Chapter 61

That day, Yui, who had returned home much later than usual, threw her bag into her room and, without changing her clothes, tiptoed to her sister's room.

Thinking she would return the favor, she slowly reached for the doorknob, but just before her hand touched it, the knob turned and the door opened with a loud click.

"Ah!"

"What are you looking at?"

Yui hesitated as Maki's face appeared.

"You're late today, what happened?"

"Well, a little. But you're always early, aren't you?"

"It's not just classes, you know, once you're in your third year of university."

While thinking this, Yui held out the fake glasses she had in her hand.

"I don't need these anymore."

"You get bored so quickly. I knew it wouldn't work out, though."

She was about to say, "Then why didn't you stop earlier, dummy?" but held back because that would mean admitting failure.

However, now that she was calm, she realized something was off yesterday and today.

Wearing glasses and acting smart! That's something even a elementary school kid would get tired of in five minutes.

"Kind of like when a power-type tries to use a materialization-type move. It's a waste of memory... or something like that."

"You're trying to sound cool, but you lost, didn't you?"

"Challenging someone on their own turf is the height of foolishness. I decided to focus on my strengths instead."

On her way home, she thought and re-evaluated her strengths. Considering her past performance, the things that had been effective. First, she bent her knees, lowered her hips, and then straightened her knees again.

"What's with that movement?"

"To get the strongest knees."

"That's not good. You can't resort to violence just because you're being pushed around."

Squats to strengthen her knees... in other words, a pillow for the knees. But this sister seemed to be misunderstanding something. Was she thinking of a flying knee kick or something?

"Normally, you'd use a straight punch in a boss battle."

"Stop it."

"Hey, do I... smell good?"

"What's with that sudden question? You don't smell any different, right?"

"You can't tell if someone is covering it up with perfume."

"You do smell a bit sweaty sometimes, especially when you're playing games."

She always responds with full force to such comments.

Saying someone smells during adolescence is a forbidden word, no matter how you think about it. So, Yui bent her arm and tapped her forearm, saying,

"Well, when it comes to girls, it's this."

"Arm wrestling?"

"No way."

When it comes to girls, it's cooking. And when it comes to cooking, it's bento.

"Returning to the basics, it all comes back to this. The origin and the peak, you might say."

"You finally realized you don't have much else, huh?"

"Ugh, not again! I won't make you bento anymore!"

Yui turned on her heel and stomped back to her room, but Maki quickly followed, touching her arm.

"Wait, wait. I know a lot of good things about you, Yui."

"Like what?"

Instead of answering, Maki grabbed her wrist from below.

"You're just going to say my butt, right?"

"I don't say 'butt,' but your way of saying it isn't good."

Yui already knew her tactics.

But hearing that, Yui tilted her head.

(Butt... buttocks... butt bento...? Buttocks? Sakura denbu? Sakura butt...? Is that what you mean...?)

She had an epiphany. It was nothing.

The next morning, Yui arrived at school later than usual, which was rare. When she pulled out her chair, she glanced at Yui, who was supposed to have been wearing glasses all day, but there was no sign of them. When Yui looked at her with a questioning gaze, Yui sat down with a nonchalant expression, as if to say, "What's up?"

"...Where are your glasses today?"

"I recovered my vision after a good night's sleep."

An incredible self-regeneration ability. Was she a reincarnated slime or something?

Since she said it so decisively, Yui decided not to pry further.

More importantly, it was time to study for the test.

Studying at home was always difficult, mostly because of Maki. Determined to make up for lost time, Yui was focused on her desk when Yui's hand reached over and placed a square, flower-patterned cloth-wrapped object on the desk.

"What is this... an explosive device?"

"A bento. I made it for you."

"Eh? Why?"

"Just, you know, as an apology for being a nuisance."

"For what?"

"Well, you know... as a thank you for the stone!"

It felt like a forced excuse.

Although she still didn't understand, she decided to take it without asking unnecessary questions. She put the bento in her bag, and Yui leaned in, whispering,

"It has denbu, denbu."

"Huh?"

"Again. You like it, don't you?"

She mumbled, but it was incomprehensible, so Yui ignored it. Still, Yui seemed quite confident, perhaps because her test preparation was going well.

During lunch break, Yui took out the bento Yui had given her, but the girls gathered around Yui's desk again. It felt awkward to open and eat the bento in front of them. She also felt a strong gaze from one of the girls, though it wasn't clear why.

As the noise from the girls grew louder, Yui couldn't take it anymore and stood up with her bento. She wanted to eat it in a quiet place. Thinking of the place from the other day, she headed there.

(Rin is probably not there, right?)

She didn't think Rin ate there every day. As she walked out of the entrance and around to the back of the school building, she easily found the spot. She hopped over a few concrete protrusions and turned a corner, arriving without any trouble.

"Ah."

...She was there.

Rin was sitting neatly in a concrete hollow, reading a manga and eating an onigiri.