Chapter 31
The middle of February, a busy time for girls was currently ongoing because Valentine's Day was just around the corner. The twins had just entered a supermarket together and stopped right in front of a shelf filled with different kinds of chocolate.
"Well then, Tsukasa-sensei, what do you think is possible for me to make?"
"S-Sensei?" Tsukasa was surprised at the sudden change in her standing.
"Not good?"
"I-I'll allow it!" She liked it very much.
"So?"
"Hmm…" Tsukasa intensely stared at the chocolate for a while and then grabbed something. "W-Well…"
"Really?" Looking with cold eyes at the perfectly wrapped gift box of pre-made chocolate, Kagami wasn't very amused with the choice.
"B-But…"
"You do remember that my cooking skills are basically decent, thanks to Kona, by now, right, sis?"
"Why don't you make them with Kona-chan then?"
"For obvious reasons… You now, Kona being my girlfriend and it being Valentine's Day…"
"R-Right…" Even though Tsukasa had already acknowledged the miracle achieved by Konata, the trauma of her sister being in the kitchen runs deep.
"Although I don't know if Kona even makes anything, I still want to give her something…"
"Okay…" Tsukasa had nothing she could say against her anymore. "Oh, how about brownies? They're fairly easy to make, even with real chocolate."
"Brownies, huh? Why not, what do I need?"
"Tons of chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs, flour and cocoa powder."
"Uwah… Sounds healthy…"
"Onee-chan… You're going to make them for Kona-chan, not to eat them yourself…"
"R-Right…" She clearly looked disappointed. After getting over it, she placed a generous amount of dark and milk chocolate into her shopping basket.
"O-Onee-chan… That's enough for four trays of brownies, you know?"
"Four, huh?" She looked at her basket and then placed two more bars of chocolate in it.
"Ehh?"
"Tsukasa, do you really think I will succeed on my first try?" Kagami knew she had improved in the kitchen and the most important thing she learned for herself, was to calculate mistakes into her planning.
"I see!" Tsukasa finally understood and then placed even more chocolate into Kagami's basket.
"Oi!"
"I'm just helping you, onee-chan~."
"You're spending too much time with Kona, sis. Where did my obedient little sister go to?" She acted pretty dramatically while saying so.
"If we're talking about changes caused by Kona-chan, we're going to have to look for a mirror, onee-chan."
"Fair point." She didn't even try to deny it.
After deciding on a suitable amount of chocolate for Kagami, Tsukasa quickly, and full of confidence, grabbed all sorts of different chocolate for her project. Before finally leaving the store again, the two picked the other ingredients for the brownies and paid a surprisingly high amount of money to the clerk at the checkout.
…..
The twins arrived back home after a bit of walking and directly hogged the kitchen.
Well then, instructions please, Tsukasa-sensei."
"Ehehe~. A-Ahem… Melt the chocolate, add the butter, stir a lot and then, slowly added the remaining ingredients, I guess…" Tsukasa has yet to learn the importance of telling every single detail to Kagami in the kitchen.
"Okay, sounds easy enough. Hmm… Oh, melting chocolate was that over water thing, right?"
"Exactly."
"Great." Without anyone holding her back, Kagami directly sprang into action. She brought water in a pot to boil and placed a bowl with a whole bar of chocolate on top of it. Some time passed, but something wasn't going according to plan. "Sis, I don't think…"
"Hmm? Eh?! W-What happened?" Tsukasa looked at the chocolate and saw that it was completely burned.
"How should I know?"
"Well…" She lifted up the bowl and directly saw the problem. "I see… Onee-chan, you put too much water in the pot. The bowl shouldn't directly touch the boiling water because it's too hot. The chocolate is only supposed to be heated up by the steam."
"Oh~, I see."
"Still… to burn chocolate to a crisp with water… As expected of onee-chan."
"Did you say something, sis?"
"Also, if you cut the chocolate into smaller chunks, it'll heat up faster and more evenly." Tsukasa completely ignored her.
"Thanks." Not discouraged at all, Kagami placed some chocolate on a cutting board and tried to chop it with a knife. Unfortunately, for Tsukasa, chocolate is rather hard when not melted. Kagami applied too much pressure with her knife on the chocolate and a big piece of it broke up with great force. Said piece left afterimages in the air before hitting Tsukasa right between her eyes.
