"I still don't get it, Onee-chan."

Kotonoha put the box aside. She crouched down in front of her little sister.

"Mom and dad are… they have a big fight. You know how people can get into fights, right?"

Kokoro nodded. "But they always make up afterwards."

"With adults… well, they don't always make up. This is serious. Dad has… has someone else. A new wife."

"And mom?"

"She has a new husband as well."

She frowned. "So we have to move?"

"They both want you to live with them. So we figured it was best if you lived with me and Makoto. You like Makoto, don't you?"

"Yes, but… am I never going to see mom and dad again?"

"I'm sorry, Kokoro-chan. They have new lives now."

Kokoro sighed. "I think… I get it."

"I know it's hard. But I'll be there for you, Kokoro. And so will Makoto."

She hugged her sister.

"Where are we going?" Kokoro asked.

"Not so far. You know dad has lots of houses, right?"

"Yeah?"
"We're going to one of those."

Her little sister nodded. "Okay then."

"Come on. We're almost done."

They moved the last boxes to the van Makoto had rented.

"Hey uhm, Makoto?" she asked.

"Hm?

"Who's gonna drive?"

"Me, of course." He put the box inside.
"You can drive?"

"My mom taught me. How do you think I got rid off-… uhum, never mind that."

"But, what if they stop us?"

"Fake ID and driver's license. Don't worry." He closed the doors of the van.

"Wow that's… convenient."

"Look," Makoto said. "My mom has it really tough. She's working all the time. So she got me a fake driver's license so I could go grocery shopping okay?"

"I'm sorry. Your mom is gonna be all alone now."

"It's okay."

"No, really. This is all because of me."

"Don't worry about it. I'll still go visit her. She'll be fine."

Makoto got into the car.

Kotonoha touched her necklace. It was a simple pendant. Makoto had bought it somewhere in Sakakino Hills on the day-

"Kotonoha? You coming?"

"Oh, of course."

She got into the van too. There were three seats in the front so Kokoro ended up between them. She seemed to like this quite a lot.

Makoto drove to their new house.

It took them about forty-five minutes to get there.

Their new home was on the edge of the city. It was pretty big and surrounded by hedges to give them privacy. This house had a pool, but only an outside one. There was a sauna and bubble bath as well.

"Why don't you go check inside, Kokoro?" Makoto said.

They had already seen it, but Kokoro hadn't.

"Okay."
He opened the door for her and she ran inside.

In the meantime, Kotonoha and Makoto unloaded the van.

About halfway through, Kotonoha encountered something strange.

"Makoto? What is this?" She held up a brown package.

"It's not yours?"

"What?"

"While I was loading the van, I found that on the doorstep. I figured you had dropped it on your way to the van."
"I've never seen this before."
"Hm. Well check what's inside then."

Kotonoha opened the paper and looked inside.

She turned white.

"And?"

"Nothing." Kotonoha held it behind her back.

"So it's yours?" he asked.

"Yeah, I forgot I packed it."

"Okay."

He picked up another box and carried it inside.

That was strange.

She had expected he would get angry and demand to see what was inside. He seemed awfully okay with this given she was clearly trying to hide something from him.

They finished unloading some time later.

Kotonoha collapsed on the couch.

"The rest can wait for a bit," Makoto said. "I'm tired."

Their house already had furniture, so they only had to unpack their clothes and personal stuff.

Kotonoha touched her pendant. She should change it to her collar. They were alone now, this pendant was only for when they were in public.

But Makoto didn't tell her to change it.

Why didn't he tell her?

"Are you okay, Makoto-kun?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure, why?"

"Nothing."

Makoto had been acting strange every since… the incident with her mom. He had exchanged her collar for this pendant and hadn't switched it back since. They had been busy looking at houses, schools and arranging their move in general, but even so, it was really weird he acted like this. They hadn't done any kind of sexual stuff since then. It was like he wasn't interested in her anymore.

"Onee-chan," Kokoro entered. "When will we start unpacking?"

"I'm tired, Kokoro. We just unloaded everything. And you weren't much help."
"What? I totally helped."

"Sure, sure."

"And I need my white dress tonight," Kokoro said. "So we need to unpack now."

"Kokoro has a point," Makoto said. "We can't just keep all these boxes in the living room. We'll never find anything like this."

"I guess."

Everything had been neatly packed, but in the process of moving them here, they had lost track of the individual boxes. At this point, she had no idea what was in which box.

"Let's just check each box and put them together," Makoto said. "Then we can at least find everything."

"Okay."

Makoto opened the nearest box. "Clothes from you, I think."

"You sure?"

"Well," he took out a bra. "This looks like your size."
"Makoto!" With a blush she grabbed the bra and tossed it inside again.

He chuckled. "Okay, so your clothes pile will be over here."
He moved the box in a corner.

"Then my pile is here," Kokoro said. She moved a box as well.

"Sure."
They started organising the boxes.

