"I... I can't feel my butt anymore. Onee-chan is pure evil!"
Struggling to crawl out of the inner room by clawing at the floor, Akiko had tears in the corners of her eyes, and her lower eyelids were stained red. Of course, another part was also "stained red," though it wasn't visible on the surface.
Thinking about it now, it would have been better to just take the beating at the station exit. At least Yu was a guy and there were people watching; he would have been somewhat lighter.
Unlike now, where her sister basically swung her arm in a full circle before letting it land. The damage she received was multiplied!
"Akiko! Be strong! If a band girl cries, there's a risk the band will break up!"
"Yeah! Xuena, my life is so bitter! Wahhhh!"
"Mm-hm~ well said. Sakurako, it's getting a bit noisy for me here~"
Crossing his legs while scrolling through his phone, Yu didn't even spare a glance for the band duo who had run in front of him to act piteously.
When it came to being "scummy," aside from the gender disadvantage, the methods of the PaB Club were much more sophisticated than Akiko's and Xuena's. At least if it were Iori or the blonde guy, they'd know that to make a "pity play" authentic, you have to at least offer up your underwear!
Mere crying was just background music to him, in one ear and out the other.
"Understood, I'll go take care of it right away~"
"Yah! You two bad people! You can't! I'm already seventeen, how can I suffer such humiliation!"
Seeing that the crying didn't work and instead her sister was approaching like an executioner cracking her wrists, Akiko scrambled up the sofa and hung onto Yu like a lifeline, wailing frantically.
"Oniichan, do you have no heart? Your poor imouto is going to be beaten to death!"
"Sigh~ I don't have an imouto who dresses like a Gothic Lolita and wears ear studs."
"Fake! Fake! It's all fake!"
With her legs being dragged back by her sister, Akiko hugged Yuu neck with one hand while frantically scrubbing herself with the other.
Within two seconds, her accessories fell to the floor with a clatter: not just clip-on earrings, but also seven or eight various street-stall rings and black fake nails.
Two seconds later, a clean, fresh, pink-haired girl was "freshly unboxed." After removing the Gothic vibe, she was entirely in her "edible" state!
"Save me, Oniichan! Onee-chan really is going to make me sleep on my stomach!"
"Well~ I suppose I can accept this state."
With a snap of his digits, he signaled Sakurako to pause. Yu placed his hands under Akiko's armpits like he was picking up a cat and hoisted the little thing up.
After repeatedly confirming there were no suspicious decorations on her, he waved his hand and signed a pardon, tentatively recognizing this little one's identity as an imouto!
And then...
"Eek!"
Chilled to the bone by the terrifying gazes of the two adults, Lin Xuena took a half-step back and followed suit, quickly "unloading her cargo."
The metal chains on her clothes, the fake tongue stud, the small inverted cross necklace, and the terrifyingly long fake eyelashes were all removed. She even fished out a pair of round-rimmed glasses from her backpack!
To be honest, once she put on those round glasses that covered half her face, Yu and Sakurako's gazes actually turned dazed for a moment.
After all, the gap between a flamboyant "tongue-stud keyboard girl" and a "plain girl" who looked like a straight-A student was far too large to accept seamlessly!
"Um... Oniichan? Is this okay? Do I count as a sister now?"
"Please don't talk yet. My brain is a bit scrambled..."
"Well~ Xuena is just like that. Her daily state is vastly different from how she is in front of friends."
Drying her hair—the pink highlights washed out—Miyazawa Rin silently "teleported" behind Xuena and used her hands to pull the girl's lips into a flamboyant, upward grin.
"Doesn't it look a lot less jarring this way?"
"Rin! It's embarrassing..."
"Even her personality changed that much?!"
Staring at the three girls who had clearly "refreshed" into something different from a few minutes ago, Yu pinched the bridge of his nose, powerless to complain about their extreme dedication.
Moreover, the urgent matter right now wasn't correcting their stereotypes of girl bands, but rather what kind of mess they had cooked up today!
Why weren't they in school? Even if they wanted to relax during summer break, please go shopping as a group like normal girls! What was with forming a band?!
"Sigh... talk. What exactly is going on?"