"!" Not even a sound of pain left the assassinated target before it slumped down on the floor while holding her head to support it.
"A-Are you alright, sis?!"
"I-I've been better before, but I'll survive… probably…"
"I'm sorry…"
"Don't worry, onee-chan, it wasn't on purpose, right? Please be a little more careful, though, okay?"
"I-I'll do my best" Kagami tried to cut the chocolate again and thanks to being a lot more careful, she finally succeeded. She then put it into the cleaned bowl again and started a new try on melting it. It went well, or so she thought at first. "Hey, sis, the chocolate is melted now, but somehow, the consistency of it is rather… weird." Kagami poked at the melted chocolate, which somehow was all clumped up.
"Ah… It's seized, onee-chan…" Tsukasa saw with just a short glimpse only that it was ruined.
"Eh? Why?"
"It probably came in contact with the water you used to melt it."
"I don't think so… Wait, I think it's possible that the bowl wasn't completely dry after I cleaned it. Is that enough already?"
"Yeah, that's it. A single drop of water can already ruin your complete chocolate. The fat in it doesn't work well with water. Well, you can somehow fix it, but the chocolate will never be as good as before…"
"A new try it is, then" Perfect was the only option for Kagami when working on something for Konata.
"Okay, you still have a few tries until you run out of ingredients. Go for it."
"Yeah." Kagami melted another badge of chocolate and this time, it really looked good. After she succeeded, Tsukasa told her mix in the butter and then let it cool down a little before continuing with the remaining ingredients. Quite an amount of time passed and she grew impatient. "Sis, how much longer do I have to wait?"
"Eh?"
"Huh?" She didn't understand why Tsukasa sounded surprised.
"O-Onee-chan, you were only supposed to wait a few minutes… It only should cool down a couple degrees… Ah, yep, it's hard again…" Tsukasa analyzed and she had bad news for the patient.
"Why didn't you tell me so?!"
"I-I thought you knew. It's pretty…"
"Great… Another new try it is…"
"Nonono, just carefully reheating is enough. You only lost a little time, not the patient."
"Oh, it's not so bad then." Kagami's resistance against failures had become rather thick after her training with Konata. After the mix had the optimal temperature again, she started adding the, already portioned, other ingredients. Everything went well until her elbow accidentally hit the package of the remaining flour. It made a splendid arch in the air and then energetically exploded on the floor. The huge 'flour-cloud' filled up almost the entire kitchen and turned it into a winter wonderland, but Kagami didn't care about it at all and simply continued to mix the ingredients as a white ghost.
"O-Onee-chan…?" Tsukasa wasn't sure how to react or what to say.
"Don't, I'm concentrating over here!"
"O-Okay…" Being in a blind spot shielded Tsukasa from most of the flour, but looking at her sister and the rest of the kitchen, it really wasn't okay at all.
"Hmm…" Finishing her preparations, Kagami started smiling and finally looked at Tsukasa, but completely ignored the situation. "I'm done~! What's next?"
"O-Onee-chan, what about…" Tsukasa pointed at the complete white girl in front of her and then at the rest of the kitchen.
"Don't mind the small details."
"Uhm… J-Just put the batter in a rectangular form and bake it for 30 mins… I already preheated the oven for you earlier…" Tsukasa had problems keeping up with her sister.
"Thanks~." She did as told and after the brownies were safely in the oven, she finally looked around the kitchen. "Wow, flour sure is… It really is everywhere…"
"Onee-chan…" Tsukasa actually let out a sigh. "Did Kona-chan really teach you how to cook or was it just lessons in how not to care about mistakes anymore?" The past few mistakes were a clear indicator against the former.
"It's kind of weird actually… When I'm with Kona, I already make next to no big mistakes anymore…" She also had no explanation for today.
"Really? Somehow, I can't see it at all…"
"It really is! Kona even praised my improvements not too long ago… Ah!" While Kagami was happily thinking about how Konata praised her, she looked at the oven and panicked a little. "The batter isn't evenly spread in the form and… Isn't the temperature also a bit too high? Have I accidentally changed it when I put the brownies in the oven?" While she was correcting her mistakes, Tsukasa had a blank look on her face.
"…" There was nothing coming out of her open mouth.
"What's wrong, sis?" Kagami didn't understand why she was looking like that.
