a long time ago, but…If I really had to answer, it would go something like this. To be extremely ordinary, without standing out, without causing any problems, just living a peaceful and easy-going life, that would be my dream I guess.

Our residence is a two-storied separated house. Our family consists of my sister and me, plus both our parents for a total of four members.

Nothing really makes us out of the ordinary; we’re just a relatively well-to-do, commonplace sort of household.

My room and my sister’s room are both on the second floor. After I had changed into street clothes and relaxed long enough, I went downstairs. That’s because I thought that before I started studying, I should take a preemptive bathroom break. Incidentally, as soon as you go down the staircase, the door to the living room is on the left side.

So then---

“Oh.”

As soon as I went down the stairs, I ran into my sister who was heading towards the front door in her street clothes. The thing is, from where each of us were coming, we were each in the other’s blind spot, so minor run-ins in this area were actually quite common.

Bump. My left shoulder collided with Kirino’s chest in a minor impact. The shock of the actual collision itself wasn’t much, but it happened to knock the bag out of my sister’s hands, and the contents spilled out onto the floor.

“Ah…”

“Oh, sorry.”

I weakly apologized and was just about to reach my hand out towards the various make-up accessories that had scattered onto the floor, but…

Smack. Having guessed my intentions, Kirino had pushed my hand aside with the palm of her hand.

“Don’t.”

Wide-eyed, I was speechless as she directed a sharp glare at me.

These were the words that came from my sister’s lips.

“…It’s fine, so don’t touch anything.”

Saying that and nothing more, she collected the numerous items that had scattered out of her bag by herself.

It seems like she must really hate her older brother quite a lot.

As she continued moving her hands expressionlessly, I just watched over her without saying a word.

“…”

There was an unpleasant atmosphere hanging over the entrance hall.

Turning her back on me, my sister quickly put on her heeled shoes,

“…I’m going.”

She muttered it reluctantly like she was just fulfilling a tiresome obligation, and then ‘bam’, with considerable force, she shut the door behind her.

…And so just how it looks, that’s how things are between my sister and I.

It’s not like there’s even any anger between us.

But, we hardly seem like brother and sister anymore.

If she was just some classmate who had done the same thing, I would have thought ‘Ahh, so she’s someone like that’ and simply given up and left her alone.

If you want to laugh at this good-for-nothing elder brother, go right ahead. I don’t care at all.

Well, even if I don’t speak at all with my sister, it’s not like it’s going to cause a problem in my life after all.

“…Geez, I wonder when things took such a bad turn?”

I’m sure there was a time when that girl wasn’t like that.

Whatever, whatever. It kind of bugged me, but oh well. Time to do what I originally set out to do.

After using the toilet and washing my hands, I dove onto the sofa in the living room. Picking up a weekly magazine that had been left lying around, I crossed my legs while in a face up position.

Ah, wait, didn’t I say that I was going to start studying right afterwards?

Lying down, I just flipped through the illustrations of some battle manga, but the entire time, I kept getting this nagging feeling. My sensibility was telling me “This isn’t the time to be messing around like this”, but my fierce weariness continued to prevail.

Ahh---Man oh man. I really don’t want to study.

This tiredness was probably a common affliction for all students I bet.

Shaking my head back and forth like a dog drenched in water, I got to my feet.

When I opened the door and entered the hallway, I found something unusual there.

“…Hm?”

It had fallen in the corner of the entrance hall, on the other side of the shoe rack. I hadn’t noticed earlier, but in the slight gap between the shoe rack and the wall, something white and thin---Something like a case was sticking part way out.

Reaching out to that object was probably a form of escapism. Constantly thinking, I don’t want to study, I really don’t want to, my brain must have been looking for some sort of pretext.

Picking up this thing really should have bought me a few seconds of distraction at most.

However, based on the results, that wasn’t quite the case. Thanks to this thing, I ended up putting off studying for a little while longer after all.

