Author's Note: This fanfiction is getting more difficult to write. It is getting hard to think of new ways of Sena making Kobato angry. I do not want to go into Mature or Adult-rated content even though Sena is willing to go that far for Kobato.

I originally planned to have the break up in this chapter. However, this chapter got a bit too long with the history of the Kashiwazaki's and Sena so I had to split this chapter up. I hope to move onto more interesting elements once the breakup happens. With the chapter split into two, I now have more room to include notes from the other members of the Neighbor's Club.

Published 8/11/2014

Chapter 6:

Growing Pains

"An-chan! Why don't you do anything with me? I want to play too."

Kobato is looking at Kodaka with a frown. Kodaka, unable to understand what Kobato wants, responds improperly by offering her to paint with Sena and him.

"I'm sorry Kobato. I forgot to ask if you wanted to join in. If you want, I have extra supplies and paper to get you started. Let me go get them for you."

"Kobato-chan, you can have a seat right here next to you big sister."

Kodaka brings out an easel set for Kobato. Right when Kodaka hands Kobato a paintbrush, she knocks it away.

"An-chan! I don't wanna paint. It's messy and boring. I want to play this game." Kobato brings a Kurogane no Nercomancer PS4 game out and shows it to Kodaka. The game was just released yesterday and Yozora bought it for Kobato, making Sena a little jealous.

Kodaka resonds. "If you want to play it, please play it by yourself. I'm currently busy with Sena right now."

"Ku ku ku… my kindred. You have been neglecting your master for quite a while. It is time for you to pay your respects. Otherwise, you will face my wrath."

"Ko-ba-to. Did you just listen to what I just said? I am busy with Sena right now. When I am finished, I will play with you. Understand?"

"Hrmph! Why is it always the monster first? I am your only sister. That monster is nothing compared to me. Therefore, I shall be treated with a higher priority than her."

Sena cries, "That's such a cruel message to say to your big sister Kobato-chan. You always leave your sister in the dark."

Kodaka, hoping not to stir any more arguments, firmly replies to Kobato. "Sorry, Kobato. You know you also came home late. What were you doing at school late at night? When you arrived home, I was already in the middle of art with Sena. If you want me to play with you first, you should come home early. If you come home first, then I'll play with you first. How does that sound?"

Kobato replies by kicking Sena's furniture. Sena's books fall off from the bookshelf. "I hate this place. This place is so creepy. I wanna live in a better place. I want by room back."

Kodaka storms at Kobato. "Kobato! Look what you did to Sena's books. You apologize and pick up her books right now. Otherwise, don't ever ask me to play with you ever again." Kobato simply runs down the stairs crying.

"Wait! Kobato-chan! Come back here. I have something to show you. Don't cry." Sena runs after Kobato with one of her paintings. The painting is still wet.

"Take a look, Kobato-chan. It's a portrait of you. It's decorated with lots of flowers. I also put lots of details and colors in it. Don't you like it, Kobato-chan? Does this make you feel better? Treat this as a present from you big sister."

Kobato, being small with good swimming capabilities, runs so fast that Sena cannot catch up to her. She locks herself in her bedroom. By the time Sena stops, she realizes she has gotten paint all over her dress. The wind accumulated from running pressed her wet painting onto her dress.

"Oh! No! My dress! It was my favorite color too."

"Don't worry, mademoiselle. We can go shopping for a new dress tomorrow. After all, there is a bargain sale going on tomorrow." Stella heard Kobato's screams and came to help. With Stella present, Sena shifts her attention to Stella.

"Umm… Stella. What do you mean a 'bargain sale'?"

"There is a bargain sale tomorrow at Mint Square. That was where I bought you the clothes that you are currently wearing. Since you have gotten older, I think it is great time to get some new clothes for you."

"Yeah, I guess so. But… Umm…" Sena has another question to ask and is hesitant to say it out loud.

"What is your concern madam? Would you like someone to accompany you?" Hearing that question turns Sena red.

"Umm… Well… I want to go out with… umm…" Sena turns around and looks at Kodaka.

"You want Kodaka-sama to come with you too?" Stella's question also embarrasses Kodaka that he closes the door of Sena's room and tunes himself out of the conversation.