"Onee-chan… You were just thinking about Kona-chan, weren't you? Just by doing that, you even saw the slightest detail… I don't even know what to say right now…"
"Ehehe~."
"I'm definitely not praising you! Wait! Why do I have the feeling that our roles are reversed right now?!" Tsukasa wasn't used to play the straight man in a conversation with her.
"Maybe Kona's the reason I'm able to cook and without her, I'm still useless in the kitchen…?"
"Oh, that's easy then. You just have to stay with Kona-chan for the rest of your life then, onee-chan."
"…" Kagami didn't answer and the only thing that changed was the color of her cheeks, who became dyed in a deep crimson.
"Onee-chan…" Tsukasa was again unable to say anything meaningful and just looked at her with warm eyes. Deep down, she maybe even was a little jealous.
While waiting for the brownies to bake, Kagami started cleaning up the kitchen. The mess she had produced was pretty big after all. 29 minutes passed and her eyes were now glued to the oven. Another minute went by and Kagami was smiling from ear to as she took the perfectly baked brownies out of the oven.
"They're done~."
"Good for you, onee-chan. Oh~, they look really good. It seems like they were a great success."
"Ehehe~." Kagami was pretty satisfied with herself.
"All that's left now is letting them cool down before cutting."
"Yeah, thanks for helping me, sis. By the way, what are you going to make for Vale-… Eh?" She was interested in the sweets Tsukasa's going to make, but when she looked at her, her surprise was big.
"Hmm? Me? I made pralines." In front of Tsukasa, there were about 50 perfectly manufactured pralines. The great variety and flawless look easily rivaled those of a professional patissier.
"Ehm… T-Tsukasa, where did those pralines come from?"
"I just told you that I made them…"
"Nonono… Didn't they appear out of nowhere just now?" She couldn't believe that Tsukasa made them in such a short amount of time.
"No…? I was working on them the entire time you were busy with your brownies…"
"R-Really…?"
"Really."
"I never noticed…" Kagami really had seen nothing at all.
"Well… You were pretty concentrated on your brownies."
"Are you sure you haven't used some sort of magic, sis? Like instant creation or teleportation, or time-…"
"No, Kona-chan, I didn't use any magic… Oh, sorry, I meant 'onee-chan'…" Tsukasa forgot for a moment who she was talking to right now.
"…" Kagami's expression was rather difficult to read right now.
"Anyway… Onee-chan, how about go ahead and take a bath now? You still have flour and even a bit chocolate in your hair… No, all over your body…"
"Yeah… That's probably a good idea." She looked down at herself and quickly agreed.
Just like that, a pretty eventful day ended in the Hiiragi household.
…..
Valentine's Day arrived and as usual, the girls were spending their lunch break in school together. Even though this particular day made a lot of their classmates, especially the boys, pretty nervous, our group was basically the same as usual. After a while, Tsukasa was the one who started.
"Here, Kona-chan, Yuki-chan." Tsukasa rummaged a bit in her bag and then handed over two neatly wrapped boxes of pralines to the two. There were some slight differences in them, though. While Konata's pralines were in a rectangular, normal sized box, Miyuki's was twice as big and also heart shaped.
"T-Thank you very much, Tsukasa-san."
"That's some stupidly high quality. You'll become world famous in the future, Tsukasa." Konata's evaluation and praise were as high as they can get.
"T-That's too much, Kona-chan…"
"Nonono… Anyway, Tsukasa, as usual, be sure to not give any of them to anyone else today. There's no way they wouldn't get the wrong idea about it."
"Really? Well, I hadn't planned on giving out anymore either in the first place."
"That's good." Konata was relieved to hear that, but somehow, Miyuki looked even more relieved.
"I-I guess it's my turn now?" Saying so, Miyuki handed over two fancy wrapped pouches with chocolate cookies inside to the twins. The difference in the packaging and the form of the cookies was similar with the pralines of Tsukasa.
"Thank you very much, Yuki-chan~." Tsukasa was happy to receive the cookies from her.
"Haa…" Kagami sighed all of a sudden and when Konata looked at her, she saw that she seemed nervous for some reason.
"What's wrong, Kagamin~?"
"Here!" She suddenly shoved the box with the brownies in Konata's face. "I-It's not like I made them especially for or anything, okay?! I just made them because I felt like it! D-Don't get any funny ideas! There's absolutely no meaning behind it! Hmpf!" At the end, she turned her face away with puffed out cheeks.
