"This is your home, little brother?"
So small.
The Cat looked around. Compared to the Shinomiya estate, this place was undoubtedly small—but it was very cozy. It was filled with traces of his life. His living habits were fully on display: shoes at the entrance neatly arranged; upon returning home, he would hang his coat on the hanger in his room; the kitchen had a lived-in feel—he probably cooked for himself every day; bread sat on the dining table, marking him as one of those people who ate Western-style breakfasts instead of Japanese.
Sakurai Saki, who had come out of the room, glanced at her. "Are you sober now?"
"Meow?" The Cat tilted her head.
She was playing dumb. Perhaps she had always been this way, so Sakurai Saki assumed she hadn't sobered up yet. After all, she was still meowing. Her verbal tic was quite cute—it wouldn't feel out of place in a two-dimensional anime, but in the real world, it had a strange sense of incongruity. It was like Shinobu's frequent "kaka" verbal tic: cute, but very out of place.
However... being cute was enough.
"Every sentence ends with 'meow,' Cat. There's one thing I'm very curious about." Sakurai took a bottle of juice from the refrigerator and poured a few glasses. Though the other party was still drunk, she didn't seem as heavily intoxicated as before—a sobering drink wasn't necessary.
"What meow?" The Cat asked.
"A tongue twister."
Sakurai sat on the sofa with the drinks. The living room light was bright, allowing him to see her full appearance: her gleaming white hair made her seem otherworldly—not like a mortal. Her outfit was very fashionable, but her face was currently obscured by a mask.
"Come on, Cat. Read with me—
Arranged at a seventy-degree incline
Crying while gazing into the distance
Seven motorcycles effortlessly arranged
Emitting roars"
This was a tongue twister featuring many "na" sounds. The pronunciation of "seven" is nana, and a cat's meow is nya.
The white-haired Cat-girl sister swayed on the sofa, babbling—
"Arranged at a meow-ty-degree meow-cline... Meow-ing while meow-ing into the meow-tance... Meow-ven meow-tercycles meow-fortlessly meow-ranged... meow-mitting meow-s!"
Sakurai paused the recording on his phone.
So cute.
If this were posted online, it would surely get at least a million views.
"Meow?" The Cat looked at Sakurai's strange expression and thought he was a bit perverted. Smiling at someone else's tongue twister—a normal person wouldn't do that, right?
But this was her boyfriend.
"I'll sleep on the sofa tonight, Cat. You can sleep in my room. Just don't mess with anything." Sakurai Saki finished, then realized she didn't seem to understand. There were no women's clothes for changing, so she definitely couldn't take a bath—even though this Cat sister currently smelled heavily of alcohol.
"Sleep with meow~"
"Men and women should not touch." He crossed his arms. "Young lady, please have some self-respect. Women alone should learn to protect themselves, or they'll be targeted by bad men other than me—" He hadn't finished.
"Meow?" The Cat tilted her head.
"You don't understand?" Sakurai realized she was drunk silly.
Could one cocktail really make someone like this?
Picking up a silly girl in the middle of the night—and seemingly a silly girl who liked to fight—Sakurai-kun was speechless. In just over an hour, he had discovered many contrasting aspects of this person.
First, she was surrounded by hooligans. He initially thought she was the victim, but it turned out she was the aggressor. According to the delinquents, she had caused them a lot of trouble recently.
Later, she had arrogantly taken him to a bar. He thought she was an old hand—but she collapsed after one drink.
Now, she couldn't even understand human speech. Was this person a cat or a human?
"Meow?"
Sakurai helplessly picked her up, preparing to put her in bed. No matter how tempting she was now, Sakurai Saki would not make a move on her. This person was so casual; her private life must be chaotic. She might be carrying something unpleasant.
Just one word: aiya.
He dropped her onto the bed.
The white-haired Cat-girl took off her blue, yellow, and pink color-blocked jacket. A moment later—
Sakurai Saki saw her long, slender legs, which had been covered by her jeans, now revealed. Illuminated by the moonlight streaming in from the window, a beautiful sight met his eyes.
"Want to play a game?" The Cat sister, seeing his dumbfounded expression, mimicked a cat, gently licking her paw. "It's still early. I don't want to sleep."
"...Really play a game?"
"Otherwise~?"
Half an hour later.
Sakurai Saki discovered a new contrasting aspect of the Cat sister.
Her gaming skills were terrible.
Six o'clock the next morning.
Sakurai Saki woke on time.
He didn't first check his superpower for the day. Instead, he turned to look beside him.
No one.
There was no one around, either.
He looked at the nightstand with a puzzled expression. On it sat a small stack of banknotes—about a dozen of them.
What is this? Payment for playing?
And at least several tens of thousands of yen? The current market rate for playing games wasn't that expensive. Online, it was thirty thousand yen for one session.
"Oh." Sakurai Saki covered his face.
To be honest, he really hadn't wanted to play games yesterday. He had been very sleepy. Staying up late playing games was bad for the body. But last night, he truly couldn't hold back.
Mainly because he had been tempted a lot recently: the time with Fujiwara Chika in the infirmary, and the previous time with Hayasaka Ai in the love hotel. Each time, Sakurai Saki had held back on impulse. Honestly, it was very uncomfortable to keep suppressing himself.
It's over. But you didn't leave your contact information.
Sakurai looked at the nightstand again, realizing there was truly nothing else.
No—there was also a note.
[Last night's game was fun. I'll come again next time. (Q-version cat head)**
Sakurai Saki breathed a sigh of relief.
The first person he played games with at home was always special. Even without an emotional foundation, it was still very special. What was this? Perhaps he was being too naive.
He changed the bedsheet and took the old one to wash.
It was still early, but since he hadn't prepared a bento yesterday, Sakurai Saki needed to make one this morning. Actually, he could have eaten at the cafeteria for lunch—but the taste wasn't as good as his own cooking. And if he ate at the cafeteria, he wouldn't be able to eat lunch with Hayasaka Ai.
Riding his bike, Sakurai Saki slowly made his way to school.
He had been thinking recently about whether to get a motorcycle. The school didn't seem to allow students to ride them, though—one was a motorized vehicle, the other non-motorized. Motorcycles required a driver's license, which Sakurai Saki hadn't gotten yet.
He arrived at the school gate.
In Sakurai Saki's vision—
[1]
[Knife him #witty]
[2]
[The more I look, the weirder it gets. The daily life was fine, but the style is getting more and more warped]
[Can you interact more with Chika and Hayasaka Ai? The Five Sisters are so annoying]
Why are all these messages meaningless?
Sakurai Saki stopped his bike.
[Today's Superpower: Visitor from Another World
Effect: You will be able to see messages from another world.
Side effect: Cannot be turned off, and messages may be misleading]
Somewhat useful. But not greatly so. It had substance—but not much. Essentially, it was a prophetic ability, just with a different manifestation.
He stared at the floating text.
Messages from another world.
...Who even writes these?