A light novel with an art work of a very skilled illustrator on the cover, accompanied by the fact that it was also slick and glossy, and has that untouched look and feel to it (and that it was also on sale) – for a fanatic like Izumi Masamune, this is one of the best deals he'd ever come across. He had been staring at that one particular book for a while, thinking of whether or not he would like to make the purchase.

He could've just bought the novel right then and there, but then a new novel from his other favorite author comes out next week, and he could just save up a bit more for it. That was the thought process going on in his head while staring at the cover. Being so fixated on the book, he was a tad bit startled when his world was suddenly filled with darkness, but he realized it in less than half a second the cause of it.

"Guess who!" says the cause.

"Hmm.. I think it's Megumi.."

"As usual: you're right~!" the person said, finally letting him see the world again.

He had it figured out ever since the first time it happened to him, but sometimes pretending that you don't know is much more interesting. Lately, his sister's classmate, Jinno Megumi had been frequenting the same book store as him, and she would always greet him in this manner.

"Onii-san, are you thinking about buying that book?" Megumi said, opening her arms as if she was soaring through the sky.

"Yeah, but the thing is though, a new novel from my other favorite author comes out next week," Masamune said, looking back at the cover of the book he was holding, "If I bought this one, then I wouldn't have enough money for the other one"

"What a shame!" she said, "I thought an author of novels with erotic illustration would have made millions"

He tried his best to fake a laughter, but we all know bad he is at lying. So naturally, she saw straight through him. To be fair, he's a light novel writer, not an actor.

"Well, I did make a lot of money off my last book" he said.

"'The Cutest Little Sister in the World', was it?"

"Yeah, that one. But soon after it was released, my laptop broke," he said, "I bought a new one because it's more cost effective in the long run, but it was still very expensive"

"What a terrible luck!" she said, smiling broadly, and with her arms opened, as if she was soaring through the sky.

"Tell me about it.."

As he said that, he realized something as he was looking at the girl in front of him.

"Oh, right. Megumi, I just remembered something."

"Yes, what is it?" she said cheerfully as she started spinning with her arms still open.

"Sagiri and I are working on a sequel to that, and we're thinking about introducing a new character"

"Really, who?"

"I'm thinking of adding a girl who likes to poke fun at the protagonist – someone who's really sly"

"You mean, like the black haired girl from that series with a cynical protagonist?"

"No, you're thinking of the club president. What I'm talking about is the kouhai character introduced later on. You know, the one with brown hair?"

"Oh, I see! She's actually my favorite character from the series," Megumi said enthusiastically, "I feel like she and I have a lot in common!'

"..and that's why I would like to ask you to be the model for new character's design."

Upon hearing that, her spinning came to an abrupt stop at an exact angle where she faces him. Her cheerful and enthusiastic expression was gone, now replaced with something entirely different. To Masamune, it looked as if she was having a flashback of a traumatizing experience, and it wasn't hard for him to guess what she was reminded of. Yes, it's about that time when she was touched all over by Sagiri, while being blindfolded, no less.

"By that, you don't mean.. "

"Yeah.. that's exactly what I meant"

By that, he meant having Megumi pose while Sagiri draws a character based on it.

"Onii-san.." she said as she starts sweating a little, with a smile that was trying it's best not to turn into a frown filled with despair, "I'm really sorry, but I.. would like to refuse"

"Please, I have no one else I could ask!"

"No means no, Onii-san~!"

He knew right away from earlier that it would end up this way. Again, even as a third party observer, it's not hard to see why she wouldn't do it again. But no worries, because he did have a trick up his sleeves – she was the only one who could do it, and he wasn't about to let go of the opportunity. What a shameless little pervert, asking a girl to do something like this!

"Come on, Megumi, this is another great opportunity to get closer to Sagiri!"

Hearing that, Megumi let her guard down a bit, but she was still wary.

"I know.. but.."

"You have yet to complete your mission: you haven't got Sagiri to leave her house yet!"

"That's.. right.."

"Think about it! You might be the first person to ever go out with Sagiri in person!"

"That's right!" she said, having her enthusiasm back, now with her eyes filled with fire of passion, "You're right, Onii-san! I will be the one who drag her out of the house!"

That was when Masamune knows that she took the bait. Not wasting any chances, he tried to go on with his plan, only to realize that Megumi's was already doing that for him.