"…" Konata was completely speechless as she looked with big eyes and an open mouth at her. Then, suddenly, tears started to form in the corners of her eyes before she instantly hugged Kagami on the spot and brought her mouth closer to her ear. "I love you so much." Konata had understood Kagami's intention and was overjoyed.
"You are welcome…" They almost kissed, but because they remembered that they were still in the classroom, both quickly separated again. Kagami sat down on her chair and immediately buried her face into her hands. "I sooo want to dieee! Acting like this way too embarrassing! How could anyone be like that all the time?! That's why otakus are so…" While she was talking away her embarrassment, three pairs of eyes were staring in disbelief at her.
"…" Nobody could say a single word.
"W-What?" Kagami noticed the stares.
"Kagamin~…"
"Onee-chan…"
"Kagami-san…"
"W-Why are you all looking with such pitiful eyes at me?!"
"Erm…" Konata searched for fitting words. "You did this for me, right? Because I like tsunderes and always called you one, right?"
"Y-Yes… That's why I looked up the typical behavior of a real one and did my best in copying it…"
"Onee-chan…" Tsukasa also looked a bit troubled. "That wasn't very different from how you interacted with Kona-chan about a year ago…"
"N-No way! I-I was never like that!" She denied it with all her might.
"A-Actually…" Even Miyuki had something to add. "Weren't you holding back a little earlier?" No, she didn't add something, she dealt the finishing blow.
"Auu…" She let out a devastated voice. "T-That's not true… R-Right?" She hopefully looked at her friends, but everyone just turned their heads away. Then, Kagami gave up on life, placed her head on the table and folded her hands above it while mumbling something unintelligible. Everyone felt a bit guilty, but because none of them lied, the situation was a little difficult.
"Kagamin~…" She had no comforting words ready. The only thing she could was gently patting her back. Furthermore, Konata was trying her best not to burst into laughing right now, anyway. Roughly five minutes passed and everyone had recovered to some degree again.
"H-How are the brownies, Kona?" Deciding that earlier never happened, Kagami brought the topic back to Valentine's Day.
"Brownies…? Oh… those…" She was so overwhelmed by Kagami's play that she totally hadn't realized the brownies. She immediately tried one and directly held her cheek in delight when tasting it. "W-Wow… such a rich chocolate flavor… They're also really moist and fudgy… They're also not too sweet. The mix of dark and milk chocolate is perfect… W-What's up with those godly brownies?!"
"T-They're not that good…" The over the top praise overwhelmed her a little.
"No, they're simply perfect! I've never eaten so good brownies in my life!"
"Ehehe~." Kagami became bashful, but it was pretty easy to see how happy she was.
"Isn't that nice, onee-chan?" Tsukasa looked at her sister with a sweet smile. "Your hard work really paid out, huh?"
"Yes!" A powerful answer.
"Oh? I smell a delicious story behind those delicious brownies." Konata became interested.
"You see…" Tsukasa told Konata the story of how her clumsy girlfriend did her best in making the brownies for her while almost destroying the kitchen.
"Kagamin~… Your moe level officially went off the charts, you know?"
"S-Shut up, idiot…"
"Why, though? I know that sweets are harder to make than regular cooking because precision is more important, but… you shouldn't be that bad at it anymore…" Konata was surprised at how much she messed up.
"That's actually your fault, Kona-chan."
"Huh?" The sudden accusation confused her.
"Onee-chan's completely unable to cook without you…"
"There's no way that's…" Konata obviously tried to deny such a silly idea, but after she saw Kagami's embarrassed face, she stopped. "Eh?! R-Really?"
"Yes…" Kagami gave her a shy nod.
"Onee-chan kept messing up with everything, but when she started thinking about you, Kona-chan, she suddenly showed professional-like skills…"
"Ehm…" Konata wasn't sure what to say.
"I hope you'll take responsibility for her, Kona-chan."
"R-Responsibility?"
"You'll have to stay forever together with onee-chan because she'll never survive out there on her own."
"T-Tsukasa!" The embarrassment of Kagami reached a new high today. Right now, she just wanted to hide and curl herself up somewhere, but then she noticed Konata looking at her. Their eyes met and when Konata showed her an incredibly sweet and sincere smile, Kagami relaxed again and smiled back.