"As you can see, Oniichan, we're planning to debut as a girl band. Our goal is to conquer the Budokan..."
"Huh?"
His brain stalled. Yu pointed at the three unreliable girls and turned his hollow gaze toward Sakurako. The meaning was clear—
I can't handle these kids. Use the "methods"!
"Yoshi, then leave it to me..."
"Chotto matte! Even Onee-chan can't just use violence!"
Quickly shielding her two friends, Akiko saw that her sister was truly "on-call," ready to lay a heavy hand on her own sibling just because Yu waved his hand. She wailed loudly.
"Long live... long live civilized educational methods!"
"That's only if you're still a student! Since you dare to refuse school, prepare to face the harshness of society early!"
"I... I just don't want to go to school!"
On this point alone, she refused to budge. Mentioning school caused tears to well up in Akiko's eyes instantly, and the crying tone she had held back when Sakurako hit her butt finally broke through.
Glarring resentfully at her sister, she curled herself into a ball—do whatever you want! Even if her butt was beaten into a flower today, she wouldn't give in!
"..."
Looking at her sister who would rather die than give in, Sakurako breathed heavily in frustration for a long time, but the hammer of justice never fell.
After a while, as if she had finally drained all her energy, she slowly walked to Yuu side and whispered a request. "I... want to lie down for a bit. Can I borrow a room?"
"...The room at the end of the hallway shouldn't be locked. You can use the bedding directly."
Her hair was hanging down too much; Yu couldn't catch her expression through the pink waterfall of Sakurako's locks.
But even just from her tone, a thick, heartfelt sense of loss had already spread like a spiderweb, trapping what was left of the light atmosphere in its domain.
Not knowing why "school refusal" was so devastating to these two sisters, he simply walked Sakurako to his room and sat back down in his spot ten seconds later.
"Not bad. You actually defeated my top general. Xuena~ take Akiko to the room next to Sakurako's so she can cool down."
"Me? Hiss, I don't remember when I defected?"
Trying to keep his words light, Xuena obediently picked up the curled-up Akiko and struggled to transport her to the "cell."
Now, only two people remained in the interrogation room. Yu no longer hesitated and asked point-blank, "Rin, I want to know exactly what's going on."
"...Actually, the situation is pretty simple. When we went to Grand Blue last time, I think I mentioned a friend who wanted to drop out and start a band, right?"
"I think... there was something like that?"
With a confused look, Yu propped up his chin and reminisced for two seconds. He wasn't sure if he had heard that topic.
After all, he was tied up by his mom's rope at the time and couldn't escape. When his life was in danger, he might not have remembered idle chatter that clearly.
"And so?"
"That person was Akiko. Because I was worried, I told her parents about it, and then..."
Silencing for two seconds, Rin took a deep breath, her tone saturated with apology.
"I forgot that some parents might not be that... responsible? Their method of handling it was simple: they just indiscriminately broke up Akiko's band!"
"That certainly sounds like something Japanese 'tiger parents' would do."
His eyes flickered. Yu could already guess the subsequent plot; this kind of thing wasn't rare in Japan. Most of the "runaway girls" on the streets of Tokyo came from such situations.
Under the pressure of life, Japanese parents usually cared very little about their children's social lives.
But when a child's personal world isn't fulfilled, and their private life is suddenly and crudely interfered with, the usual rebellion is likely to occur.
"So you want to take responsibility, and followed Akiko in being a hot-blooded idiot, messing around on a whim?"
"..."
"That isn't a way to solve the problem, Rin!"
Clenching her fists tightly in frustration, Rin obviously knew this wasn't the solution. But the complexity of the current problem was clearly beyond what she could handle alone!
She had indeed learned a lot of management-related knowledge under her father, but none of that could be applied to school and daily life.
"Oniichan! Please help me!"
"Yes, yes, yes~"
Accepting the request from his own imouto, Yuu hands rubbed together as he instantly transitioned from "parenting mode" to "shrewd mode," asking mercenary-like: "Then, my passport? Is my imouto going to give it back to me?"
"No!"
A flat refusal! Rin turned her head away with an annoyed huff. The passport was the punishment for Oniichan not coming home for summer break—it was a completely separate matter from Akiko's trouble!