When I looked at this thing that I had pulled out from behind the shoe rack,

“…What is this?”

I ended up asking aloud in confusion. That’s because I couldn’t help but wonder what something that seemed so out of place in our house was actually doing here.

This is…Umm…This is…What is this?

Grasping the case between my fingertips, I gave it a scrutinizing once over, but it wasn’t all that clear to me as to what it really was.

It’s a DVD case. That much I’m sure of. It’s just like all the other cases I’d seen plenty of times before at the video rental place…And actually, the letters DVD were clearly written on it too. However, I couldn’t quite understand its contents.

My expression at the time must have appeared full of doubt.

On the outside of the package, an illustration of a girl with incredibly large eyes had been conspicuously drawn.

She was a cute-looking girl, apparently in the later years of elementary school.

“Huh, her eyes and hair are pink.”

I calmly murmured. I looked at it like a detective analyzing a piece of evidence.

Perhaps it was some sort of color scheme, because no matter where on the package I looked, there was a good deal of white and pink.

Ah well, I didn’t care about that anyway. The problem was,

“What the heck is this brat wearing?”

This little girl had on a rather provocative outfit. Maybe it was a swimsuit or maybe they were bandages, but whatever the case, her appearance made me want to yell “Put on some real clothes, you!”. Seemingly stemming off from those bandage-like clothes were these rocket booster type things, and the girl was leaving behind a trail of stardust (They looked like this-->☆) as she flew through the sky.

And another thing, she was wielding this ridiculously large mechanized staff (or was it a spear?) effortlessly in one hand.

It looked vicious, like something Housen Ryofu might wield. Definitely meant for combat. Crushing the enemy or obliterating them, all signs pointed towards its extremely horrific application.

It was rather unsettling.

So next---

On the upper part of the packaging, what I supposed must be the title was printed in rounded letters.

“Star---dust, Witch…Meru, ru? First print…Limited edition…? What is all this?”

It sounded rather extravagent, but basically, it must be an anime of some sort. Possibly. I stopped watching that sort of stuff a long time ago, so I can’t really be sure.

“Then…What’s something like this doing here?”

It happened while I had a question mark on my head. As I was holding the [Stardust ☆ Witch Meruru] or whatever it was called in both hands and standing around in the entrance hall, the front door flew open suddenly with a forceful ‘Bang!’ right in front of my face.

“I’m home---Hey, what’s wrong Kyousuke? Why’re you in the entrance hall sitting in the fetal position?”

“Don’t mind me, Mom. Just looking for a change of scenery.”

That was dangerous, wasn’t it---?! That would have been mortifying!

But, it wasn’t a problem. The moment the door opened, I had managed to hide that thing immediately.

Fuh…That was really cutting it close.

I don’t know who did it, but it was probably some sort of a trap meant to mess with me. If I was caught holding holding something like this, I bet I’d be subjected to all sorts of criticism by my family.

If that were to happen, I could just picture Kirino looking at me like I’m a piece of trash.

My mother, who was carrying a shopping bag, looked down at me with pity as I remained in that weird pose.

“…Just now, I heard from the missus next door, you know? Apparently, psychological counseling for students is quite popular right now.”

“W, wait…Don’t be hasty, I’ve still got it together. It’s just…That’s right, I just studied a little too much today.”

“You’re lying. There’s no way you would’ve studied so much that you’d get stressed like this, right?”

How could a mother say something so harsh? Show some confidence in your own child at least, sheesh.

“Hey, that’s not true. You should know right, that my grades aren’t so bad?”

“But, that’s only thanks to Manami-chan’s help. Getting tutored by your great childhood friend, how can you act proud like you really accomplished something? You wouldn’t have studied or done any of the rest of that on your own, right?”

“D-…”

Because she was so on the mark, I couldn’t say anything back. Even until just five minues ago, I had been reading manga after all.

Crawling on the floor like an inchworm and keeping the [Stardust☆Witch Meruru] hidden beneath my clothes, I took my leave. As I left, I heard my mother call out to me from behind.

