Chapter 24: Tale of Triplets

(Hiratsuka Shizuka POV)

Ugh… Couples everywhere. Well, what did I expect from Destinyland on this day anyway?

Then why am I here? Good question. I won the tickets and it would be a waste not to use them, not to mention that my main destination isn't that far from here anyway so it's a good opportunity to kill some time.

It's not like I'm bothered by the fact that I was told I could come here twice by myself twice.

And it's not like I came here hoping to find a potential partner or anything.

Hm? What did I step on?

I looked at the ground and found that there's an unconscious drunkard under my foot.

"Whoa?!" I startled and removed my foot from him.

There's two more of them on the nearby bench, currently throwing up.

I headed elsewhere, hoping to avoid the troubles just to run into another set of troubles.

"My crotch… it's so painful…"

"It hurt…"

"My poor boner…"

Three guys sat on another bench, crying in pain.

WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE?!

Am I Kimizuka Kimihiko now? Would I get bestowed the role of detective's assistant afterward?

Forget it, if someone saw me with these guys I would be in trouble.

I ran away from the spot just to bump into someone I'm familiar with.

"Shizuka-chan?" said the person.

Why is the last person I want to be seen has to be here?

I turned to face her just to be surprised rather than annoyed.

"Haruno? And Tenma Nobunaga?" I said.

"Yes, that's me. Long time no see, Hiratsuka-sensei. What a coincidence meeting you here." said Tenma.

"Don't give me the coincidence crap, brat! You left without telling others beforehand, not even contacting others after all these years, do you have any idea how worrying you cause everyone?" I said.

Well, probably only Haruno and I worry about him in person, the others just worry about the lack of manpower.

"Well, sorry for worrying you like that." said Tenma.

"Your face isn't sorry at all." I said.

"Okay, stop. Since we're currently dating each other, I believe I can't enjoy seeing my boyfriend talking to another woman and leaving me behind, don't you think?" said Haruno with a dark smile.

I'm about to make a rebuttal about since when did she succeed in getting him into a relationship but I gulped upon seeing her dark smile as if to say 'you stay out of this!'.

I'm not going to make him mine even if he's single, okay?

"This marks another Christmas that I stayed single." I mumbled.

"By the way, Shizuka-chan. Why are you here? I thought for sure that you're the last person to show up in the sea of couples." said Haruno.

I wish I could do what I have been doing to Hikigaya to her right now.

"I got tickets for Destinyland so I thought I'm going to kill some time here before I go meet someone." I answered.

"Your boyfriend?" asked Haruno.

It would be nice if I had one. Better keep the conversation brief before I kill myself.

"My former teacher. I need his advice to fix Sanshokuin siblings. Later, Haruno." I said as I dashed away from them.

Before Haruno could call out to me, Tenma stopped her.

I don't know why you did that but thanks.

(Hiratsuka Shizuka POV Ended)

(Yukinoshita Haruno POV)

He grabbed my shoulder and blocked my mouth with his hand.

Due to him not being the type to go for bold physical contact, I was genuinely surprised by what happened which effectively stopped me from reaching out to Shizuka-chan.

"She's not changed at all after all these years." said Nobu-chan.

"Somehow I felt like you're talking to her more freely than talking to me." I said with a smile while the angry mark appeared on my head.

You're with a girlfriend yet you casually talk about another woman in front of her. You're the worst.

"Well, as an apology, allow me to tell you something interesting. How's that?" said Nobu-chan.

Huh? How does that even lead to this? O-Oh~ so that's how you play, heh?

"O-Oh~ I never thought that you would start to impress me as my boyfriend with this but you got me. Alright, what kind of interesting story do you think would impress me?" I asked.

Nobu-chan whispered to my ears.

"Hmm… Just so you know that you can't impress me if all you want to say is that they're biological siblings, Nobu-chan." I said.

It's already crystal clear about that.

Unlike others, I'm not buying their cousin act, at least I started not buying it today especially when they're literally not trying to hide it.

Just because they're referring to themselves as 'Watashi (Miki-kun)' and 'Boku (Sanshin-kun)' instead of his usual 'Ore (Hikigaya-kun)' doesn't make them any less siblings-like, nor does it make them any more cousins-like.

"Will their love lives impress you?" whispered Nobu-chan.

Their love lives?! Their LOVE LIVES?! They had?!

"How could you keep such interesting things all to yourself, Nobu-chan, you bad boy." I said.

"I really don't want to be told that by you." said Nobu-chan.

He got the point since I'm holding back my drooling quite hard right now. Damn it, this guy really knew how to spoil my elegance.