"Umm… I want to go with Kobato-chan!"

"Kobato-sama is it? Are you sure? If you are not comfortable with me around, just say so." Stella could sense Sena's nervousness and wants to alleviate her.

"I will go shopping for clothes tomorrow. Just let me make my own choices."

"I will respect your wishes, mademoiselle. Have a good night." The moment Stella walks away, Sena quickly rushes into her bedroom and yells at Kodaka.

"Kodaka, why did you not step in when Stella gave me a hard question to answer?"

Kodaka has no choice but to make a loud reply. "What was I supposed to do? How can I handle a surprise invitation to go shopping? It's just too embarrassing."

Sena calms down and continues. "Well anyways, you're coming with me tomorrow for shopping. After all, your clothes look too unsightly for this household. Let me pick something more attractive for you."

"What kind of style do you have, Sena? I hope it's not something from your galge games," Kodaka challenges Sena since Sena's mind is filled with nothing but galge and eroge games.

"No seriously, I know the right style for Kobato-chan and you. Take a look." Sena brings out a clothing magazine. The magazine shows pictures of models wearing many different styles of clothing. Kodaka takes the magazine from Sena and looks at the cover.

"Hey! Isn't this the same magazine that Yozora used to buy her clothes?"

"Heh! That's correct. Yozora really didn't read the details carefully. The details describe what each design is best suited for."

"What made you get interested in such a magazine? After all, doesn't Stella make all the decisions for you?"

"I just wanted to see how dumb that Yozora was when she wore that 'boyish' clothing. That was so amusing."

As Sena continues on, Kodaka thinks to himself. "It's pretty rare for Sena to do activities outside of galge and eroge. She was probably curious at Yozora's mistakes; very interesting."

"Hey Kodaka, look! I picked a style for Kobato-chan too. Take a look" The moment Kodaka sees the style Sena picked for Kobato, he shows signs of disgust.

"Umm… Kobato probably won't like this one. It has too many bowties and polka dots. Kobato is too old for this."

"That's why you and Kobato-chan are coming tomorrow." Sena points at Kodaka with a strong determination. However, Kodaka is concerned about something.

"Don't we have school tomorrow?" Before Kodaka can say more, Sena shows Kodaka her calendar.

"Since papa is the chairman of the school, I know the schedule very well. Starting tomorrow, we have about a week of break time before school resumes. It's the end of our second year and the beginning of our third year. This week, the remedial students will finish up their extra classes and take make-up exams. The administrators will then decide who gets to move onto next year, who gets held back, and who gets expelled."

"I guess we have time." Kodaka responds. "However, Kobato is one of the remedial students. She failed too many classes so she has lots of homework to do. I don't think Kobato has started on it yet."

"That's OK. I'll just have to surprise her tomorrow. I'll also make sure Kobato-chan passes her remedial exams." Sena replies with pride.

"I don't know if I can trust Sena."

After that, Sena and Kodaka clean up the art set, restore the books, and go to sleep. The next day, Kodaka wakes up alone in bed. He is greeted by Stella with breakfast.

"Good morning Kodaka-sama. It looks like you had a nice sleep yesterday. Please enjoy your breakfast."

"Thank you, Stella." As Kodaka eats his breakfast, Pegasus walks in.

"Good morning Kodaka-kun. It looks like everything is going well, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Is there anything wrong? Have Kobato and I done anything wrong? Why do you want to talk to me early in the morning?" Kodaka thinks Pegasus is upset over the uproar Kobato caused yesterday. He also thinks Pegasus is near his limits on dealing with Kobato's incompetence and disrespectfulness, even getting the police involved.

"I feel really happy with Kobato and you living here. This place has gotten livelier than before. My daughter is also more social and there seems to be more activity going on. I've never experience this kind of experience before."

"Really?" Kodaka is surprised at Pegasus's remarks. He seems to treat the incident with Sena as a positive event.

"Before you two moved in here, this place was always quiet. Sena was always alone. This place was so quiet that it felt eerie wherever you went in this mansion. Despite being such a large house, only four of us live here."

"What's wrong about being so quiet?" Kodaka is still questioning about Pegasus's remarks.

