(Chapter 1)

This was an event that took place five years ago, when Shinji and Mio had just started middle school.

The two of them had returned home and was having dinner with the rest of their family.

Shinji had noticed that something was odd about Mio on the way back, but when he asked her what was wrong, she assured him it was nothing.

As someone who grew up with Mio, however, Shinji was certain that it was not just "nothing".

But whether he knew better or not, Shinji did not press further.

Instead he joined his family for dinner - the same thing he and Mio always did after school.

"Thanks for the food."

And in nearly no time at all, Mio had excused herself from the dinner table.

"Wait, you haven't even taken any food from my plate like you normally do."

Shinji was still incredibly skeptical of this turn of events, so he chose to stir up Mio with humor instead.

"You're not even going to pretend to feed me and tell me to say 'ahhh'?"

"I'm not hungry."

Mio does her best to look at Shinji and smile, but it was easy for her brother to tell that she was forcing herself.

But Shinji says nothing and instead watches his sister walk upstairs.

"Here Onii-chan, say 'ahhh'."

Tonight's dinner was salsbury steak, and Sawa had taken a piece of hers and held it up to Shinji to carry on Mio's tradition.

"Oh, uh, I was kidding, Sawa. Sorry."

"Come on, just eat it."

"...Yeah yeah."

Not putting up much of a fight, Shinji accepts Sawa's kind gesture.

Shido and Kurumi had quietly watched their children talk.

They looked at each other before Shido gave a reassuring nod.

"...I think I'm done too. Thanks for the food."

Shido backs up his chair and rises from his seat.

"I'll make sure to save some for later."

Kurumi continues eating, concerned, but also confident that her husband can handle his daughter on his own.

"Thanks."

Shido pats Kurumi's shoulder before heading to Mio's room.

In truth he had wanted to hug her for being able to follow along, but there was a time and place for everything, and dinner did not seem like the right time.

"Is Onee-chan sad?"

Sawa looks at Kurumi for an answer.

It seemed that even the youngest daughter could tell something was amiss.

Kurumi responds with a reassuring smile.

"It looks like it. But papa can make her feel better."

Kurumi wipes Sawa's mouth after noticing a bit of food on her face.

Sawa had been getting better at keeping things clean while she ate, but she still made careless mistakes now and then.

"Mama could help too, but I don't think I'll need to."

Sawa smiles, admiring her confident mother.

"But Shinji."

Kurumi looks at Shinji, who had kept eating.

"Mio will probably want your company afterwards."

"Yeah."

Shinji nods and takes another bite of food.

Mio always spent as much time as she could with Shinji.

If anything, it was stranger that Mio had left the dinner table without him.

Shido made a few knocks on Mio's door, not caring if it was locked or not.

"Mio, you in there?"

It didn't take too long for the door to open slightly.

Mio poked her head out to see who was behind it.

"...Did you need something, dad?"

The lights weren't on, but Shido could tell Mio's eyes were a little puffy.

"...Wanna hang out somewhere tomorrow?"

"...I have school tomorrow. Also don't you have work?"

"We could both call in sick."

"Lying is bad, dad."

"So is letting my daughter stay sad."

Shido gave a gentle smile while Mio stayed silent.

"...I still think I should go. Shin will be there, after all."

"Do you at least want to talk about it? It looks to me like you can't talk about it with your brother."

"..."

The door to Mio's room opens wider.

Shido took that as a sign that he could go in.

Mio closes it when he enters and turns on the lights.

She sits on her bed while Shido sits on the chair behind her desk.

"So, what's the matter?"

"..."

Mio's hesitation was long.

The silence between her and Shido had lasted for a long minute.

"...My friends told me...a brother and sister can't get married..."

Shido tilts his head.

"...Didn't you already know that?"

Mio nods.

"But..."

She hugs her knees.

"I can't do it, dad...I can't let him go..."

She looks at her father for help.

"...What should I do?"

Shido looks at Mio, surprised.

The surprise wasn't from the fact that Mio loved her brother.

It was from how much she loved her brother.

He had underestimated his daughter.

Fortunately, there was something that he could do for her.

"Sorry, I know I came in to talk to you, but give me one second."

Shido takes his phone from out of his pocket and immediately calls someone from his contacts list.

The person he had called picked up quickly.

"Hello? It's me, Shido. Is this a good time?"

Mio continued to look at her father quietly.

"Actually, I was wondering if I could come visit you. There's someone I'd like to introduce."

Shido nodded to the voice he heard as if it had given him the answer he wanted to hear most.

"Great, thank you."

He hangs up and puts his phone back in his pocket.

"...Let's go see the Woodmans. There's someone I want you to meet."

"Right now?"

"Yeah. If we save it for tomorrow you'll be feeling like this all day."

Mio continues to look at Shido, not really in the mood to move.

"We can get ice cream later."

She wasn't a child anymore, but food was always a good motivator for her.

Shinji would have been an even better motivator, but this time he wasn't an option, as Mio had to overcome this emotional hurdle herself.