The argument about how we both obsessed with interesting stuff went on for a few minutes until we noticed that our exchanges drew everyone's attention at that time.

"Fine. But we need a private place to discuss." said Nobu-chan.

"Okay. It's not like I could get any more satisfactory fun from here anyway especially when they're all left. Lead the way, Nobu-chan." I said.

(Yukinoshita Haruno POV Ended)

(Narrator POV)

After the six adolescents left Destinyland, the silence accompanied them for ten minutes.

"I know it's too late to ask but shouldn't you bring Komachi-san instead of me if you want to visit your relatives?" asked Yukino.

"That's a good question. If you're me and know that Hachiju and Hassen would come along, will you bring her along?" replied Hachiman.

"Their relationship that bad? I thought that since she could put up with you then she might not have so big of a problem dealing with them." said Yui.

"Why did you answer that for her/me?" thought everyone except Yui.

"Their relationship isn't any better than the one you or Yukinoshita has with them though. If I brought her along then she would either throw a tantrum every now and then or try to kill herself." said Hachiman.

"Not to mention that she is more than welcome to have you spend your time on social activities rather than raising your loner level at home." added Hassen.

The Chiba village incident and the recent firework festival are proof of that.

"So are your parents about you and Hachiju on that matter." said Hachiman.

"So even Komachi-san does have people she couldn't get along with, not to mention someone from the same family too." said Yukino.

Both Yukino and Yui suddenly doubted their own decision for a moment.

"During one of our birthdays, Komachi and her parents went shopping and gave us Pan-san dolls Komachi picked up herself as our birthday present. While three of us held them each in our hands, the poor-health Hachiju suddenly sneezed which made Hassen startled afterward." said Hachiman.

"What's wrong about it?" asked Yui.

"In their hands exist the mentioned doll and the incident happened in front of Komachi herself. Hachiju's Pan-san was covered by better-not-mention-it-at-all matter while Hassen's was ripped apart through his extraordinary strength. Since then, Komachi's cold shoulder level toward them both kept rising higher." said Hachiman.

As a big fan of Pan-san herself, Yukino looked at Hachiju and Hassen as if they were industrial wastes.

"By the way, what's this Komachi you guys are talking about? Rice?" asked Iroha.

"Oh, Komachi's Hikki's little sister." replied Yui.

Iroha narrowed her eyes to the boys.

"Oh great. We're all surrounded by siscons." said Iroha.

"No, I'm not." said Hachiju, Hassen and Hachiman in unison.

Both Yui and Yukino sighed in unison.

" Wait a minute. By 'our birthdays', you three were born on the same day?" asked Yukino.

"That's right." replied Hachiman.

The three girls went 'EHHHHH?!' upon hearing that (only Yukino did it in the quietest way).

"That's one heck of a coincidence." said Iroha.

"It's not a coincidence, at least not in the same meaning as what you think." said Hachiju.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Iroha.

"Here's a hint. You and Yuigahama already met my parents, right?" said Hassen.

"And?" asked Iroha.

"How many resemblances do they have with their parents besides the gender?" said Hachiman.

"Well, there's… huh, none?" said Yui.

"Now that I think about it. It's none!" said Iroha.

"Are you sure about that, Yuigahama-san, Isshiki-san?" asked Yukino in disbelief, which both girls in question nodded.

"It's true. Be the personalities or physical resemblances, nothing about them matched their parents at all." said Iroha.

"Now that I think about it, Iroha-chan and I couldn't tell they're their parents at first glance until the introduction is made." said Yui.

"Now you have my curiosity, Hikigaya-kun. Please explain." said Yukino.

"Both Hachiju and Hassen were adopted by the Sanshokuin family a few years ago. Before that, we're the biological siblings." said Hachiman.

The three girls went 'EHHHHH' for the second time.

"Wait… If you three are siblings then…" said Yui.

"I knew it's a new vocabulary to you but it's called 'triplets'." said Hassen.

"Even I knew that!" angrily retorted Yui, and it made her even angrier when some people were genuinely surprised by that.

Then Yukino realized something.

"Wait. Didn't you say before that you don't have a little brother, Hikigaya-kun?" asked Yukino.

"I'm the youngest among the three of us so of course I don't have a little brother but I do have the older ones." replied Hachiman.

"So does this mean Komachi-chan has three brothers in total?" said Yui.

"Let's say that we're not going to deny that for now so buy that for the time being if you want." said Hachiju.

"You're brothers all this time, but that somehow doesn't make Komachi-san have three brothers. What does that mean?" asked Yukino.