"Tomorrow I'm going over after school!" she said, "as for today, I'll have to excuse myself!"

"Alright, do your best!"

The plan that he thought up in less than a second while thinking on his foot was successful. That's an amazing feat! He didn't expect that to work at all, he thought. To be completely honest, he did feel bad, but there was no other choice – nobody else would be willing to be standing still while somebody is projecting your every physical features onto a canvas. On top of that, wanting his sister to have more friends is a legitimate concern. Overall, it's a win-win in Masamune's eyes.

Next day.

"Hmm.. I mean, she looks really cute at the moment," Masamune said, looking at his sister's illustrations on her tablet, "But I feel like we need to add some other details"

"Onii-san, you're being vague again," his sister and illustrator, Sagari said through her headset, "What exactly do you want me to add?"

"Hmm.."

With his hand placed on his cheek, Masamune train of thought now departs. What do he want his character to look like?, he pondered. At the same time, Sagiri was anticipating a constructive response from her brother. As he opens his mouth, she knows she was ready for whatever comments he was going to make, and would follow it to the letter!

"It needs to be more erotic!"

BAM!

Apparently, she wasn't ready for that particular comment, having shoved a game controller on to his face with all her might.

"There you go again, saying things like that!" she said, her face redder than any ripe tomato. Her voice along wasn't so loud, but through the speaker connected to her headset, it was as if he was hit with a sound cannon, indicated by him covering both his ears in pain.

But even with all that, he did nothing but laugh the whole situation off. That was the reaction he expected his sister to have.

"Well, joking aside, I have someone coming over today to model for the new character," Masamune said, "Maybe you and I can get new ideas from her."

"..her?" Sagiri said, glaring at her brother.

"Ah.. no, no – it's not some random stranger" he said, putting his hands up in a defense pose, "Megumi is coming over to do it"

"Then it may as well be some random stranger.." she said, before sighing.

"A ha.. ha"

Beep, the doorbell rang.

"Oh, she's here – speaking of the devil" he said, to which Sagiri's only reply was an even heavier sigh.

Ignoring his sister's gesture of annoyance, he ran off to the front door and opened it up. What stood in front of the house has its unique features that identify itself, specifically, the smile and the brown hair that is tied up into a ponytail.

"Good morning, Onii-san!" says Jinno Megumi, the figure in question.

Not wasting any time, Masamume brought his important his guest up to his sister's room.

"Izumi-san, good morning!" Megumi greeted, waving lightly, as if being blown by the wind from left to right.

Rather than a verbal reply, 'Izumi-san' opted to quietly growl instead.

"Act a little happier, Izumi-san! We haven't met each other in a while haven't we? Think about all the things we can do to together" Megumi said, "..and.. Uh.. Onii-san, why did you put a blindfold on me?"

"Oh, the same as last time basically" Masamune said, "Sagiri doesn't seem to have gotten comfortable with drawing you without blindfold yet"

"Wait, why are we going straight to the drawing!?" Megumi said, now having Sagiri all around her. Much like last time, Sagiri's gazes radiated some sort of perverted aura that she could feel even without looking. The fact that Sagiri was also panting heavily while occasionally touching suggestively didn't make the whole situation a lot better for her.

"Izumi-sa – Ah! – calm down your hands a bit!.. Please have mercy.." Megumi said, shaking heavily as patches of warm breaths hits her on the legs, sometimes on arms, and other times on her neck.

"It's alright, Megumi, I can feel you slowly getting closer with her!" Masamune said.

"This isn't exactly the sort of 'close' I want!"

"Don't worry.." was all that he could said to at least try to calm her down. He did feel a bit sorry for her, but that was all he could do.

"Wah! Izumi-san, what are you trying to do?!"

"Like I said, there's nothing to – Huh!? – Sagiri wait, don't go that far!" he said as his sister reaches for Megumi's collar, and started unbuttoning.

At that point, Masamune had to step in – no matter how much of a seller their book may have become with Megumi's underclothing, it's not worth traumatizing somebody.

"No, stop!"

But before he could've done anything, Megumi had already reached her limit, and leapt forward away from Sagiri.

If this footage were to be recorded and slowed down, we would see Megumi slowly flying towards Masamune, who was slowly closing his eyes, trying to back away. As if someone pressed on the play button once more, Megumi hit and landed on Masamune at full speed, pushing him onto the ground with her.