Her father was only planning to give her a different perspective.

"There's this guy I've been wanting you to meet, but his family's been busy, so we haven't had the time to really set up a get-together or anything."

"..."

"Actually, there was that one time we tried taking you to a party, but you and Shinji turned down the invitation, so only Sawa's the one who's met him."

Shido and Mio were walking up to a large house.

The family that had decided to move here had not been around Tenguu City for as long as Shido has.

But that did not mean that they were unfamiliar with the neighborhood.

In fact they had business in Tenguu City very often in the past, and in time they had decided it would be more interesting to settle down in the area.

"We won't be here long."

Shido rang the doorbell.

Since he had called someone beforehand, it did not take long for the door to open.

The one who had come to greet them was a boy who looked like he was around Sawa's age.

"Oh, Shido-san. Hello."

"Hey, Isaac."

Shido raised a hand to return the greeting of the boy named Isaac.

"Are your parents home?"

The one Shido had called on the phone was not Isaac, but instead Isaac's father.

"Yes, they're home. They've been expecting you. Please come in."

"Thanks, we'll make it quick. Ah before that, there's someone I want to introduce you to."

Isaac had noticed Mio looking back and forth between him and her father for a while already.

However Isaac himself was waiting for Shido to introduce her.

"This is Mio, Sawa's older sister."

"Hello."

Mio gives a small nod, still not sure of why she was here.

The boy in front of her greets with a slight bow.

He had learned his manners at an early age.

"Nice to meet you, Mio-san. Your sister Sawa's been taking good care of me. Once again my name is Isaac."

If someone had asked him why he was so well-behaved, he would most likely say it was thanks to his loving parents.

"Isaac Woodman."

And because of that, there was something that he and Mio had in common.

"What did you think of Isaac?"

Shido and Mio were eating ice cream at a high-ground park.

The visit to the Woodman family's house had not been anything special, so they did not stay for long.

Mio had already met Isaac's parents elsewhere not too long ago, but Shido had wanted to have her meet their son.

The rest of the visit had been saying hello and catching up with Elliot and Karen, the parents.

"He was a nice guy."

"I see, I'm glad you seem to like him."

Shido bit off a part of his popsicle before continuing to talk.

"So, do you think he's your type?"

Mio had been enjoying her own treat, but froze for a moment after she heard that question.

Her expression quickly turned into one that showed that she was now annoyed.

"Dad, did you just bring me with you to introduce me to another guy?"

Shido felt a small pang of guilt, but he had his reasons for doing what he did.

"Sorry, I wanted to see if you really had feelings for Shinji."

Perhaps the test had been unnecessary, but for Shido the answer Mio came up with meant something.

"That's not really why I brought you with me."

His popsicle was already nearly finished.

"Do you know how old Isaac's parents are?"

Mio froze again to think, then shook her head.

The only thing she could tell after seeing them was that they were noticeably older than her father.

"Well, I probably shouldn't give his exact age, so let's just say his dad is at least seventy."

"Seventy!?"

"Yeah. Not to insult him, but that's pretty old, don't you think?"

Mio nods, paying less attention to her ice cream.

"And Isaac's only in grade school. Do you think that's weird?"

For Mio it certainly was weird, but she remained quiet.

"If things happened a little earlier, I'd feel bad for him. It's usually not a good idea to have kids when you're old. They could grow up with birth defects."

Shido looks over to Mio, his popsicle now finished.

"The same can happen if a brother and sister decide to have kids."

Mio did not understand how this conversation had jumped to being about siblings, but hearing that truth had already ruined her mood.

She no longer had it in her to finish her popsicle.

"Dad, this talk is getting depressing. Can we please stop?"

"I think you should hear this though. Do you really think I took my own daughter out here just to break her heart? What kind of dad do you take me for?"

Shido grinned as if he knew that was how Mio would react.

He leaned back on the park bench they were sitting on and held up one finger.

"Okay, first question. Do you know what a realizer is?"

"..."

"It was mostly used for fighting, but it can do a lot of other amazing things too. Like regrow limbs."

There was a certain corporation that had a record of cutting off arms and regrowing them with their technology.

"Your aunt Mana got to live longer thanks to it, though that wasn't entirely thanks to realizers."

Not that he was counting, but his blood-related sister being alive and healthy was another reason for Shido to love his wife.

"And now, it can help fight against birth defects."

The conversation had gotten surprisingly hopeful.

"Second question. Why do you think Isaac's parents decided to have a son at such an old age?"

"..."

"It's because of the realizer. They know nothing bad will happen to his health even if they're old."

Karen Woodman was very happy when she had learned about the scientific breakthrough.

"Medical technology's gotten pretty amazing. Even old people can have kids now. The life expectancy of Isaac's parents is said to even be over 100 years."

For Shido, that meant that he could also live for that long.

He would be able to experience all kinds of happiness for much longer.

"Now do you know why I brought you along?"

