Chapter Three: The Last Wall

I'm sure everyone has had a point in their lives where they've wanted to go back and change something. Take me for example; I've had multiple points. But none can compare to the desire I have now to defy our reality and alter the past. However, life works against us all.

The days following that particular incident were the few days where I can honestly say I have never been happier. A few days where I had a loving little sister who did everything the little sisters in eroge do. Why then, am I here, at the lowest point of my life, you ask? How have I sunk so far?

I'll give you the long version. I'm afraid there isn't a short version.

The morning after that incident, the feeling of a great weight crashing atop my person caused me to shoot upright, not unlike a spring. If there were ever a cause for alarm in my quiet life, this would certainly be one of them. Unfortunately, it got worse.

"Onii-channnnnn…" the great weight murmured.

Yes, this great weight was animate. This great weight called me by a name I was able to count on one hand the number of instances I have been called such by said great weight, when, in my fair opinion, it should have been countless. It's never too late, I suppose.

"If you don't wake up, Kirino will make you wake up," it continued.

Ignoring the fact that I was sitting upright, the great weight took hold of my left hand and guided it towards its pelvic area.

"Look… Kirino is wearing shima panties for you today, onii-chan!"

At the time, all I could think was "Oh god". It wasn't the good kind of "Oh god", just so you know. No, this was the kind where I shot completely out of bed and backed up, terrified and terribly aroused, against my bedroom door.

Kirino was pouting.

With great reluctance, I said, "I… I need to get dressed. Can you leave… please?"

This was the first instance where a bit of the 'old' Kirino shone through. She glared at me, and made sure to apply the appropriate amount of force to each footstep as she left. For consistency, she slammed the door with enough force to send several of my possessions dangerously close to falling onto the floor.

In retrospect, I am thankful for having upset her. I was completely ignored at the breakfast table, as per the Kousaka household norm, meaning I had avoided the potential need to explain why she now addressed me by "Onii-chan".

Good things do not last however. Not long after turning the first corner on my usual route to school, I felt what would become a familiar weight wrap its arms around my neck. I am no strong man – heck, I would barely consider myself fit – and so, I toppled over, sprawling both of us onto the pavement below.

"Stupid aniki, you're not supposed to do that."

Ouch, I thought. I've been demoted already.

This was yet another moment of indecision. I should have left her there, ignored the fact I could see right up her uniform's skirt, and continued on my way. It was but another wall barring her from me.

I took a bulldozer and toppled it.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly. Extending a hand, I helped her up, and almost jumped for joy at the way her face lit up. She wrapped herself around my arm, and together, the two of us made our way onward. The way to her school proved incredibly enlightening; Kirino was beyond popular. Such was this fact that the barely contained gossiping of her peers followed us all the way through until we separated.

Kirino Kousaka had a boyfriend.

Even then, I was conflicted – as I should be. I was not so heavy a deviant that I felt absolutely no shame for being called the boyfriend of my little sister. I felt shame beyond anything. But I allowed her to hold on to me, and I did nothing to dismiss the gossip that could be heard wherever I turned. I did not shout out "I'm her brother!" and watch the initial confusion register on their faces, did not see the spark go off as they would conclude, "They sure are close!" I only kept walking, with her wrapped around my arm.

As for Kirino? She was beaming.

When finally we separated, she pulled me down by the shirt collar, whispered a muffled "Thank you" in my ear, and pecked me on the cheek. Again, I restrained the urge to bolt as fast as I could down the street. With the uneasy feeling of dozens of eyes trained on us, I saw her off as she made her way into the middle school.

I returned home late that evening to find her dozing off on the couch, a notebook loosely flipped open on her lap. As I approached her, I made out an intensely complex flow chart, made notable by two routes highlighted with green and red lines. The red line stopped abruptly at the "From behind" box.

Even now, Kirino, even now, I thought, groaning.

"Ani… ki…?"

"Sorry, did I wake you?"

She shook her head, the biggest un-Kirino-like smile on her face.

"Welcome home, onii-chan."

For the next few days, this became our regular routine: awoken by my cute little sister every morning, treated to a sampling of my cute little sister's underwear collection, walking to school with my cute little sister, and welcomed home by my cute little sister. My life slid into place. All was well with the world.

On the fifth day, as she pulled me down to peck me on the cheek, she tried something new. With what felt like the whole world watching, she did not bend to the side, no, she kept going, her lips on a direct course for my own. Again, it was that same rapid heartbeat, that same trepidation, that same feeling of a great wall separating us being toppled.

The winds blew, and my nose received its second beating.

I stumbled backward, and much like that day, I was pounced upon, knocked to the ground. Only, this time they were serious. This time, I was on death row.

And then my nose – no, my face – received its third beating. Its fourth, fifth, sixth – I quickly lost count. Hell, I was on the verge of losing consciousness. From behind my aggressor, I could hear Kirino screaming.

"Stop! You're hurting him, stop, please!" she begged to no avail, her cries mixed among the constant sickening cracking of what felt like every bone on my face, and soon, my hands, my arms, all of my body.

I heard the cries of several bystanders joining in, echoing Kirino's cries to stop. I felt some at our side, trying their best to pry the crazed animal off of me. But she didn't budge, she straddled me, and I could feel the softness of her panties through the fabric of my pants even as I struggled to hold on for dear life.

"I told you to stay away from Kirino, you disgusting onii-san!" screamed the crazed animal. "I warned you, but you're nothing but a disgusting siscon after all! Die, hentai!"

I felt my vision blur as she kept pounding, the images of my beautiful little sister's panties between her bare thighs at the fore of my mind. The last thing I heard, and the last thing I felt, was my name being cried at the top of one girl's lungs as they forced themselves in-between my aggressor and I.