“Kyousuke? It’s not that I mind, but could you please not bring any pornographic books out to the entrance hall?”

Incredible. That my mother had been able to strike that close to the mark based on my slight eccentricity, I just had to think, how expected of her. Her history of deciding on her own to clean my room and finding every single bit of my treasured collection wasn’t just for show.

But right now, the thing I was hiding near my stomach was, in a certain sense, something I needed to be even more careful about being found out.

I carefully made my way past my mother looking like a rugby player firmly gripping the ball, and then I quickly climbed the stairs. Leaping into my room and closing the door, I finally let out a breath.

“Phew…”

Taking the thing out from under my shirt, I held it up in front of me with my right hand. With my left hand I wiped away my cold sweat.

Mission complete. This strange behavior was something I’d really gotten used to. I’m not going to go into details, but I’m sure the healthy middle/high school boys can understand what I’m talking about.

“…So I really brought it with me, huh.”

I muttered, looking at this [Stardust☆Witch Meruru] thing.

Well, in that situation, I don’t think it could have gone any other way. I had been deeply searching for any excuse to avoid studying, so this [Thing that shouldn’t possibly be here] had really gone and piqued my interest.

Ending today’s studies due to unavoidable circumstances, I decided to begin an immediate investigation of this thing.

My room is six tatami mats in size. There’s a desk next to a bed. There’s a bookshelf filled with reference books and manga. Then, there’s the closet and so on.

The carpet is yellowish green, and the curtains are blue. Though there was a Japanese-style calendar that my had gotten from the neighborhood association hanging on the wall, I didn’t have posters or anything else like that.

Besides that, I had a mini stereo at least, but I didn’t have anything like a computer or a television or a game system.

So what do you think, rather bland huh? As my personal doctrine, I try to live as “normal” as possible, and I think the room reflects it rather well.

By the way, I’ve pretty much given up on trying to hide the nudie magazines anymore, so they’re all in a cardboard box underneath my bed.

Well, I’ve told my mom “Please don’t clean underneath my bed (<--Got down and begged)”…There was really no telling if she would honor the request, and even if she was checking up on my collection’s updates every day, it’s not like I had any way of knowing that either…

Argh, it’s unthinkable! My ego can’t handle it!

Trying to play it safe as possible, I need to set up as much protection as possible so that on the off chance that someone checks, I can at least avoid having to endure a family conference.

...Uhh, now that I think about it though, where exactly am I supposed to hide anything in this barren room of mine?

I looked around seriously, but I couldn't come up with any plan that wasn't full of holes. As someone who didn't even feel the need to lock his room, I guess you could say I was quite the carefree guy.

Several seconds passed in real time as such thoughts continued through my head.

Sitting down on my bed, I crossed my legs. I held the DVD case in one hand, and going "Hm", I held my chin with the other.

"The more I look at it, the more this box seems out of place in our house..."

The Stardust*witch's smile glimmered beneath the shine of the fluorescent lights. With the way she held that tough-looking implement of destruction so readily with a smile, I couldn't help but think it was a quite unsettling.

"Hmm~."

Huh...Really, whose is this?

I considered each of the members living within the Kousaka household in turn...But, as I thought, something like [Stardust*Witch Meruru] didn't seem to fit with any of them.

Of course, I don't recall ever seeing this anime being shown in our family's living room.

(At this point in time, I didn't consider that you could play DVDs on your computer.)

Hu~h...What the heck? What is this? Why is this thing even here?

As I continued to speculate, the case happened to open with a clack.

"Bfwha...?!"

I was suddenly shocked further, even moreso than when I first laid eyes on the front cover art.

As it turns out, what was in the case wasn't [Stardust*Witch Meruru]. Instead, there was a different DVD.

...It's not like it's uncommon. Like after listening to a CD or something, I'd often think it's too much trouble to put it back in its proper case, and the discs would end up shuffled together.