"I don't think I do..."

Mio was truly lost.

What did medical technology have to do with her feelings for Shinji?

"Then third question. If Issac Woodman's parents are allowed to be happy, then why can't you?"

For some reason, that question had caught her off guard.

"...I'm not sure if you've thought about this yet, but did you know that boys are allowed to marry other boys now?"

"..."

"It's not just boys either, girls are allowed to marry other girls too. Your aunt Miku was so happy when she heard about it the first time."

Miku Izayoi had proposed to Tohka as a joke when she heard that, but to her despair she was shot down.

"In fact, people don't have to stay as a boy or a girl anymore."

Shido hoped that his children would never find out about their mother "Shiori".

"Do you not think that any of those things are weird?"

Those ideas had certainly been weird to Mio, but she did not know what to say.

She was not against any kind of romance between people, but none of that was what she was going through.

"The point I've been trying to make, Mio, is that the world keeps changing."

"..."

"Not to mention the world has plenty of issues already. A brother and sister getting married is the least of its problems."

Shido began to pat Mio's head with the hand that wasn't holding his popsicle stick.

"Marry your brother, if that's what you want."

"..."

"No matter what happens, your mom and I support you."

"..."

"Your popsicle's melting."

Mio hesitated but then quickly finished the rest of her ice cream after being told that.

What was different from when she had started eating it, however, was that when she finished, a thin smile had grown on her face.

Her father had been so supportive that it felt a little silly to her.

And so she could not help but quietly laugh.

"...Thanks dad."

She thought it would have taken time to get over her feelings for her brother.

But it had turned out that she did not need to get over them at all.

Later that night.

Shinji had grown thirsty and went downstairs for a glass of water, already forgetting what his mother had told him during dinner.

To his surprise, the lights had already been turned on in the kitchen.

Walking in, he sees Mio eating at the dinner table alone.

She seemed much happier than when he had returned from school with her.

"Hey, how are you feeling?"

Mio looks up and gives a heartwarming smile.

"Oh, Shin."

Shinji gets his glass of water and sits next to her.

"I've never felt better."

Mio's mood had improved even further now that her brother was with her.

"That's good. Guess dad cheered you up then."

"Yeah."

Shinji starts drinking his glass.

He still had much to learn if he wanted to keep up with his father.

"Hey, Shin."

"Hm?"

Shinji looks at Mio while still drinking.

"Let's get married."

Shinji immediately chokes on his water and spills it.

Violent coughing followed after.

"Could you...at least wait...next time you ask something so crazy...?"

Shinji was now on his hands and knees on the floor, catching his breath.

"Is...that a no?"

Mio would not drop the subject.

For a moment her mood had plummeted again.

"That's not the problem! Find a better timing for this stuff!"

Shinji cleaned up the water he had spilled and sat next to Mio again.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself."

Shinji had nothing to say about Mio's impulse.

Now that the last wall had been broken down, she saw no reason to hold back anymore.

"...When do you want to do it?"

Mio looks over to Shinji.

The question had come from him.

"...Are you being serious?"

"Were you not being serious?"

"No, I was one-hundred percent serious."

She looks back at her food, her face turning slightly red.

"I mean, we are still in middle school, so I thought maybe you were thinking I was being silly or something."

"Mom and I talked about this years ago, it's not something I can really take as a joke."

The talk between Shinji and Kurumi had been similar to the one that Shido and Mio had.

However the one thing that Shinji had thought was odd about the talk was that Kurumi had said something about having to fight for his father over two-hundred times to be with him.

Somehow that had led to Kurumi getting carried away and telling her son that he should never give up on his romantic feelings.

"I-I could wait if you're not ready..."

"Well, I do think it's a little soon..."

The mood had certainly gotten awkward.

"But it could happen someday."

Mio continued eating to distract herself while not knowing what to say.

"Besides..."

Shinji turns his head to look away.

"...It's not like there's going to be anyone else."

He hears a clattering sound.

Shinji turns back to see Mio had dropped her chopsticks and her face had grown red.

"I-I see..."

Seeing Mio's face also made Shinji's face turn red.

An awkward silence grew between them until Shinji decided to pick up Mio's chopsticks for her.

"Come on. You're still hungry, right?"

Shinji took a piece of the leftover salsbury steak that his mother had saved for Mio and carried it over to her.

Mio froze for a moment before agreeing to let Shinji feed her.

Her heart was about to explode with joy.

Shinji placed the chopsticks down, unsure if he had it in him to do it again.

Another awkward silence came.

The next person to break it was Mio.

"I love you."

Shinji twitched at those words.

He got out of his seat in response.

"I'm going back to bed."

"Okay...good night, Shin. And thanks."

Shinji had already started heading towards the staircase.

But before he left the room, he stopped to say one more thing.

"By the way, I love you too."

And proceeded to head to his room.

He did not have it in him to turn around and look at Mio.

Though both of them had managed to eventually bring themselves to bed, neither of them could sleep that night.