Moving sure was a lot of work. And even if these boxes were all unpacked, Kotonoha knew there would be more work. They still had to divide all the housework. Who would cook and clean? Who would go grocery shopping?

Would Makoto want her to do all of it? She wou-

A ripping sound brought her back from her tangent.

Books spilled out of the box she had tried to lift.

"Sorry," Kotonoha said.

The underside had ripped. Which was no wonder since the box was filled with heavy books. Mostly manga from Makoto. And a bunch of black notebooks.

"I'll clean it up." She crouched down.

"No, no. I'll handle it."
Makoto crouched down next to her. He gently pushed her aside.

"No, it's my fault," she insisted.

He took her hands. She felt a strange electricity when he touched her. "Kotonoha. You can't lift this box anyway. Why don't you focus on the clothes and I'll do the heavier stuff?"

"Okay."

Kotonoha let him clean up.

He took a box with his clothes and emptied it onto the living room table. Then, he put the books inside that box. When he was finished, he lifted the box, careful to hold it on the underside, and went to the hallway.

Kotonoha focused on sorting out the rest.

They finished a bit later.

All of them collapsed on the couch.

"I say we order pizza," Kotonoha said.

"You're crazy if you thought I was gonna cook something," Makoto replied.

"We can't," Kotonoha said. "We don't have anything in house. Someone will have to go grocery shopping tomorrow."

"If you insist, you can go."

"I'd love to, but I don't have a driver's license. I can't drive that van."

"Oh fu-" his eye fell on Kokoro. "Uhum… snap."

"What's wrong?"

"I need to bring the van back. I rented it, remember? It has to be back in half an hour."

"Then how are we gonna go grocery shopping?"

"I don't know? We'll have them delivered?"

"Maybe we need a car just in case though."

"Well does… you have some cars, right? At your old home?"

"Oh, yeah, good idea. The keys are all on the hooks near the front door."

"So which one should I bring back?"

"I guess the black-"
"What?" Kokoro interrupted them. "We should have mom's car."

"The red convertible?"
"Of course. Dad's car is boring."

Makoto smiled. "Convertible it is then." He stood up. "I'll go bring the van back and get the convertible. Will you be okay?"

"I'll start unpacking a bit more in the meantime," Kotonoha said.

"You don't have to-"

"No, no, I insist. I'd feel bad doing nothing."

And she needed something to distract herself. Being without Makoto was scary. What if she killed Kokoro-chan this time?

"Okay then," Makoto said. "See you soon."

They kissed and Makoto left.

It was silent for a moment. Kotonoha got up to unpack.

"Onee-chan?"

"Hm?"

"What do you think those books where?"

"Just some manga."

"Then why did Makoto-kun hide them on the attic?"

"What?"

"I followed Makoto-kun, and I saw him going to the attic with that box."

"Ye, you should respect his privacy," Kotonoha said.

"Maybe it's porn?"

"Kokoro!"

"I'm gonna have a look." She jumped up.

"No, you stay here."

Kotonoha pushed her sister down on the couch.

Kokoro pouted.

She better go up and hide them somewhere else. Kokoro would definitely go and find them. It probably wasn't porn, but still.

Kotonoha went to the attic.

There was quite a lot of mess here, but with some searching, she found the box.

The manga turned out to be quite harmless. There was some very light sexy content, but not much. She didn't even see any nipples. At worst, there were some panty shots.

For some reason, Kotonoha was disappointed with that. Had he hidden his real porn somewhere else?

Her eye fell on the black notebooks on the bottom of the box.

Those were his diaries.

She shouldn't. And yet…

Kotonoha picked out two of them and stuffed them beneath her shirt.

Then, she went down.

Kokoro was waiting in the hallway.

"And? Did you find his porn?"

"I don't want you going up there, Kokoro-chan."

"What? That's so unfair."

"Well, life isn't fair."

Kotonoha folded in the ladder and closed the hatch.

"I'm going anyway when you're not looking," Kokoro said.

"I don't think so."

Kotonoha took the stick with her to her room.

Without the stick with the hook on it, you couldn't reach the hatch. Especially when you were as small as Kokoro-chan.

After a few minutes, she heard Kokoro stomp down the stairs in defeat.

Kotonoha took out the notebooks and lied down on the bed.

This was wrong. This was so wrong.

If Makoto found out, he'd freak out. He'd probably put on her shock collar again and punish her. Or maybe he'd spank her.

Somehow, the thought really excited her.

This was his fault, she reasoned. She had asked him to take charge and he hadn't done it. She had asked him to make all the decisions for her, but hardly anything had changed.

He had to take responsibility. And if he didn't do it by himself, she'd just have to give him a little push.

There was no way she could ask for it again. That was simply too embarrassing. No, this was easier. She just had to lie here and read his diary until he came and put her in her proper place.

Slowly, her hand went beneath her waistband to touch her-

No, no, focus.