And so, not knowing which CD is in which case, it would be a mess.

Perhaps whoever this belonged to also experienced such laziness and simply placed the wrong DVD into [Stardust*Witch Merurur]'s case just because.

Mm, mm, I understand. It happens all the time.

But---It's just...Uh...?

Why is the title of this DVD [In Love with Sister]? Just [who] and [what] are you trying to instigate, huh?

And, what's with this provocative [R18] label?

"...Calm down...?!"

I felt a cold sweat on my forehead and my breathing was arrhythmic.

This is bad. Really, really bad. As for exactly what was so bad, refer back to the encounter with my mother earlier.

If I get caught with this, I'll be a dead man. Could this really be a trap someone laid for me?

I'm not even so sure about what it is I have in my hands, but my instincts were telling me this was very, very bad. What a poisonous aura this title was exuding...! Even without the 18+ label, the title alone was hint enough! No matter how I looked at it, this was something I really shouldn't have in my possession...!

"Kyousuke---Are you studying properly in there~?"

"Eeeeek?!"

While letting out a death cry, I covered myself in my blanket.

As soon as I looked over to my door, my mother came barging in with nary a knock to stare with amazement at her son's disgraceful behavior.

"...Sorry, did I, catch you at a bad time...?"

"Don't think too much of it, mom. I was just practicing my vocalizations.---Anyway, please knock from now on, if you don't mind."

"Yeah, sorry. I'll be sure to remember next time."

Speaking with a forced smile that said she wasn't fooled, my mom closed the door.

Crap...It's good that I was able to hide it in time, but I'm almost positive my mom misunderstood...Damn.

...Man, today has been horrible...And it's all thanks to this thing.

Still covered by my blanket, I stared at the odd DVD case.

"Goddamnit..."

At this rate, I just wouldn't be able to calm myself until I found the owner of this thing, by any means necessary.

I was burning with passionate determination.

...But, there was still way too much that I didn't know.

Like for example, pretty much anything about the owner of this weird DVD. Except for the fact that they put a DVD with such a clearly suspicious title as [In Love with Sister] in a DVD case for [Stardust*Witch Meruru].

So by my basic reasoning, the owner is someone who would have both [Stardust*Witch Meruru] and [In Love with Sister], right?

And since it was found dropped behind the shoerack in my house, the probability that the owner is one of the four people of my household---me, my sister, my mom, or my dad---is quite high...

Of course, it's not like there aren't a number of other people who come to visit our house, so I couldn't just invalidate the [Outsider Criminal Theory] so easily either.

But then again...who would purposefully bring [In Love with Sister] inside of [Stardust*Witch Meruru] to my house and then drop it behind the shoerack? I just couldn't see how that would work.

"Mmm..."

Anyway. I'm pretty sure the [Outsider Criminal Theory] would be impossible to work with for the time being, so I decided to start with the closest suspects, the members of my family.

Me, my sister, my mom, and my dad...Let's consider that the [criminal] is one of us. Thinking about it objectively, who among us would be the most suspicious...? [Stardust*Witch Meruru]. And also, the item [In Love with Sister (18+)], who would be the most likely to bring these two things into our house...?

"As much as I hate to admit it, that would be me."

No no, no. Of course it's not me. That's exactly why I'm sitting here thinking so hard about who brought them into our house. This whole train of thought is actually making me depressed.

Anyway, it wasn't me. I'm not even interested in anime to begin with. Sure, there are even people in my class who talk about that sort of thing, but I don't really have much to do with them.

But in that case, if they were a member of my family, it would be the same, wouldn't it...?

That undeniable conclusion made me hold my head, troubled.

So anyway. First, I think I can cross my mom off the list, right? And Dad is horrible with electronics, so there's no way he could ever use a DVD player, plus I don't even want to consider a serious man like him watching cartoons with a fiendishly delighted face. Then there's my younger sister---She's probably the one I should have excluded first. Just five years prior, she might have still been interested in anime, but recently she's only been watching fashion dramas and music video programs.