"It means it's time to tell you a story about a friend of a friend of mine. Abridged Edition." said Hachiman.

"Seriously, you don't know how old that can get, do you?" thought the three girls.

"Once upon a time, there's triplets who lived happily under the same household until their parents introduced them to the school. They tried so hard to socialize and failed again and again. They thought the reason was because they're too much of a mob so they worked up very hard to fix that." said Hachiman.

"For the first time, I believe it is actually the story of a friend of a friend of yours, Hikigaya-kun." said Yukino, unable to bring herself to believe.

Although Yui and Iroha didn't say anything, their faces actually did.

"The eldest one fixed that by reining the academic section, the middle one fixed that by reining the athletic section while the youngest one decided to be helpful. As a result, the situation became better. Or so they thought." said Hassen.

"There's something wrong?" asked Yui.

"Things definitely do not go well since they're approached for their talent but not what they actually are, correct?" asked Yukino.

"Right. But their parents and their teachers disagreed with their suspicions and took it as the children just overthinking things and convinced them to believe in their friends, so the said children, as innocent as they are, chose to do as the adults said. Things look good on the surface until the day that the cruel truth underneath them becomes visible." said Hachiman.

Iroha and Yui felt the extreme darkness emitted out of the boy beside them and couldn't help but shiver at the spot while Yukino flinched a little.

"The youngest brother's situation is obviously worse than the older ones and sometimes he has unusually distanced himself from his brothers lately. The two older siblings have no idea what's going on with him." said Hassen with absolutely zero cold tone.

"Heeeee!?" uttered Yui as she trembled in fear.

"But one day, after school, they found their youngest brother got beaten up black and blue by their friends and overheard what they actually thought of them. So they went to save their brother and make their friends pay for what they did to him." said Hachiju with a deadly cold tone.

"Heeeee!?" shrieked Iroha as she trembled in fear.

No one could blame their reaction of fear since Hachiju and Hassen have never displayed such intense rage at this level before.

"Is there any point regarding this story as a friend of friend's when it's this obvious whose story is it?" thought the three girls.

Yukino looked at Hachiman in disbelief.

"Those who were beaten by them aren't dead but instead suffering from the tragic case of amnesia. However, because their youngest brother secretly went through the troubles shouldering the hatred their friends have toward them, they gave up on making friends as they can't afford him to continue scapegoating." said Hachiman.

"You used to do that since childhood, huh?" thought Yukino and Yui.

"However, they still wanted to do something to atone for their youngest brother so they want him to have true friends but still don't know what to do." said Hassen.

"The teachers and parents worried that the two talented brothers might not participate in the upcoming competition so they promised them they would grant their wish if they won the competition which they specialize in. The talented brothers, who were in desperation, accept the offer without a single thought." said Hachiman.

"They both took first place in competitions they participated in. However, even with that, not only that their wish isn't granted, things are worsened." said Hassen.

"Their hearts used to be as soft as tofu. For them to have destroyed hopes and dreams of the losers with their own hands, on top of that, their victories meant nothing at all. So they couldn't help but loathe themselves for it." said Hachiju.

"That's why both of them loathe everyone who is a sore loser and competitive. To them, competitions are slaughterhouses and the victors are the losers' slaughterers. Unless they want to obliterate someone, they won't take any challenge." said Hachiman.

"So that's why they're so hostile." thought Yukino.

"Since it's like they're chosen to be everyone's villains themselves, they no longer care whether they have friends or not as long as the three of them can be together but even that wish got flushed down the toilet." said Hachiju.

"One day, they learned about their real identities from accidentally eavesdropping on their parents unintentionally." said Hassen.

"They discovered that the three of them aren't their parents' real children. They're adopted under their parents' marriage conditions." said Hachiju.

"Eh?" said the three girls, confused.

"Paternal grandparents requested their son and his lover to adopt their newborn children on their behalf while maternal parents requested that their daughter and his lover must hand over one of their sons to their other daughter if that daughter can't give birth to a son. Ridiculous, isn't it?" said Hachiju.

"That's ridiculous!" said the three girls.

"Although it's ridiculous, they did that for the sake of the future of their families. But since the date to hand over the son isn't specified, it could be postponed. However, thanks to the stepfather screwing things up, the postponement couldn't go any further." said Hassen.

"Their stepfather got fooled into taking out a loan by the sketchy woman and has to resort to maternal grandparents' help which he got demanded to fulfill the marriage condition. " said Hachiju.

"That's the story Hikigaya-kun told me how he could see through Nee-san's facade." thought Yukino.