"Aww…" Tsukasa was a bit disappointed that her teasing failed again, but looking at the two, she didn't feel sad again.
"Hey, Kona…" When the pink space around them started to lessen, she became interested in something. "Are you this year on the receiving end only as well, or…"
"Nope. Here, Tsukasa, have some cookies from me, as well." She gave her come cookies that looked strangely similar to those of Miyuki, but then, Konata looked like she had finished already.
"Eh?" Kagami was obviously surprised that she had gotten nothing.
"Sorry, only good kids get sweets, Kagamin~."
"Is that so? Hmm… Hey, Kona?"
"Yes?"
"I want my brownies back then."
"No, I totally was a good kid!" Hearing those words from Konata, Kagami's face cramped up a little.
"Ko~na~ta~."
"I-I'm just joking, Kagamin~. Of course I have something for you. It's just… you have to come over to my house for it."
"Why does that sounds like a total trap to me?" She felt like it was pretty suspicious sounding.
"Because you have unreasonable trust issues?"
"Whose fault do you think that is?!"
"D-Don't worry, Kagami-san. The thing Konata-san prepared for just became a little too big to bring to school." Miyuki suddenly explained the situation to her.
"Is that so
…? Wait… Why do you know that?" Kagami got only more suspicious about the whole thing.
"Miyuki came to my place yesterday because she wanted a little help with her cookies."
"So that's why Kona-chan's and Yuki-chan's cookies are the same?"
"Yeah, but because I was too busy with Kagamin~'s… thing… I could only help her a bit and claimed a few cookies as a reward."
"W-What do you mean by 'thing'?" It was official now, Kagami had a bad feeling.
"I just overdid it a little, Kagamin~…"
"What do you mean by a 'little'?"
"Maybe it became some sort of monster, whose calorie count easily reached five digits… I mean EASILY…"
"A-Are you serious? I'm going to get sooo faaat~." She started to complain, but strangely, no one believed her protests.
While the group continued to merrily chat with each other, none of them noticed that half of their classmates were crying tears of blood right. They didn't know it, but Tsukasa and Miyuki were actually pretty popular because Tsukasa had a really cute character and a comfy aura around her while Miyuki had two other big reasons for her popularity. The demand of Kagami and Konata also wasn't zero for certain groups of people, but every single one knew that approaching would mean instant annihilation caused by Kagami-sama. Some people of a certain group actually thought that would be a reward in itself, but those got stopped by their classmates. Seeing this group of outstanding girls keeping Valentine's Day all for themselves obviously made a lot of people cry more than just ordinary tears. Although, even if the group would be aware of their popularity, nothing would've changed at this point. If anything, things could've gotten even more painful for the class and so, they were actually kind of lucky in a sense.
…
School ended relatively safe for everyone and because Kagami was curious, she directly went together with Konata to her house. Not that it's unusual for her to accompany Konata after school in the first place.
When they arrived, Kagami went to the living room first and waited for a couple minutes before Konata finally joined while carrying something.
"W-What is that?!" She was shocked when she saw the thing Konata was holding.
"Chocolate…?" Konata played innocent. "Mainly…"
"I can see that… more or less, but… a whole cake?! And are those…?"
"Yes, it's a pocky cake~." Konata proudly presented the cake she created. It basically was a chocolate cake, but its entire outside was covered in pocky sticks.
"Wow, that's… wow."
"You have no idea how many pocky fits on such a cake… I almost need eleven boxes of them…"
"E-Eleven?! Don't you think even a fourth of the size would already more than overkill?"
"Well… Yes… I just got too much into it and you can see the result now…"
"Yeah, it's really impressive… Thank you very much, Kona."
"You're welcome." She cut the cake into pieces and gave Kagami a slice who promptly tried it.
"Wow, as expected of you, pocky, chocolate, and cake, it's beyond great. The crispiness of the pocky together with the soft cake is awesome."
"I'm happy to hear it. Well then, good look finishing the cake, Kagamin~."
"There's just no way that's going to happen! I'm not even sure I can more than one slice in one sitting. Do you have any idea how heavy this is?"
"Aww, come on, I'll help you. Here, say 'ahh~'." Even though Kagami still had something on her own plate, Konata suddenly started feeding her.