So an anime DVD targeted at kids wasn't anywhere near what Kirino would be interested in.

I simply couldn't imagine her buying a[Stardust*Witch Meruru] DVD and then actually watching it. And as for [In Love with Sister], I bet she'd be too disgusted to even say the title aloud. So what were the chances of it being that very same Kirino? That modernish middle school girl? Just earlier today, I'm pretty sure she even left to go to a group mixer---.

"Haa...I give up. I really have no clue."

My train of logic had pretty much derailed. Well then, I had to assume the perpetrator wasn't someone from my household, but extending my list of possible suspects to outsiders, there were just way too many to go through.

This is impossible. Well, I never claimed to have the smarts for detective work, and it seems I really don't.

Hmmm, what now? Geez...this is such a headache, I guess I'll just have to quit for now.

Ah...but there's no way I can simply let this go. I have to find out who's responsible.

I found it quite odd myself, but I was feeling unusually motivated. Ordinarily, I'd ditch this investigation and take a nap until dinner. And, I'm sure that in that case, this tranquil life I've been living up until now would have continued on uninterrupted.

But, that wasn't the case. Because I was dead set on continuing with this investigation. Of course, there was no way I could know at that moment in time that, for better or for worse, I had determined my fate by my own hand in one fell swoop.

Or that, as a result, I would be stepping onto a super-sized landmine.

Dinner at our house starts at around 7pm. That's because Dad always gets home at around that time. If you weren't at the dining room table when that time rolled around, you didn't eat, period.

It was currently 6:45 pm. Coming out of my room with my head out of whack, I started walking downstairs. But then I stopped midway. Down below, I spotted Kirino near the front entrance.

...Oh, so she's just coming home, huh.

That's right, Kirino's curfew was 6:30. Never mind whether she was early or late, it seemed she was trying to keep it at least. Well, regardless of how much like a high schooler she looked, she was still a middle schooler for now.

By the way, right now Kirino was wearing a black and white striped t-shirt with something like black shorts and a skirt combined. I don't know much about these things, but it seemed to be Cecile--or some sort of brand like that. If she were introduced as a fashion model, I don't think anyone would doubt it.

...She's quite the cute one.

But this girl who happens to be my sister is not someone I really want to approach.

I'm just saying, she really seems to hate my guts, so it's better for both of us if we keep some distance between us. Though I'll admit it's tiresome, I'm not saying that we should cut all familial ties.

We'll simply have to reach some sort of compromise.

---Well, that said, I waited on the staircase for Kirino to head for the dinner table.

"...Hm?"

But, for some reason I felt something was odd about her. Even though the living room is straight ahead once you open the door, Kirino was just standing there spacing out in the entranceway.

...What in the world is she doing?

It'd be idiotic to just stand there watching her, so I descended the rest of the way.

Standing in front of the living room door, I placed a hand on the knob.

"..."

For some reason, I just slightly turned my head.

"...Hey. What're you up to?"

"...Huh?"

Such a harsh stare.

...Damn. I knew it'd turn out like this, so would did I even bother trying to talk with her...

Is it because I'm an idiot?

"Tch, none of your business."

Chastised, I forcefully turned the knob.

At the table, dinner was curry and miso soup. The family all present and accounted for, the room in which we were eating had all partitions removed to make space so we could use it as an all-in-one living room/kitchen/dining room.

My sister and I were seated side by side, and my mom and dad were sitting on the opposite side.

The news caster on the television was reading off what sort of things were being exported overseas and current news headlines.

Dad was quietly drinking his soup. Because he was casually dressed as he usually was when he'd just gotten out of the bath, he seemed like a mobster complete with menacing atmosphere. Really though, it was quite the opposite as he was actually a police officer.

On the other hand, sitting next to him, my mother was chewing on some pickled vegetables. Even from a glance, she gave off the impression of a middle-aged housewife. There was absolutely no resemblance between her and Kirino.