With all motions stopped, Masamune opened his eyes, only to see Megumi on top of him her eyes still closed.

When Megumi finally opened her eyes, she found her own weight on top of someone. As you may have guessed, that person is none other than Izumi Masamune.

At that moment in time, there was something that has gotten Masamune's undivided attention, and that was how defenseless she seemed as opposed to how she is usually. Her expression was that of confusion. Emotionally, though, she was so embarrassed she could die, but she didn't express it out, and the only thing that ensued was a short awkward silence.

After a moment, Megumi reached for the collar of her shirt and pulled it up to one side upon realizing that a part of her bra was showing.

"Don't.. look…" she said, cheeks face heated up red.

He didn't know why, but that made him blushed so hard, he almost smirked.

Actually, when he came to think about it, it's quite apparent.

Tensing up her body, looking away when there's no room to hide her face, it all reminded him of Sagiri's younger self – It was as if he got to meet the person she was before that tragedy that led her to become a different sort of person. It was a bit refreshing, he thought.

Speaking of the person.

"Onii-san, you're the worst!" Sagiri said, also blushing "What do you think you're doing to our model?"

"Huh? – No!.. uh.. Megumi, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!"

"No, it's alri– "

"What do you mean 'I didn't mean to'?!" Sagiri said as she helped Megumi up, "you were staring so intently!"

Well, she did have a point. Staring at a girl on top of you is probably a bit perverted in most cases.

"No! I.. it's just.. – Look, it's normal for a guy to be interested!" he said, standing up, and making a defensive gesture.

Somehow, that was supposed to make the situation better.

"So you did look on purpose," she said, grabbing him by the arms and spun him back towards the door.

"Really, just go wait downstairs" she said, pushing him out the door.

"Wait!" he tried to resist, but it was too late as he was standing outside and the door was already locked.

Welp, there was nothing he could do, so he decided to go downstairs and wait in the living room.

"That was rough, but then again, what I did was really too much," he said, dropping himself on the living room couch.

"But man.. that expression – haven't seen something like that for a while"

After some time has passed, the door to his sister's room was finally open. In reality, it only took half an hour for her to draw Megumi, but to him, each minute passed felt like an eternity. Now that the door was open, he was glad he could finally get to at least apologize. Masamune then came out to wait in front of the living room as Megumi came down the stairs.

"Megumi.."

But as she saw Masaune, she quickly faced away and rushed out of the house before he could say sorry.

Several days later.

The incident resides within his mind for days, and indeed, he did feel guilty for what happened. With his sister, it was fine because she forgave him the next day. With Megumi, however, it's a totally different story – they don't live under the same roof, and he hadn't seen her for almost a week.

Well, not until this particular day, anyway.

It was after school, and Masamune decided to stop by his friend's bookstore to check on some new novels.

As he was about to set foot into the store, he noticed one particular person, who was facing away from the automatic door, and looking at the recommended section. Incidentally, that's part of the store he was heading to first.

Also incidentally, that one particular person was none other than Megumi.

Of course, our hero Masamune decided to was the best to retreat for now. To put it simply, he was too scared to go anywhere near her.

"I guess I'll just go home for today" he murmured as he turned back and walked away.

Masamune decided to come back the next day, and luckily, Megumi was nowhere in sight, at least when he looked from outside. Finally, he get to look at the new books that he was missing out on at that point.

He walked into the store and straight to the recommended section to see the selection of the day. After visually scanning the rows and columns through the novels that he had already read, he finally came across a new arrived novel.

"Jackpot" he said.

He decided to search for more in the aisles – he was already there anyway, might as well check out some more, he thought.

He went through different sections of the stores, ranging from action to outright comedy, and none of the books interested him. There was the romance section that was still left unchecked, so he decided to go take a look, even though he had read a lot of the entries there to death.

As Masamune was about to set foot into the romance section, he quickly turned around and hid behind one of the shelves upon seeing Megumi, who appeared to be reading a novel.

'Dang it!' he thought.

But our hero wasn't about to give up, as he came up with a marvelous plan. He'd get out of the store and wait somewhere else until he was sure that Megumi had already gone home, then he'd have the store for himself.

Now that his plan was set, he went straight out of the store to the nearest coffee shop and sat there for several hours, brainstorming his new book. He went back to the store periodically to check whether or not Megumi had gone home, and each time he did that, she was still there, reading the same book.