"Their stepparents decided that they would give away their youngest stepson to fulfill that condition a week before their stepmother's parents came to get their long-awaited grandson, saying that the older twos are enough to be the role models for their daughter anyway." said Hassen.

The three girls clench their fists upon hearing that.

"Even now I don't know if I should find that reasonable or not." said Hachiman.

"After that eavesdropping, the three of them finally understood things more clearly when they looked back to their past." said Hassen.

"Ever since their little stepsister was born, why did the distance between the three of them and their parents keep widening, why couldn't they be loved without relying on face-valued qualities, they understand them even if they don't want to." said Hachiman.

"It wouldn't be strange if three of them bore grudges toward their parents but…" said Hachiju.

"The youngest brother is too kind and forgiving for his own good as he accepted being a sacrifice with red, teary eyes and not holding grudges despite getting looked down. The other two, on the other hand, can't accept anything about that." said Hassen.

"On the day the triplets have to be separated, without their little stepsister's awareness, they have a big fight with each other. In the end, the older twos were the ones left instead so that their little stepsister wouldn't lose her favorite one. Ever since then, they've become cousins and rarely met each other, suffering from having what's only genuine to them crushed. The End." said Hachiman.

"Genuine, huh?" sadly muttered Yukino.

"But even if you three are adoptives doesn't mean you're not Komachi-chan's brothers, am I rig—Ow ow!" asked Yui, with her foot being stepped on.

"Did I just step on the grand central station of disappointment?" said Hassen.

"Y-You…!" said Yui.

"We three aren't her brothers, but we're not completely unrelated to her even if we weren't adopted." said Hachiju.

"What about 'friend of friend' role playing? Well, never mind." muttered Iroha.

"Our biological parents. No, our biological father is still alive, and he's also the biological father of our first stepfather. In other words…" said Hassen.

Yukino pondered for a moment before having a disbelieving expression on her face.

"Komachi's father and three of us are brothers, which means Komachi is our niece, not little sister." said Hachiman.

"For real?" said Yui and Iroha.

"That's unbelievable. If that's the case then…" said Yukino.

"Yeah, yeah. Our biological mother, she was an amazingly tough woman who managed to give birth to us three despite her questionable age. However, her toughness eventually ran out as she died a few days afterward." said Hachiju.

"This is probably the most brain-wrecking story I have ever heard ever since I was born." muttered Iroha.

"Ironically, that same brain-wrecking is what makes us who we are." said Hachiju.

Then a sudden scream echoed.

"Hey! Give me back my wallet and lighter!"

"Eh? Hiratsuka-sensei?" said Yui.

Kasumi and Futami stole Shizuka's wallet and lighter then dropped them off to Hassen's hand.

Because of that, the fact that Shizuka eavesdropped on the six adolescents was revealed.

"Instead of eavesdropping on people, why don't you just look for your possible partner and say goodbye to your single status?" asked Hassen as he threw Shizuka's belongings back to her.

"Why don't you do that instead of roasting others or bitching about your past then?" retorted Shizuka.

"Because I already did that, but I'm saying goodbye to that possible partner instead of my single status." said Hassen.

"Are you sick or what?" said Shizuka, to which the three girls agreed.

"If you meant sick of your nosiness then yes we are, very much so." said Hachiju.

"These little…!" groaned Shizuka.

(Narrator POV Ended)

(Yukinoshita Haruno POV)

"In conclusion, brocon girls are in their strike zone. But because of the unknown conflict that separated them both from their little brother, they couldn't afford to let their affection bore fruits if it widen the distance between their love interest and her brother like how it occurred to them and Hikigaya-kun at all cost, especially when they thought someone who couldn't protect siblingship from falling like them had no right to do so to begin with." said Nobu-chan.

"Wow. What a couple of amazingly weird brothers." I said.

I believe that despite all those inhumane qualities they are, they should be human beings, I meant boys, in the end.

For them to give up on their affections, that means Hikigaya-kun means a lot to them.

"Even I couldn't believe that there would be a day Yukino-chan's love rivals could be boys, although it's a good thing Hikigaya-kun isn't into homosexual incest or else Yukino-chan would be done for." I said.

"But I have a feeling that her situation won't be as bad as you think." said Nobu-chan.

"Why?" I asked.

"I have known them longer than you, both of them are straight. Well, I was once asking them whether they're homosexual or not which they're not only declined it but also giving a look as if they're talking to the industrial waste." said Nobu-chan.

"Pffff…. talking to industrial waste, you say? Pffff…" I laughed.

Would it sound like a masochist if I say I want to see that look he mentioned with my own eyes?

