As night descended, Hoshimori Shion found herself wrestling with her homework.
Holding an utterly incomprehensible textbook, she grappled with math problems she simply couldn’t solve.
To say that Shion, immersed in her studies, was scratching her head in frustration would be no exaggeration.
“Ayane, bring your math homework over here!” Shion called out to Hoshimori Ayane, who was watching an evening drama in the living room.
Bounding footsteps followed, and Ayane scampered over to Shion’s back, a mischievous, impish grin playing on her lips.
“Stuck again, Big Sister?”
Shion shot Ayane a glare, feigning severity.
“If you don’t lend me your math homework, you’ll be sleeping in the main hall of the shrine tonight.”
“No way!”
Ayane retorted.
“You copied my homework every day in junior high, and your entrance exam scores for three subjects combined weren’t even as high as my score for a single subject.
If it weren’t for the fact that there’s only one high school in town, and it couldn’t even fill its enrollment, you wouldn’t be at the same school as me, Big Sister.”
Ayane, without hesitation, once again dug up Shion’s embarrassing past to poke at her sore spot.
Shion instantly deflated like a punctured balloon.
“Please, little sister, if you don’t let me copy it, I’ll be pulled out by the teacher tomorrow to stand in the hallway holding a bucket of water as punishment.”
“Absolutely not!”
Ayane declared righteously.
“If your grades are too bad, how will you ever attend the same university as me?”
“If both of us go off to university, what will happen to Hoshimori Shrine?”
Shion said weakly.
“You go to university, my dear sister, and I’ll just become a ‘stay-behind’ elder (TL Note: A term referring to an elderly person left behind in a rural area while younger family members migrate to cities for cities for work or study, used humorously here to imply being left alone at the shrine) at the shrine.”
“You can’t!”
Ayane’s voice suddenly rose, and it was clear she was rather upset.
“Big Sister, you must attend the same university as me, or at least be in the same city!
Otherwise, I’ll just stay at the shrine and learn to be a shrine maiden (TL Note: A Japanese term for a young woman who serves at a Shinto shrine)!”
This was the first time Shion had seen Ayane truly angry, and her brain froze again, leaving her at a loss for words.
Silence settled in the room.
“W-well, let’s just finish the homework first, then.”
Shion quickly steered the conversation back to the task at hand.
“High school graduation is still a long way off, but if we don’t finish this homework, we’ll be punished tomorrow.”
Though still pouting, Ayane leaned closer, bending over to look at Shion’s homework.
“I can teach you anything you don’t understand, Big Sister, but copying is out of the question.”
“Then, this problem…” Shion pointed to a question in her notebook.
“Let me see… Big Sister, have you memorized the function formulas?
If you have, you’d recognize it immediately.”
Ayane’s demeanor softened from her earlier huffiness as she carefully examined the problem, picking up a pen to begin working it out on a scrap piece of paper for Shion.
Ayane, it must be said, was particularly relaxed at home, having just been watching the evening drama in the living room clad in loose-fitting, light yellow pajamas adorned with little bear plushies.
Consequently, as Ayane bent over, Shion’s mind wandered for a moment, and she caught a glimpse of what was visible through Ayane’s neckline.
‘Good heavens, they’re really much bigger than mine… Wait, Ayane, aren’t you supposed to wear proper undergarments at home?!
‘The occasional sway made Shion feel a little dazed.
Adding to this, after Ayane had showered, a faint floral scent wafted from her long white hair, possessing a captivating, even soul-stirring, allure.
‘She’s only teaching me a math problem, so how did it suddenly turn into this?!
And the person is my own twin sister, my blood-related twin sister—is this really okay?’
“Naughty Big Sister!”
Ayane’s shy, scolding cry suddenly reached Shion’s ears.
Raising her head, Shion saw Ayane blushing, once again adopting that indignant pout.
However, she didn’t seem particularly angry.
Despite her flushed face, Ayane didn’t seem inclined to change her posture, continuing to lean over as she explained the problem to Shion.
Shion followed Ayane’s explanations, diligently working through the problems.
She had to admit, though Ayane couldn’t cook or perform the Kagura dance (TL Note: A traditional sacred dance performed at Shinto shrines, often by miko or shrine maidens), she was indeed quite skilled when it came to learning and teaching.
Yet, occasionally, Shion would still steal a glance at Ayane’s completely unguarded, open neckline, then quickly redirect her attention back to the problem.
It was only in these moments that she truly realized her younger sister was an exceptionally cute and beautiful girl!
“There, that should be all done.”
Only when Shion wrote down the answer to the final question did Ayane straighten up, stretching languidly.
“My sister is still useful for something other than just eating all day, it seems.”
Even after being tutored by her sister for a while, Shion couldn’t resist a biting remark.
“Naughty Big Sister is still saying that, even now?
You secretly looked at least ten times just now, didn’t you?” Ayane said with a pout, sitting on Shion’s bed.
“Th-that…” Shion was momentarily speechless.
It wasn’t that her sister had revealed her secret, but rather that the number of times she’d stolen a glance was certainly far more than that.
Ayane continued, “You were the one who suggested, ‘We’re going to high school now, so we can’t bathe together anymore, and we should sleep in separate rooms.’
It’s only been a few months, and now you’re craving me, Big Sister?”
“No, not at all, it’s just…” Shion tried to come up with an excuse, but couldn’t find a suitable one at that moment.
Ayane didn’t tease her further.
“I’m going back to sleep now.
You should go to bed early too, Naughty Big Sister.”
With that, she got up and returned to her own room.
Shion yawned as well, beginning to tidy up her homework.
Suddenly, a chill swept over her, and Shion shivered.
It was the peak of summer, and a shiver at such a time could only mean the manifestation of malevolent spirits.
Moreover, this intense feeling was far stronger than when the exorcism alert had appeared yesterday.
However, at present, she hadn’t received any system notification indicating that the malevolent spirits had manifested to the point of requiring exorcism.
‘What in the world is happening?’ Shion quickly stood up, moving from her living quarters to the shrine, and began to pray to the deities.
Typically, when praying to the deities, Shion could most clearly perceive the extent of the malevolent spirits’ manifestation.
But this time, even after praying, Shion didn’t feel that the malevolent spirits had reached a level requiring exorcism.
In fact, given their current level of activity, Shion might not even encounter any if she went to the back mountain to exorcise them tonight.
“Only a few scattered malevolent spirits, not even capable of threatening humans, but why did I feel so…” Shion muttered to herself, trying once more to calm her mind and sense the spirits.
Still, there was nothing.
The night wind blew in through the window.
For some reason, the wind was particularly strong tonight, causing the wind chimes hanging by the door to tinkle continuously.
Wearing her thin miko attire, Shion couldn’t help but feel a fresh wave of cold.
Shion simply picked up her Reikiri (TL Note: A spiritual blade or tool used for exorcism), stood up, and pushed open the shrine’s main door.
The red torii gate still stood sentinel not far away, like the shrine’s guardian deity.
Beyond it stretched the pitch-black sky, dotted with the scattered lights of the small town below.
“Really… there’s nothing at all?” Shion murmured to herself.