Chapter.38: Can I Be A Good Sibling?

Hiro was finishing the paperwork for the family finances at his home while his mother rested. Being the last remaining child with an ill mother was tough on his social life, It never bothered him though because he hardly had friends, even though he got along with everyone at school he was always busy helping with the Yagami family's businesses to get to know anyone personally.

Hiro had finished his coffee after going over the budget for the medical supplies for their hospitals, he went to grab another cup when his mother started coughing. He checked on her immediately to make sure she wasn't coughing blood, her illness, leukemia, was in the early stages, but her body was weak to begin with so fighting it off was harder for her.

Hiro brought the medicines and a warm cup of tea for her, he cared for his mother greatly after his father and older sister passed away during his middle school years.

"Here mother, your medicine."

His mother took it with gratitude, she had a hard time drinking it at first with the coughing but she was able to swallow it and the medicine once the coughing ceased.

"Thank you, my dear. I'm sorry you had to sacrifice a vacation to take care of me and the obligations." His mother apologized for feeling like she shackled him with her duties as the matriarch.

"No, it's fine mother. I had no plans anyways and the patients in our hospitals need us. I even secured additional funds to train paramedics for further tactical training."

Hiro wiped the sweat from her face and even changed her pillow so she had a clean one to sleep on.

"It'll be soon Mother. I'll perfect a medicine to cure you and the other patients. The Academy has an excellent program to study medicine and healing magic." Hiro wanted to rid her of her cancer. He tried enlisting healing Casters to help his mother, unfortunately even healing magic at this point couldn't rid a person of cancer effectively, only lessen the pain from their symptoms.

"You look happy being there. I'm overjoyed you found somewhere to be excited to learn. I wish you're father and sister were here to see it." Hiro gave a fake smile upon hearing that.

His father he missed, his sister however, as cruel as it would be to say out loud in front of others, was happy she was gone. To him, she was a waste, a junkie that would have ruined the family name if not for him making her death appear more normal than the actual truth.

"Yes mother, they'd be pleased." He lied to her to keep her happy. He didn't even disclose the reason why they died to make it not ruin her image of his sister. Hiro filled his coffee cup again to go over the remaining paperwork, his mother spoke to him while she was feeling better after the meds kicked in.

"Hiro, you haven't taken a vacation in a long time, why not use the family resort in Kyoto to relax before school starts again? You can invite your class too." His mother suggested to him.

Hiro looked at his mother astonished at the offer. She was always kind and giving with her family fortune, Hiro wasn't surprised she offered the resort to use for him for personal reasons.

"Are you sure mother? Many of the staff are on vacation themselves. Only the reserves are working now. And what about you? Who'll take care of you while I'm gone." Hiro asked worried about what would happen if he wasn't around to attend to her.

"It's fine Hiro, you always do so much for me and the patients. You can ask the school for help and we can compensate them for their time. Go have some fun, be a teenager for once."

Hiro couldn't argue with those words, his mother cared about him having fun with his youth. Hiro gave an approving smile to his mother, he couldn't win against her kindness. He sent out a mass email to the Academy staff and students who could make the trip to Kyoto with their schedules, it was a long shot but he was willing to try at least to make her happy.

Hiro bid his mother a good night before resting himself. He would finish the paperwork overview later once he caught some sleep after all the coffee he ingested to stay awake.

Back at his house, Koutetsu and Itsuki looked hard at Rumi trying to figure out the situation. Kaede was watching TV with the little ones sleeping on her lap.

Rumi was snacking on the sweets Koutetsu had left over in his fridge. He was looking at her hard trying to make sense of the situation. Rumi had some features similar to Mana such as small facial features and mannerisms, the biggest notice was her eyes being garnet colored just like Koutetsu's.

"Koutetsu, are you sure you don't have a sister you're aware of?" Itsuki asked.

"I'm pretty sure. Mana wasn't pregnant the first year she was with me, even if she was after she left she wouldn't ask some random person to be a Primary Mother and not tell me. She loved Akane too much to do that."

Rumi heard them talk, and with food in her mouth still, she pulled out a binder with documents to give to Koutetsu to explain herself better.

Koutetsu and Itsuki opened it, inside were Rumi's birth certificate, paperwork for surrogate parental work, and a photo of her and Mana together when she was around the age of three.

"Surrogate Parental work. I'm familiar with this but why would Mana agree to be a surrogate? You said so yourself that she wasn't fully recovered yet mentally. Wouldn't she have been disqualified for the job?"

"Itsuki, is that even possible. I'm pretty slow with this stuff but is normal for this kind of thing. Isn't the process to make birth injections very selective?" Koutetsu asked because he wasn't sure how the process of birth truly worked in this world. He knew the basics but the details of it weren't something he looked into much.

