Chapter 67c: Speechless
She is not saying anything.
She's being silent, her face reddened up with all sorts of imagined embarassment as she just strides ahead, her pace brisk and trying to stay two steps ahead of me.
I'd let her if she just said 'sorry'... but right now, I find myself frustrated with her. She is keeping secrets from me, her older brother!
There's the advantage of nearly two years: without much exertion, I can just keep up with her due to my longer strides. I make sure she knows: I'm watching her, and she's not going to get to be this cheeky with me without suffering in kind.
If there's anything I know of girls, it is that they are an utter nightmare. Setsuka should just stay the way she is: blissfully innocent and lovely to a fault! If it means I need to be a bit tough on her.. well, so be it.
It is the very unfortunate price to living apart these years.
Sigh.
I should poke her again and provoke that little head of hers into erupting all cutely-like. If we lived together, I'd just be a bit more understanding and wait for her to open up by herself. She can't really keep secrets, after all.
But... somehow... I think she might just let the distance build ever so imperceptibly with the way things are now. To keep a hold on her little worries and secrets to leave the good bits for when we are together, all the while thinking that she has to be a big girl who does not need to bother her brother for an inconvenient this or that.
"Do you want me to carry you? It might be faster."
It probably wouldn't be, and she'll realize that if she thinks about it. But...
"No. Stupid!"
She's even redder now, like a strawberry almost.
"Are you sure?"
She stops in place and stares me down as she finally comes to declare what is bugging her. "I just don't want you to come, okay?!"
Bingo!
As long as she's talking, we can clear the air a dozen times over. It is her silence that worries and scares me the most.. and in the process, I find myself smiling in relief to be out of the narrow straits.
"What? Why are you smiling, Nii-san? You are making me bring you, so why are you now looking all smug about this? Bah. Nee-san has a word for that, you know!"
I snort and raise an eyebrow, trying to keep my composure. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed our mindless after-school banter, yet this brings it all back to the fore. "What word?"
"I forgot." she admits sheepishly.
Failing to keep it in, I burst into laughter. Soon, she too joins me in the uncontrolled exercise of the diaphragm, even though she still gives me a vengeful little push to remind me she's still not happy with me.
Even despite it all, she turns back to walk on again in that quick pace. It's got to be an appointment or something, right?
"So.. why can't I come? Couldn't you have been honest with me all the time?"
Gently, I nudge the conversation back as I try to find the source of her shame and my own burning curiousity. Admittedly, I'd find out the moment we arrive at wherever it is, but the fact she's gone as far as to lie to me about it... it makes the unreasonable look like a very reasonable course of action to me.
"I didn't lie."
Whoa. She still reads my mind, doesn't she?
And wait... She didn't?
"You had me bring you home, except not home but to the street because it was embarrassing to have me interact with those two."
I remind her quite carefully of what had happened, but she agrees to this easily, her head nodding.
"Mhmmm. And that's all true. They are annoying, and you looking so battered will just make them think you are a bad influence or something, even if it is from sports."
My heart cracks in synchronicity with my lips as a smile takes form. She's still defending me? After all I've done to inconvenience her in my life?
"You just don't want me to see your room."
Setsuka goes red again as I say that, blushing like an easily inspected beet. As she would no doubt exclaim were the roles reversed: telepathy works two ways!
As such, she can only admit to it with a slight, almost imperceptible nod, her voice a bit soft in kind to lessen her embarrassing statement.
"True. It is just too childish. With stuffed animals and a doll and my own drawings plastered over the wall as if I think myself a great artist or something, even though I wasn't even the one to put them up!"
Unable to help myself, I come to ruffle my hand through her hair. She says she hates it, but I believe otherwise. Besides, her hair has that girly nice-and-soft quality to it, so it is just so much more satisfying because of it!
"Well, now that I know I won't laugh when I'm coming to see your room tomorrow. So where are _we_ going?"
I once more inquire, and her frustration at my dogged persistence makes way for a small smile of her own.
She gives me a furtive glance. "I don't know how to describe it." She sighs for a moment, trying to find the words, and because she seems honest this time, I decide to not push but wait for her to continue. It takes about a dozen seconds, when... she takes a deep breath.
"Nii-san, I think you'll either laugh really hard when you find out, or find yourself stumped and shocked." She pulls at my arm after saying those words in rapid succession, giving me that tender expression she can give when she's really serious about something.
I almost forget to listen to what she's saying, the words just flooding out of her in a waterfall of her thoughts given voice.
"And I don't want you to do either, because it was bad enough when Jenny had to come along as a chaperone, and now you have to come, which is even worse because at least Jenny knew them and you don't know them, and you might be all disappointed in me and it would be absolutely terrible, so I'd prefer if you'd just turn around because it is right around the corner and you'd probably just stare at them and even though they are used to it that is still embarrassing especially because Cassandra is like a succubus that is like preying on your soul with every fiber of her being and I don't want you to put your soul into jeopardy just because I am going there so really Nii-san you should just turn around and leave and know that it is for the best that way okay?"
For all the words that came out of her mouth, I think the only ones that truly registered with me was the thing about it being around the corner.
My curiousity piqued, I increase my pace and find that she ends up having to jug after me to catch up, right as I round the corner to be met face-to-face with some storefronts.
Now, which one would make her go... oh. Definitely that one. The one with the pretty woman sweeping the pavement.
I continue to walk briskly towards this storefront, my own fear and concern for her wellbeing battling it out with my own curiousity even as I hear her calling out my name just a little bit behind, hoping that I'll stop and turn back.
Just look at that neon sign. That is provocative as hell. I'll readily admit to not knowing much about female anatomy or drawing said anatomy, but that silhouette of the girl in their logo is definitely laden with erotic undertones.
'Tattoos are sexy.'
'Piercings make the man.'
Stuff like that is what this place just oozes out. It just screams that in your face, even during day time. Part of me wants to contemplate how imposing yet oddly amazing this place would look during night time. They've got to be open in the evenings, right? With a sign like that?
Come to think of it, I do recall Setsuka telling me in the past about getting her ears pierced in a scary place. And she mentioned she was learning how to draw from this Cassandra woman she called.. a succubus?
The woman who was sweeping the storefront has seemingly noticed the baggage that's running after me, and she smiles wonderfully as she greets us.
"Ah, hello Setty! And you must be the famous brother."
She holds her hand out for a shake, and as I meet the gesture with my own hand I try not to think too much of how much this womans wardrobe is one of the more provocative fashion statements I've seen.
"And you have to be the succub.. famed Cassandra."
Crap..! As I finally understand the accuracy of this nickname now that I'm meeting the woman, I can only regret the fact I took Setsuka's words lightly.
She laughs at my faux-pas. I try to laugh along, but find myself lacking the words to continue the conversation.
It isn't so much that I am speechless, but rather that I am trying not to outright ogle this woman as my olfactory organs are washed in whatever that very fitting scent is. She is her very own, outrageous kind of gorgeous.
She's like... movie-gorgeous. Sort of like the beauty of a princess, yet the completely other side of the spectrum where it is just a sexual assault of lustful implication.
Setsuka finally catches up and comes to give this woman a hug. They are clearly close.
And then.. I realize. One is an angel, the other is a succubus.
Innocence and corruption.
I've seen enough movies to know what is going to happen here.
Dear god.