"I still have… mpffh!" Konata had no mercy and simply shoved it directly into her mouth. Thanks to it being delicious, though, Kagami didn't mind it very much in the end. The cake on her own plate soon had a new use as well. Just like she was being fed right now, she started feeding Konata as some sort of revenge. While the two continued to feed each other, their faces came closer and when they finally reached a 'good' distance, they heard a knock on the door that instantly killed the mood. Sojiro entered the living room and looked at the two for a moment.
"Sorry, am I interrupting something?"
"Yes." Two very honest and strong answers were given.
"S-Sorry… Well, I just wanted to tell you that Yutaka's coming over later."
"Oh, that's cool… Wait, why?"
"She passed her high school entrance exam."
"Good job, Yu-chan… No, that's no reason for her to come over, isn't it?"
"Ah… Just ask her yourself when she's here later…" Saying so, Sojiro left the room again.
"Eh? He's totally hiding something, isn't he?"
"Wait… I think I heard her name before somewhere, but who's Yutaka?" Kagami still hadn't caught up with everything.
"Right… You don't know her, do you? Yutaka's my little cousin."
"Ah, cousin, I see… But by 'little' you only mean that she's younger, right?" Kagami had a few doubts about the world 'little'.
"No… Well, of course she's young when she just passed her exam, but she actually is smaller than I am."
"Heh~?" Kagami didn't believe her.
"Those eyes kind of hurt, Kagamin~."
"I-I'm sorry… It's just that…"
"It's true! You'll see it later!"
….
30 minutes passed and they noticed another person approaching the living room. Yutaka timidly walked inside and stopped when she saw the two girls.
"Whoa, she really is smaller than you, Kona…"
"See!"
"Au…" Not even knowing the name of the girl next to her cousin, Yutaka had already received plenty of damage from her.
"Ah! N-No, I'm terribly sorry! That wasn't nice of me… I hope you won't think too bad of me now… I'm Kagami and I'm…" She started panicking because of her bad first impression and looked at Konata in order to find out how she's supposed to introduce herself. Seeing the mischievous grin of hers, she had a good idea of what she's planning. "I'm a very good friend of Kona…"
"P-Please don't worry about it, Kagami-senpai… It's actually the normal reaction I get…" She still looked a bit depressed. "N-Nice to meet you, Kagami-senpai. A-As you already know, my name is Yutaka, Kobayakawa Yutaka and I'm the cousin of Konata-oneechan." While stuttering a bit, she introduced herself to Kagami.
"Wow, she's such a good girl, Kona…"
"I know, right?"
"So unexpected, knowing that she's part of your family."
"Kagamin~, you're being pretty rude today again…"
"Sorry~." She wasn't sorry at all. "Isn't that nice, though? You do have someone who calls you 'oneechan'.
"W-What?!" Konata's face instantly turned red. "T-Tsukasa told you about it, didn't she?!"
"Of course she did."
"What a traitor!"
"Hehe."
"A-Anyway…" Konata came back to the topic. "Why are you here, Yu-chan?"
"I came to announce that I passed my entrance exam."
"Dad already told me that much, but I still don't understand what that has to do with you coming over her. By the way, congratulations on passing."
"T-Thanks you very much… Wait, nobody told you?"
"About what?"
"I'm going to enter your school this spring, Konata-oneechan."
"Heh? That's great. Although, isn't it a bit far from your place?"
"Y-Yes… Because of that, I'm going to start living here next month…"
"I see… that makes sense… Wait, what?!"
"You really didn't know?"
"Not at all… Why didn't my father say anything?"
"Kona, we're talking about your father here… I bet he thought it would be funny to surprise you with it."
"That actually makes perfect sense…" Konata nodded at Kagami's idea because it definitely is something he would do. "It sure is a nice surprise, though. I look forward to living together with you, Yu-chan."
"M-Me as well… I'll probably be a burden a lot of times, but…"
"Don't worry about it… Wait, it does cut down my quality alone time with Kagamin~, though…"
"Ah! That's true…" Kagami had also understood that there's one more person in the Izumi house now.
"Hmm? Alone time?" Yutaka looked confused.
"I-It's nothing, Yu-chan, you're too young to know anyway…"
"Eh?" Only more question marks started to float above her head.
"Shut up already, Kona." Kagami stopped her before she goes too far again. "By the way, Yutaka, why did you chose our school when you live so far away?"