"Life for Sena has always been tough. I want to see my daughter shine as the best girl. Although Sena got the highest grades and came first in many sporting events, Sena appeared to be far apart from other people. People treated her as if she was untouchable, too perfect for them. Being born from a rich family didn't help her either. I enrolled her in public elementary and middle schools hoping to hide that 'rich family' status. I hoped Sena would learn how to integrate with the ordinary people. However, it didn't work out. Sena's performance was so great that everyone isolated them from her."

Kodaka thinks to himself over Pegasus's history of Sena. "Sena does feel lonely even if she doesn't mention it. However, there are many places she seriously needs to work on. She never makes an effort to get along with other people, always labeling them as 'commoners' and boasting about her perfect record. She even has a creepy interest in galge games and even treats Kobato like one of her galge characters."

"Being born from a rich family myself, I cannot understand what the world is like for ordinary people. You know about our engagement tradition, right? Our family would always introduce our children and engage them to other rich families. Sena's mother is also from a rich family in England. In the past, we cared too much about our heritage because of St. Chronica Academy. We wanted to keep our heritage clean and pure as part of the reputation for St. Chronica Academy. My ancestors only saw rich families as worthy to carry on our legacy since their children were trained extensively on proper etiquette and had the best education from Japan's best instructors. I was like that too until I met your father Hayato. Hayato clearly showed me that there is more in life than waiting to become the next head of St. Chronica. I agreed and met with many wonderful people that my ancestors could only dream of. Since my future plans were already set, I could only hope my successor Sena could break our traditions and integrate new blood into our heritage. The only person I think is capable of doing this is you, Kodaka-kun."

Picking Kodaka is an interesting choice since he does not find himself being a good example of 'ordinary' and 'common'. He faces problems such as his pudding-colored hair and his scary appearance.

"I have to go now, Kodaka-kun, see you later." As Pegasus leaves, Kodaka thinks to himself.

"Pegasus does have lots of pride with Sena. However, going as far as making an engagement is overkill."

Kobato then arrives with another Kurogane no Nercomancer game in her hand.

"An-chan! Let's play this today. I want to show you a new power I just unlocked yesterday."

"That's nice Kobato. However, I have to go shopping with Sena today. You need to do your homework as well." Mentioning the word 'Sena' enrages Kobato.

"Why her? Can't you do anything with me? I'm also tired from all the stupid homework I have to do. I can't study unless I get some entertainment. There's no point reading boring books and answering useless questions."

"If you wanted to avoid doing all these extra homework assignments, you should have done better in your classes. Your exam scores were so low that you could have been expelled immediately. I'll drop you off at the Neighbor's Club and let Yozora and the others assist you on your homework." Kobato only shows signs of anger, knowing that fighting back is useless.

After Stella drops Kobato off at the Chapel for St. Chronica Academy, Sena begins talking privately with Kodaka.

"Kodaka, I feel that Kobato-chan has been getting farther away from me. What am I missing?"

Kodaka tries to respond to Sena without hurting her. "Try to be more gentile with Kobato. Like I said before, she's not used to living with you on a regular basis. When you suddenly get so excited with Kobato, you actually scare her."

"Kobato-chan is just too cute. I can't help it. I just want to touch her and squeeze her. Kobato-chan's too cute. She's like an angel."

As Kodaka watches Sena's crazy reactions, he makes a comment to himself. "Sigh, getting Kobato and Sena together is going to be very tough. If Sena keeps up with this attitude, Kobato will never want to be with her. I have to get her to understand that."

Kodaka then thinks about Pegasus's words. "Wanting to make Sena adapt to the ordinary people society? How am I the best choice? Maybe he is referring to the Neighbor's Club too. After all, the common goal of the Neighbor's Club is to make friends and integrate into the ordinary people. However, with me being part of the Neighbor's Club, I don't feel qualified."

Kodaka's thinks more. "But then, if it isn't me, who else can it be? Sena would never trust any of the other boys. Maybe I am privileged to be able to meet Sena like this."

"Kodaka's what up with you? Is there anything wrong? You should tell me if there is something wrong." Sena snaps Kodaka out of his thought bubble.