"Actually it is. Since it's hard to do procreation naturally unless it's with a man who has immunity to the Ghast virus, birth injections were made using advanced medical treatments and synthetic sperm. It's why more women are born than men, female DNA is easier to use than males."

"I can understand that a bit but can it be possible to give birth to another family? I think I remember in class that the DNA has to be clean and compatible even more so both sorties have to use their bloodwork and eggs to make the child their own. Mana and Akane worked hard on theirs to give me life. I wonder if the couple didn't care anymore as long as they had a child." It seemed logical to him with that explanation even if he still didn't understand it fully.

Rumi drank her glass of juice to swallow the sweets to answer their questions.

"Momma agreed to help a couple. They could not have kids, one of the partners was sterile. Momma volunteered to help to earn money to see you again after she said she was better. But the bad ladies stopped paying when learned I was a girl."

Koutetsu and Itsuki looked angry at that notion. Even looking at the paperwork again to see if it was legal, they were more agitated to see there was a clause that if Mana produced a girl and not a boy they could terminate the contract without severance pay.

"That's cruel. Only because they hoped for a boy on the first try. It's very hard to birth one as is in this day and age. It takes complex medical measures to stave off the Ghast virus ever since it became airborne." Itsuki felt anger seeing the clause in the paperwork. Just from reading it, it seemed the couple were interested in having a male child anything less was not accepted. From the date, it appeared Rumi was five and a half in age meaning Mana had to raise her on her own when the support was cut off.

"Mana told me when I was growing up it took at least six tries for me to be born, she had a problem with her uterus and miscarried a few times even when she was pregnant. That's why Akane called me their miracle child when I was born. Just cause she failed the first time for a male child shouldn't mean they should have backed out. Let me call Mana and ask when she's arriving. There's no way I can house both of them here with the small house I'm renting. Rumi give me your phone so I can call her." Koutetsu asked of her.

"You don't have her number?" Itsuki asked with surprise.

"Not at the moment, she disconnected it when she left so contacting her was nigh impossible for a while. Major Komon said trying to find her was difficult since Akane taught her how to lay low."

Rumi looked embarrassed, she lowered her head away from the eyes staring at her.

"Rumi, you do have a phone right?" Koutetsu asked again.

Rumi didn't answer, Koutetsu wasn't buying the innocent act. He used the Coded Eyes on her to find any trace of lies in her body. He found none, he looked over her twice and found she wasn't an Esper or Caster either, she was just an ordinary little girl.

"Guess not. Well, I'll have to wait for Mana to get here to ask in person what to do. I trust her judgment most. She's never steered me wrong before the incident."

Rumi started yawning, and Kaede followed behind her as well. The night was already late, even Koutetsu and Itsuki needed sleep too.

"She looks really tired, let's call it a night. I can put her in your room for you. Me and Kaede can sleep in Mana's."

"Huh? You're staying here, won't your mothers be a little concerned that you'd be staying at a boy's house alone." An exasperated Koutetsu asked.

"They'll be ok with it since it's you. And it's very late they're asleep by now to have us escorted back to the hotel we were at. I trust you won't try anything when we're asleep, right?"

She gave off her usual intimidating aura when she was serious with him. Even the little ones could feel it from their direction as they shivered with fear.

'Of all the hell I've been through, she makes it seem like child's play with that scary aura she always gives off.'

Koutetsu slumped as he gave in, he let them stay the night till he figured out what to do next. Kaede and Itsuki went to sleep in Mana's room, Rumi took Koutetsu's room, and Koutetsu himself slept in the common room again like he used to. He was staring up at the ceiling, he couldn't sleep right away after the bombshell that was dropped on him.

It was new to him, being a big brother for the first time, it looked easy when he saw Itsuki interact with Kaede, but they had been together always since childhood. He just met Rumi, he didn't know anything about her other than her age and the info the binder had.

'Argh, this is a drag. I'm overthinking all this again as usual. Still, she has our eyes, and she's adorable too. I can't imagine why Mana let her come here first. Maybe a safety reason or some other reason I'm not thinking of. Either way, I need to be a good example for her, Mana please get her soon so we can do this as a proper family. It's all becoming nuts over here.'

Morning arose as Koutetsu was slowly waking up when his mind finally calmed down to let him sleep, he let out a long yawn stretching out his arms, one of his arms hit his side while the other hit a head. Koutetsu had a brief moment of weakness, he thought Rina was next to him again like before. His heart fluttered a bit, he went to see who it was hoping it was her gain, it wasn't Rina however, it was Rumi instead.

Koutetsu was a little nervous, he didn't want Ituski to wake up and make a bad assumption. He was going to pick her up to take them back to his bed to finish sleeping, he almost got her up till Rumi let out a small, innocent voice in her sleep.