"That's actually quite simple… Around my place, there aren't any good high schools and so it somehow ended up in the current situation."
"That is indeed simple… Well, our school is pretty good. Even though Kona's there as well…"
"Oi! At least use Tsukasa as an example…"
"Uhm… S-She doesn't know Tsukasa, does she?" Kagami had no better response.
"Yes, I hope it'll go well. The entrance exam was already pretty hard… But I met a really nice person there." Yutaka's eyes suddenly started to sparkle.
"Really? Who was it?"
"I-I don't know her name… but she was really tall and a little scary looking."
"That's… nice?"
"She really was super nice! When I was feeling sick and had to use the restroom, she looked really worried and even gave me her handkerchief." It looked like she was really fond of that mysterious girl from the first second. "Meeting her again is proving super difficult, though… I wanted to look for her when the results of the exams are published, but…"
"Doesn't our school send the result per mail?"
"Y-Yes…"
"Oh… Yeah, I see the problem…"
"Now I have to wait until school starts to see her again." Yutaka looked genuinely sad.
"If she passed herself, that is…" Konata wasn't helping.
"I-I'm sure she passed!"
"And if she still went to a different school?" She still wasn't helping.
"Konata-oneechan!" She started to get a little angry and puffed out her cheeks.
"I'm sorry… I'm sure you'll see her again."
"Yes… I really want to be friends with her… I never had any close friends because I'm always sick and absent from school… I really want to change and I somehow feel like she could help me with it…"
"K-Kona, is it really okay that such a pure and good kid's going to live here together with you and your father?" Kagami was almost moved to tears by Yutaka.
"Yeah, I have the same worry… Especially because you're here as well, Kagamin~."
"…" This comeback was too good for Kagami to retort to and quickly tried to divert the attention. "Ah! Now that you think about it… Yutaka, do you want a slice of the cake?" She pointed at the table. "Sorry for not saying anything earlier…"
"R-Really? Is that okay?"
"Of course it is. That monster's way too big for us to finish alone, anyway." Kagami placed a slice of the cake on a plate and handed it over to Yutaka who quickly tried it.
"Wow, it's sooo good! Did you make this, Kagami-senpai?"
"No, Kona made it for me."
"She made it for you?"
"Well, today's Valentine's Day…"
"Oh, now that you mention it… Is a whole cake something you give to a friend on Valentine's Day?" Yutaka had never received nor gave anything noteworthy on Valentine's Day and so she had no idea what was normal.
"It's normal between me and Kagamin~, Yu-chan." The cryptic answer only confused her.
"What does that mean?"
"That's a long story… Whatever, Yu-chan, you don't know much about this house outside the living room, do you?" Konata quickly changed to the topic because it was too troublesome.
"No, I don't…" She was still confused, but let it go for the time being.
"How about we give you a little tour?"
"Yes, that sounds like a good idea."
The girls left the living room and went to the first stop of the tour.
"Well, this is the kitchen… or battlefield if Kagamin's there. Right, Yu-chan, if you see Kagamin~ in her, you have to be careful!"
"W-Why?"
"See the mark up there?" Konata pointed at the ceiling. "That happened when Kagamin~ made a pot explode…"
"W-Wow…" Yutaka actually looked impressed.
"S-Shut up, Kona! That hasn't happened in forever!"
"That's true… Yeah, she has become better at cooking, Yu-chan. Still, stay vigilant."
"I-I will!"
"Haa…" Kagami rubbed her temples.
Afterward, the three went upstairs and Konata opened the door to a small room.
"I don't think you're ever going to need anything out of here, but the is the storage room of dad and me…"
"Wow… soo many books and figurines… Do you two collect these things?" Yutaka was fascinated by the collection of Konata and Sojiro.
"Something like that…"
"Kona, it's been some time since I last saw it, but this room wasn't always this full, wasn't it?"
"Sure, we've added tons of things since then." She didn't feel guilty in the slightest.
"Haa… Oh, these huge figures are still here, huh?" Kagami saw the nine figures of the magical girls anime on the floor she remembered from last time.
"Yeah… I really need to get rid of them someday… We'll probably need the space soon enough…"
"Why don't you just throw them away?"
"No way!"
"Then stop buying new stuff…"
"That's also a no."
"You're so…" Kagami had no fitting words.