All went black, and I ascended to a higher plane. Or descended.

I wish.

I had the misfortune of waking up just now to a bright, largely white hospital room. And it hurts. It hurts everywhere.

My face is the largest, roundest, puffiest it has ever been. And it is the deepest, darkest, most frightening color it has ever been, on record to rival the pitch of my hair itself. If I could feel them, I'd say my fingers are likely broken as well. To say I have been roughed up would be understating the direness of the situation at least tenfold. Oh, and the back of my head feels pretty flat right now. I'm surprised I don't have concussion.

So what can possibly cheer me up?

Well, there's Kirino asleep on the side of my bed.

"Mmnnph, onii-chan… it tickles…" she murmurs, with a small trickle of drool to add to her unbelievable cuteness.

I want to reach out to touch her so much, bandages or no bandages, feeling or no feeling. Thirty centimeters, twenty centimeters, ten… five… four… three… two…

"Don't touch her!"

I freeze, a mere centimeter away from her lips – a mere centimeter from wiping that drool off her face. And I'm terrified. Absolutely terrified.

"Are you here to kill me?" I ask, in spite of the answer looming with her very presence.

"I want to, onii-san," she replies, staring straight at me, her blue eyes crushing. She's deadly serious.

To reinforce this, she takes out a knife and crawls onto the bed, making sure to push down painfully on my legs as she does so.

"You… you'll be locked up if you go through with this, you know."

"Anything for Kirino's sake, hentai."

There are only so many things you can do when a psychotic girl who doesn't care what happens to her if – no, when – she kills you is closing in on you. In this situation, I've exhausted the only option – begging. My life in jeopardy, I back up against the bed, sweating profusely. Soon, I'm completely straightened up against the wall. Nowhere to go, and nowhere to run. Briefly, I contemplate making a break for it out the window. Even my chances of surviving a several story drop have to be higher than this situation.

She raises the knife, ready to strike. I hope you all die happy, Manami, Akagi, Saori, Ruri, Mom, Dad… Kirino. I close my eyes, I'm ready – I'm ready to die. Just do it. Just do it.

A droplet of water hits the side of my bruised arm. It's salty. It stings. What? I open my eyes; my assailant is in tears. I seize the moment to knock the knife out of her hands. As I wince in pain, Ayase breaks down completely.

If she weren't so scary, I'd probably fall in love with her. As it is, I'm still fearful for my life. So I sit there, not daring to relax my position, as she sobs. I look at Kirino, and she's barely stirred. Just as wariness begins to settle in, as the pain numbs me more and more, I make out a faint question. But I'm in peril of my life ending here, don't forget that, and every sense is sharpened.

"Are… are you in love with Kirino, onii-san?"

The question is so sudden, far too sudden. But I know the answer. I know the answer from the bulge that develops each time I see her panties, each time she calls me "Onii-chan", each time my resolve to deny her feelings, to deny my own feelings, shatters when she greets me each morning, just like that time.

To my side, there is a vase of flowers. If need be, I'll smash it over her head.

I nod.

"Why?"

She's stopped crying now. She's looking at me with those eyes again. If I don't answer seriously, I know, I just know, she has another knife hidden away, ready to strike at me. Heck, she'll probably attack me no matter how I answer.

But she asks a good question. Why do I love her?

"I don't know…"

That's it, I'm dead, absolutely dead.

"Kirino hurt herself protecting you, onii-san."

And whose fault is that?

"If you're just playing with her, please don't. Kirino loves you. If you're satisfying her because you know this… because you're being her brother, because you don't want to make her sad, please… please just stop," she begs, on the verge of tears again.

"…"

"Just say it, onii-san. You don't love her. You won't ruin her life."

"I…"

I want to say it. Trust me, I really do. I want to tell her I'm a terrible person, that I've been playing with her feelings, that everything I do is because I'm her brother and only her brother – never her lover. I want her to hate me again, to never talk to me again, to treat me with disgust each and every morning. I want her to spit at me, to denounce me, to find someone else.

But I'm selfish. I love her, but not enough to be content with her just being happy. No, I'll only let her be happy around me, around her brother. Kirino is mine. I'll make her mine, even if it turns her entire world against her, against us.

I take one look at Kirino, I see the smile on her face and I swear, I'll make sure that smile, that smile that she has around her onii-chan will stay with her onii-chan forever. I love my little sister.

"I love her," I say, staring Ayase down. I say it with all the conviction I can muster.

"If it's a girl's pants you want to get in to, you don't need to prey on your little sister, onii-san," she begs, offering me one last chance. "I'll be yours, I'll call you onii-chan, I'll do anything you want. I'll let you touch me. I'll-"

"I love her," I repeat with finality.

Nodding, she wipes her tears away.

"Think about why, at least, onii-san…" she says as she leaves us alone.

I will think about it. What turned me into this deviant, this monster? The eroge? No. I wouldn't have gone a mile near the eroge if that were the case. It had to have been before, a long time ago. It's on the tip of my memory, an evasive trickster that slips in and out, fading completely as I close in on it. I will remember. I will.

"You're awake, onii-chan…"

For now, my dear little sister has awoken. I'll think about it later. For now, I want to love her. I want to kiss her, to consummate my love for her. Yet…

"Onii-chan!" she says in a pouty, half-mocking, half-cross voice. "You scared me, onii-chan…"

She's way ahead of me. With a serious look, her panties are already at her ankles. If there is a time for blushing, for blood to run to my face, it is now. As she kicks her panties away, the biggest bulge I've ever had forms. I collapse even faster than in Ayase's attack.


Author's Note

Got a "bit" cliché. I'm glad you don't mind the perversion!

This chapter was originally chapter 2, but I've added an extra chapter, bumping this up one, so if you came here via story alert, please visit the previous chapter. :D