My younger sister was silent. She's basically the most unsocial one of the family. When I look at her eating her rice in silence, I can't help but think she looks just like Dad. I guess it's the sharp eyes that does it.

By the way, I'm often told that I exude the same atmosphere as my mother.

With all of us gathered around the dinner table, we had a nice, normal family atmosphere going on.

Carefully eating my curry, I waited for a chance to introduce my [strategy].

Of course, it was a plan to find out who was the owner of that DVD.

...Though I called it a plan, it wasn't much of one. It was just a simple straight-forward sort of thing.

Basically, since I hadn't been able to figure it out using pure reasoning, I thought I'd try throwing out some bait while all my suspects were in one place. And, a chance for that was right now.

After slurping down my clam miso soup, I simply asked of no one in particular.

"Once I'm done eating, I think I'll go to the convenience store. Is there anything else I should get while I'm there?"

"Hmm, well then, if you would, get the new product from Haagen-Dazs please. That seasonal variety, y'know?"

"Mm, got it."

After nonchalantly cutting off any further conversation from my mom, I continued along.

"Ah, you know. It seems that recently, my friends have looking forward to this girl-oriented anime. Uhh, what was it called, Stardust something or other, I think it was."

"What~, what's this all of a sudden?"

The first to react to my lure was my mom. It couldn't be, could it...?

"Uhm, nothing really, just that I heard that it was interesting and stuff. I thought it wouldn't hurt to try watching it some time."

"Oh my no, that sort of bunch, they're what people call otaku, right? Like those people they show on tv...you mustn't become like that, okay? Tell him, dear."

Roped into the discussion by my mom, Dad replied flatly with barely any noticeable change in his expression.

"Yeah. You really shouldn't fall into a bad crowd."

Hmm, as I thought, he would see it that way, huh. I don't think you should call something bad when you don't have any familiarity with the subject, but yeah, it doesn't have all that great of an impression, generally. I don't really have a problem with people having their hobbies. But then again, that might be because I just don't care either way.

Anyway, it would just be a hassle if I tried to change my parents' minds, so I just went with an unassuming "Ehh~" response. And so, it looked like Mom was in the clear. She didn't bat an eye at anything I said.

It was a chat without any pretenses. Actually, I should have excluded Dad from the start. As if someone who doesn't even know how to use it would be in possession of a DVD.

So then...With those exclusions...the only one left is...?

I carefully glanced over at Kirino who was seated beside me.

"..."

Kirino was biting her lip. Perhaps she was concentrating rather hard or something, as the ends of her chopsticks were shaking just a bit...Eh? W, wait, then...?

"...Kirino?"

Mom, who noticed her odd condition, called out lightly when,

"...I'm done."

With a clatter, Kirino stood up in irritation then quickly exited the room.

She closed the door behind her with a loud bang. Thud thud thud, the sound came as she stomped up the stairs.

The rest of us were shocked.

"...I wonder what happened...something troubling her maybe?"

"Uh, hm...who knows."

I responded ambiguously to my mother's question. Honestly, I couldn't understand her either, after all.

...Did something set her off? That girl...Something about what was going on must have upset her. If by chance Kirino was the [Culprit], then the way she reacted was all the more strange.

Ordinarily, she wouldn't have made such an obvious outburst or anything else that might show her faults to me. So what exactly happened? I really don't get you at all, Kirino.

"...Haa..."

But...Kirino was definitely acting different than usual...It must be a reaction to my provocation...seemed to be the logical conclusion.

Of course, I couldn't confirm it with just this, but something was definitely amiss...

So then, did that mean that the owner of the [Stardust*Witch Meruru] that I picked up in the entrance hall was...

my...younger sister?

"Kaa-san, call Kirino down for me later."

Dad's deep even voice reverberated along the dining table. Uh-oh, looks like he's mad. Well, not my problem.

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