"Anyway, let's go to my room for now." Konata ignored her and guided Yutaka to her room.
"Woow~, here are also so many books and figurines. You really have a lot of them, Konata-oneechan."
"Ehehe~." That doesn't necessarily count as praise, Kona…"
"Also, most of the actual books are Kagamin's anyway…"
"And your bed's also really big."
"Yeah, there were some… circumstances…"
"Hmm?" Yutaka took a better look at the bed and saw that it's clearly used by two people, but because of a lack of explanation, she stayed silent with a confused look on her face.
"Well, I guess we should head over to your new room now, Yu-chan." Konata guided her to a room at the end of the hallway and opened the door.
"Oh, this is a really nice room. Eh, I think it's even bigger than the room in my home…" Yutaka seemed pretty happy with the place she's staying for the next years.
"That's good to hear."
"Hmm?" Yutaka walked closer to the bed and saw a red T-shirt lying on it. "Konata-oneechan, is that your shirt?"
"No, that doesn't look like one of mine." She tilted her head as she was going through her wardrobe in her head.
"Ah!" Kagami suddenly raised her voice. "That's mine! I was looking everywhere for it already… How did it end up here?"
"Hmm… Oh, that's right…" Konata seemed to remember something, leaned closer to Kagami and whispered something into her ear.
"O-Oh… y-yeah…" She instantly started to blush and looked away from Yutaka.
"What's wrong?" Yutaka seemed concerned about Kagami, but this made it even worse for her.
"Don't worry, Yu-chan. Kagamin~'s just a little embarrassed that you found out that she's a little messy with her clothes…"
"D-Don't worry, Kagami-senpai! I-I also occasionally forget to put away my clothes!" Yutaka earnestly tried to cheer her up, but Kagami was about to reach her limit of feeling guilty and even Konata started to feel sorry about the situation.
"Au…" Kagami couldn't take it anymore and went behind Konata. There, she buried her face into Konata's shoulder because she wanted to hide herself.
"R-Right, there's something I wanted to ask…" Yutaka wanted to change the topic.
"What is it, Yu-chan?"
"Does Kagami-senpai also lives here? I somehow have the feeling she does…"
"Ehm…" That was a question Konata wasn't expecting. "O-Occasionally, I guess?"
"Occasionally?" Yutaka tilted her head because she didn't understand what she meant.
"When we're on break, she often stays for a longer period of time… She also sleeps over more often than not and is more or less here every day…" There really wasn't much difference to actually living there anymore.
"Wow, that sounds nice."
"It really is." Even though Yutaka and Konata agreed on it, it felt like the reason was a different one for each person.
"Ahh, I really hope I can become as good friends with the girl from the entrance exam as you and Kagami-senpai are…" She looked really envious about the relationship of the two.
"Uhm… S-Sure…" Konata had an extremely difficult expression on her face and looked behind her at Kagami. Their eyes met and the expression on both faces became even harder to read.
"Ahahaha…" The couple looked at Yutaka again and all they could do, was letting out a really dry and forced laugh. Yutaka had once more question marks floating above her head, but the two never said another word.
.
Fun fact: While writing this chapter, I got such a craving for brownies that I actually made a couple one. They were delicious.
I wasn't expecting to get another chapter ready in April. I could've waited a few days because next week marks exactly one year since I started posting this story here, but I think a faster chapter is better.
Yutaka entered the party and Kagami had once more a hard time. Good thing she has Konata.
Next chapter will be the 'March' one… even though it's probably not going to have anything to do with March. Even more, I have already made more progress on the following 'April' chapter… Well, I'll figure something out, I guess… One chapter should definitely come out next month. Maybe I can get a second one as well, but not sure yet.
I also finally started editing the first chapter. 1 – 3 is already done, to a readable degree, that is and wow, I love every single one of you for staying with me until now… How were you even able to read, let alone understand what I was doing there?! Even I had to read multiple passages more than once to even get what I meant and I'm not even talking about the tons of grammar/spelling errors that were so obvious that I wanted to cry on multiple occasions… Every time I finished editing one, I was about to die from the embarrassment! My grammar/spelling is by no means even near perfect now and I probably still make a lot of stupid mistakes, but I think it's okay enough? I at least hope so, but back then… wow… I even see a difference in the statistics already. Way more people actually go the second and third chapter now... Again, thanks for sticking with me.