When his digital clock counted to 6PM, and his heart beating like crazy, he went back to the store once, scanning every single aisle from outside. He went into the store and looked further behind the shelves to see if she was there. With Megumi not in sight, he felt a wave of relief coming towards as he was able to read his desired books freely.

Continuing where he left off, Masamune went straight for the romance section, and picked up a book. By that point, he didn't care whether or not it was recommended book of the day, he just wanted to read any book in order to free his mind, and maybe get some inspiration.

Finally, he thought, opening up the first page of the novel.

"Oh, that's an interesting novel!"

"Yeah, I have seen the reviews on – AAH!"

As soon as he realized who said those words, he immediately jumped away in shock, dropping the book on the ground.

"Mou~ Onii-san, you don't have to be that startled!" the person said, picking up the book he dropped.

"Me.. Me.. Me.. " Masamune stuttered as he pointed at the person.

"Yup, I'm Megumi~!" said Megumi in her usual loud, high-pitched, and cheerful voice. It was a stark contrast to how she was when modeled for Sagiri..

Wait, don't think about it right now!, he thought.

"About this book, Onii-san, I was actually reading it just before you came in" Megumi said.

"Really, how.. was it?" he said, not even knowing how to reply properly. After what he and Sagiri had done, he didn't know what was appropriate around this girl anymore.

Weirdly enough, it wasn't just one feeling that cause the trainwreck in his mind – it was a mix of guilt and some other mysterious feelings.

"It was really great! I thought it was going to be mediocre, but that's not it at all," she said, "Oh, I think you were trying to say this earlier: something about a review of this book?"

"Ah, yeah.. It.. really is nothing, people said they were good" he said, still haven't maintained a proper eye contact with Megumi up to that point.

"Right, right? I thought it was good too!" she said.

Megumi talked about the book like a firing machine gun, spitting out opinions and reading experiences without struggling one bit. Masamune, one the other hand, when asked about the reviews and his impression of the book, he struggled to even give basic replies, resorting to occasional "Umm", and "Yeah".

Though, It seemed like Megumi started noticing the lack of proper response from Masamune, and her babbling about the book eventually subsided, leaving the two standing in awkward silence – even the usually cheerful Megumi was now affected by it.

Both of them wanted to say something to alleviate the uneasiness they now felt, but no one had the courage to say anything.

One of the things going on in Masamune's mind was how pathetic he was, not being able to converse with one of the easiest person to talk to on the planet. That was when he decided that he had nothing to lose anymore, and that he'll apologize to her, no matter what would happen next.

"Umm, hey, Onii-san," Megumi said as he was about to open his mouth. She looked at him with uneasiness in her face and said "I feel like.. You've been avoiding me for a while now – you stopped coming to the store all of the sudden.. And even earlier, you were checking whether or not I'm here, weren't you?"

He couldn't believe what he heard – he was spent time worrying like an idiot, thinking about how he should approach her. There was one thing that he didn't realize, and that was the fact that it didn't matter at all.

"Did I do anything to make you angry?" Megumi asked.

With a smile, he was ready to tell her that it wasn't her fault, but he immediately burst out laughing like an even bigger idiot instead.

"Mou~.. what's so funny?" Megumi pouted, but at the same time she was reassured that Masamune doesn't seem to be looking at her negatively.

"Nothing – I'm just so glad," he said, "All this time, I thought you'd still be angry about what happened"

"Oh, about that.. Actually, I was mad at all, Onii-san!" she said with a grin, "I was just a bit surprised at the pace Izumi-san was going at"

"I see.. I'm such an idiot.. Ahahaha" he said, "but yeah, I'm really sorry about what happened.."

"It's alright Onii-san. Like I said, I wasn't even angry" she said, "but from now on, let's just take things slowly"

"Eh, you're still going to model for Sagiri?"

"Eeyup, of course! My mission to be the first to go out with her still hasn't been fulfilled, after all"

With everything cleared up, those two finally come back to enjoy each other's company. They spent a bit more time talking about the novel that Masamune had picked up – she even recommended him more books that are similar to it.

Time passed without realizing it, and when they did, it was already far past Megumi's curfew, and that was when both of them parted ways for the day.

Megumi was right about the fact that their mission was still on – in fact, it's still a long way to go. For now, though, it is best to just take baby steps and work toward their goals, and maybe, just maybe.. They both can look forward to the day Sagiri is able to live a less secluded life.