"Miki-kun and Sanshin-kun just keeping themselves from getting captivated by feminine charm not because they're into guys but because their drop-dead beauty little sister already suffered a lot from boys ogling her like starving pigs in her daily life so they wanted to at least not giving into their libid— I meant write the sequel of her suffering by doing the same thing themselves. So you can rest assured that they aren't your little sister's love rivals, it's just they're too overprotective toward their younger sibling figures." said Nobu-chan.

Please stop it or else I would die from excessively laughing.

Giving up on their affection and libido to save others who are dear to them, as expected of the brothers of someone who saved a dog from getting hit by a limousine without concern for his safety.

If it's about prioritizing others before anything else, I really have to tip my hat to them.

"I really didn't see that one coming. I'm kinda jealous of those who gain their care." I said.

I'm really jealous, very much so, especially for the fact that my boyfriend never labeled me as a drop-dead beauty before yet she earned it from him even though she's not here herself.

"Unfortunately, their little sister who gained their care labelled them as a dangerous duo and ended up more cold-shouldered less getting in touch with them." said Nobu-chan.

"I totally understand that feeling. My cute little Yukino-chan has been doing the same to me for years after all." I said.

Well, I am well aware that I made her the receiving end of my amusement hunger since childhood, not to mention that I kept meddling with her and Hikigaya-kun like a naughty cupid lately.

It's not like I want Yukino-chan to get herself a boyfriend that desperately, but as her older sister I couldn't afford to neglect her despite what I'm good at is nothing but annoyed her or increased her troubles.

Today I have discovered one more thing that Yukino-chan and Hikigaya-kun have in common; both have at least one incompetent older sibling.

Don't you guys agree, Miki-kun, Sanshin-kun?

(Yukinoshita Haruno POV Ended)

(Hiratsuka Shizuka POV)

"I thought I'm going to let you brats spend your Christmas in fun but I've changed my mind, you guys are going to come with me today." I said.

There's no need for consideration anymore, especially when the problem brats themselves are here I'm going to drag them along with me like this.

*Crack crack*

Younger Sanshokuin smiled coldly at me as he cracked his knuckles on purpose as if to resurrect my traumatic experience about him.

Even though I prepared to confront them, they really knew how to send a chill down to my spine.

Seriously, wasn't violence supposed to be prohibited these d— never mind.

The older Sanshokuin gestured to the younger one to stop his intimidation.

What's he planning?

"That's a lame excuse for a kidnapper wannabe. Why did you think high school boys with brains would comply with such suspicious demand? Please quit it before you hurt someone." said the older Sanshokuin, pretentiously covering himself like how Yukinoshita did when she feared for her chastity.

Yeah, I really wanted to hurt someone so bad! Unfortunately I couldn't! Not even Yukinoshita ever goes that far with teachers!

"Say whatever you want, even if I got beaten to pulp, only you brats that I need to get them to meet Gocho-sensei!" I said.

After I said that, the Sanshokuin siblings looked at Hikigaya, to which he shook his head in response and approached me himself.

Yukinoshita, Yuigahama and Isshiki seemed to be confused while the Sanshokuin siblings narrowed their eyes on me.

Both Sanshokuin brothers and Hikigaya have a private discuss and then Hikigaya comes to me.

"Hiratsuka-sensei. May I ask you what is the full name of this 'Gocho-sensei'?" asked Hikigaya with absolutely serious tone.

"Eh? Why?" I asked, confused.

Suddenly, not only Sanshokuin siblings, even Hikigaya gave me the aggressively cold look as if to tell me to just answer his question obediently or get frozen here.

What's with these siblings?! They're even scarier than Yukinoshita! It's already scary with one pair of cold gazes yet I got three at once!

Even the girls who tagged along with them scooted back in fears.

"A-A-Alright, alright, I will answer it. His name is Furusato Gocho, he's my teacher during my elementary school." I replied in panic.

Upon hearing that, three of them removed those cold looks and sighed, much to everyone's confusion.

What is it now, huh?

"It looks like the person we're about to meet is the same one you want us to meet. What a coincidence." said Hikigaya.

"Eh?" I said.

How are they related to Gocho-sensei? Is he their relative or what?

"Less lips, more walks." said the older Sanshokuin as he and the other two boys started walking.

I was about to retort but chose not to and so did the girls as we quietly followed them.

I have so many doubts I want to solve but I'm going to keep quiet for now, except for one.

After experiencing what three of them are capable of when they teamed up, I started to doubt whether it's a good idea or not to go seeing Gocho-sensei.

(Hiratsuka Shizuka POV Ended)

A/N: Chapter 24 for you readers, please enjoy.