Chapter 84: His mother.

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Translated and Edited by: luccayn.

Common Honorifics:
-san: A polite suffix, but not excessively formal.
-kun: A common suffix among friends and younger people.
-chan: A common suffix among people you're close with, mostly used for feminine nicknames and girls, since it's cutesy and childlike.
-senpai: A common suffix and noun used to address or refer to one's older or more senior colleagues in a school, workplace, dojo, or sports club.

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After hearing everything from Michiru, the sun had started to rise, so we left the gyudon restaurant before the staff began cleaning. The morning light streamed directly from the horizon, and the fresh, untouched chill in the air wrapped around my body.

Listening to her story, I once again realized that persuading Michiru was utterly impossible. Considering the depth of her feelings for me—or to put it plainly, how overwhelmingly much she loved me—it seemed like deceiving myself, or even the world, might actually be the easier route.

It couldn't be helped.

In that case, I'll resist until the very end. Unlike Michiru, my issue isn't about laws or ethics—not when I was never even officially registered at birth. I have to convince myself. The best course is to find a method and confront myself with it.

That's how I've always helped people. Maybe all those experiences were rehearsals for today.

“So basically, as long as we can prove that what we feel for each other isn't the kind of thing shared between siblings, we're good, right?”

“Exactly. Did you come up with a good idea?”

“Nope, not at all. I mean, there's no clear boundary when it comes to how people feel about each other. Even strangers just kind of vaguely decide, like, ‘maybe this is love?' or ‘maybe this is friendship?'”

Vague, huh. Not exactly a word I'm fond of.

“But really, when it comes to feelings between the sexes, that's all it ever is. I think ‘love' is just a big umbrella term that includes things like respect, sympathy, and all sorts of emotions.”

I agreed for the most part, but Michiru's words only served to highlight the problem between us.

“If it were between unrelated people, we'd have to worry about stuff like cheating or messy breakups—but because of our blood relation, we can just ignore those things, and that's what makes it unfair. At this point, the definition of love or affection doesn't mean much.”

“Hmm,” she murmured, then leaned in close enough to press her shoulder against mine. Way too close—it made walking difficult.

“Back off. You're still my sister, at least for now.”

“It's fine, think of it as a nuisance fee.”

“No, that's not the—”

In that instant, something flitted through my mind. A subtle inconsistency in Michiru's story. A person caught between the certainty born from the lack of public proof and the reality that our relationship still relied only on hearsay and intuition.

What I recalled was the obvious irregularity—someone who had supposedly depended on our father's damned harem.

“Kakeru's mother. She was the only one our father actually chose to live with. The same man who proclaimed that he didn't want to pick just one woman from his harem still held her at his deathbed. Why?”

“Beats me. Maybe ‘cause she was the youngest?”

Michiru answered concisely without even pretending to think. She must hate our father enough that she can't even be bothered to analyze him.

“I'm not so sure. Her makeup made it hard to tell, but she was at least in her late twenties. That's pushing it a bit for a rich b*****d to call her ‘young,' don't you think?”

“Maybe not in the public eye, but for someone rich, maybe.”

“Then why wasn't she cast aside, even after seven years of raising Kakeru? Even if she had the status of a ‘first lady,' the very fact that our father took responsibility for her contradicts everything about the man that was Ukai Tōru.”

It wasn't enough to call it hope—more like a tiny, insufficient clue. But as long as I loved Michiru, I had no choice but to investigate. Whether romantic or familial, I wanted her to be happy forever. That's one thing I would never waver on.

And more than anything, this story itself is the conclusion of Takatsuki Shinji's pursuit of “the truth within me.” Leaving it vague would be nothing short of a mistake.

“So there's a chance we're not actually siblings?”

“Dad looked into your background and said you were definitely my sister, so yeah, the odds aren't great. But it's not like I'm the type to just take someone's word for it, and it's something we need to know.”

Still, what exactly did he investigate about me, given there was no official record? If I could learn that, maybe there'd still be some hope.

“Fufu. You really do doubt everything, don't you, Shinji-kun?”

“Suspicion is the last survival tactic left to a fool.”

At that, Michiru looked up at me with a gaze that could've been envy—or maybe comfort. Her expression was the kind that made you think envy and sympathy were two sides of the same coin.

“You're not a fool. It's just… you really do doubt everything. Not just the bad things, but even the good things that happen to you.”

“I just know that convenient things don't happen on their own.”

“That may be true, but there are people they do happen to. You're just unlucky, Shinji-kun.”

With a mischievous grin, she tilted her head, and I gave her a light knock on the forehead. Biting her lower lip and smiling bashfully, the look on her face told me just how much she truly believed in me.

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