Kotonoha grabbed the diary with both hands and opened it.

Her heart skipped several beats.

She recognised the date at the top. It was the day they had first met on the train.

What a coincidence this was the diary she had taken. And what a coincidence he had started a new one on that exact date.

Wait a second. It wasn't a coincidence.

Today, I start my experiment. I've observed this girl for a few weeks now and she's perfect. Her name is Kotonoha Katsura. She doesn't have any friends and-

Kotonoha forced herself to stop reading. This wasn't possible.

She had known this of course. Makoto had figured out strange things were happening around him. Lots of girls had a crush on him, when he went swimming, their bikinis happened to malfunction. He had strange prophetic dreams. It was all too much to be a coincidence. So when he started dating her it had been somewhat of an experiment. She knew all that.

But she had always assumed it was more of a test and she had been picked quite randomly. But this tone was different. If Makoto had observed her for weeks then…

Her heart started beating faster.

Was she holding the answers right here in her hand?

Wait, she couldn't do this.

Kotonoha closed the notebook.

This wasn't okay. She should respect his privacy. Even if…

Even if Makoto was…

She sighed. She had to know. She needed all the answers. And if Makoto wouldn't give them to her, she'd take them by force.

Kotonoha opened it again and read on.

Kotonoha is very clumsy. She loses balance on the train and she managed to trip over her own shoelaces.

So that really was just her being clumsy?

Kotonoha sighed. Maybe she was being paranoid again?

She almost closed the diary again, but then decided to read on for just a bit more.

I used my powers to make her faint.

What?

Kotonoha forced herself to stay calm.

This… this wasn't possible. Makoto would never…

And yet, he was writing it down so it had to be true.

Unless…

Maybe this was fictional? Maybe Makoto invented stories around what happened to make it more interesting? This was his personal diary after all. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't be reading this.

I had never done this before, and I think it only worked because she is anemic. I'll have to confirm it on Sekai later.

He then described how he had carried her to the school nurse and the rest of the events of that day. And then…

Making her faint depleted my powers completely. I recharged myself that night and the nights after that.

No wonder he had been so scared she would read his diary.

Hm. Powers. Recharging. Depleting. So he really had some kind of supernatural powers? She had been right all along?

Kotonoha went on to the next day.

I've tested it on Sekai. I can make her get a headache, but she doesn't faint. I think it's stronger on anemic people. Kotonoha really is the perfect test subject.

The next pages were surprisingly disappointing. He had indeed tried to kiss her on their first date and twisted things around later, but there was no mind control involved. She read his frustration that he wasn't capable of controlling her mind. He wasn't manipulating her dreams either. Although he could see some of them, he couldn't control them. He had his own dreams as well. Mostly sexy dreams, just like her.

The next time he had used his powers was to make her faint again. Apparently it took him days to 'recharge', although she couldn't find out how he did that.

She read on. Makoto didn't have anything to do with her little wardrobe malfunction at the pool either. It had been a coincidence and he was genuinely concerned about her.

Kotonoha gasped when she read on.

Things are starting to get difficult. I'm falling in love with Kotonoha. We had an argument at the pool. She's aware of all the weird coincidences, but other than the fainting I have nothing to do with that. Is there some kind of passive effect of my powers? If that's the case, it's not gonna stop unless I stop dating her. But I can't. Kotonoha is amazing. I'm really starting to fall for her. I know it's wrong. I should tell her the truth, but I can't. She's gonna feel betrayed and she will stop going out with me.

Argh. Why is this so difficult?

I won't use my powers again. I know Kotonoha was supposed to be a test subject, but I can't do it. I can't use her like this.

Kotonoha read on.

He later described how he felt like his powers were growing ever since they kissed. And when she made him cum, he 'recharged' instantly and grew stronger. Apparently recharging had something to do with sex. And the more sexual stuff they did, the stronger he grew. Especially when she was submissive to him.

Makoto described how his powers had grown stronger and he had made Sekai faint. This had happened after she had given him a titty fuck at her pool.

She turned the-

A sudden sound disturbed her.

"I'm home," a voice announced.

Kotonoha cursed under her breath. She was almost finished with the first diary, but there was no time left now.

Kotonoha tossed the diaries under the bed. Then, she laid back and closed her eyes.

Not long after, the door opened.

"Oh, here you are."

"Huh?" She pretended to wake up.

"Unpacking huh?" he asked, oblivious.

"Sorry. I just planned to rest for five minutes."

"I see that."

"Sorry." She showed him an apologetic smile.

"It's okay. We have plenty of time to unpack. So, you're hungry too? Cause I'm starving."

"Yeah, me too."

She followed him downstairs.

What would she do now?

Maybe Makoto was manipulating her. Maybe he had written that diary knowing she would find it and-

No, no. This was absurd. She kept looking for ways to make the facts suit her own theories, but none of them worked.

There was only one question she had to answer.

Did she trust Makoto?