"Momma, I found Onii-Chan. I found him."

Koutetsu stopped his hands, he felt warmth from hearing her tiny voice calling out to Mana. He slowly got himself out of the futon to not wake Rumi up. He fixed the blanket to cover her better, even rubbed her hair, giving her a small smile as she still slept.

"It's not easy is it?"

Koutetsu turned to see Itsuki standing behind him, she was wearing one of the hoodies she used to sleep in. She had no bottoms save for her undergarments, the large hoodie covered her up though so she was decent in a way. Koutetsu blushed and then rapidly turned his head back around to look at Rumi again.

"Good morning Itsuki." He tried to say without the studder.

"Morning."

"What did you mean by that early?" He asked.

Itsuki crouched down to look at Rumi, Koutetsu was trying to not stare at her smooth thighs as she leaned closer to Rumi.

"Being a big sibling I mean. When Kaede was born I was somewhat jealous. She got a lot of attention I thought I should have had. But soon I realized how much I needed to be there for her. Having an older sister is easy because you learn how to be a woman from them when the mother isn't around. You're the big brother, it means you're her protector and the father figure. You'll have to do your best from now on so she'll feel safe the same way Akane did for you."

Koutetsu imagined it, the smile Akane gave when she was alive. He felt understanding now the way Itsuki put it. Koutetsu looked at Rumi again, his face filled with warmth like a child on Christmas, in a way he got his family back, he was content with this for now.

"Thanks, Itsuki, when did you learn to be so wise."

"I'm a fairytale girl, you learn to see all sorts of things in them." She said with a playful smile.

"Oh, really. Well then I guess you saw this coming too."

Itsuki was caught off guard, she felt the tenderness of lips press on her cheek, Koutetsu made the first move this time. He gave a kiss on her face, Itsuki's eyes lit up, and her cheeks turned red. Koutetsu let off her face, he went for it finally, but he didn't feel anything. Much to his surprise, he didn't feel passion in it, he thought for sure if he made the attempt he could feel it without doubt. He was hating himself inside, he wanted to give Itsuki a kiss from the heart, but that's not what came out at all.

Itsuki's face was down, her bangs covered her eyes hiding the excitement in them while her toes were wiggling around.

"Sorry, maybe that was uncalled for."

"No no, it's ok. It's just. That's the first time you ever showed affection like that."

Koutetsu looked at her carefully. He could see the happiness in her, he was mad he wasn't feeling the same when he wanted to.

"Hey, uh, Koutetsu, since with that, and everything else. I was wondering if you want to do more."

Koutetsu was looking at Itsuki, she had the look of a lovestruck character from her books.

"More?" He looked at her again, she was holding her legs, trying to hide her bashful face.

"What I mean is, do you want to try and go steady?" She finally asked with a little squeal in her voice at the end.

'HUH!?'

Koutetsu felt like lighting hit his head. Itsuki was asking him out, and he was speechless.

'Go steady? Crap I wasn't expecting this at the moment. How am I going to respond to this properly? I mean I do like Itsuki a lot, but I didn't feel anything in the moment with that kiss. Was it cause it was a quick peck on the cheek maybe? Was it cause of what happened with Rina? How am I going to say yes without honesty in it? How the hell am I going to accept with a thousand different things going on in my head right now? God, I really wish little hint screens popped up right now for me to figure this out.'

Koutetsu was panicking in his head. What was he supposed to do? Itsuki started leaning in closer to him, she was practically an inch away from his face. He tripped back a little from being caught off guard. She was trying to lean in for another kiss, Koutetsu was breathing hard being nervous about this.

Itsuki was crawling by inches leaning closer to him. Itsuki's smooth legs were exposed, and she had her cleavage exposed a small bit from the barely zipped hoodie. He had no idea how to handle this, it was too quick for him to react right away.

"Oho, Nee-Chan being naughty in front of a little kid. Tsk tsk."

Koutetsu saw Kaede from outside the room. She was laughing mischievously, while the little ones were giving a disproving look to Itsuki. He was thanking Kaede a thousandfold in his head for interrupting when she did.

Koutetsu looked at Itsuki to see if she was still leaning in, she had her angry aura on her again, he was shaking with fear at it.

"Kaede....YOU'RE SO DEAD!!!"

Itsuki jumped after her, and Kaede ran around in the room laughing at her sister.

"You ruined the mood you little twerp. I'll get you for that!"

"Gotta catch me first Nee-Chan haha."

Koutetsu was still frozen in the position he was in when Itsuki got mad, he snapped out of it when Tsurara tugged on his trousers for food.

'God, if you're hearing me. Please let this be over quickly. I don't think I'm suited for any romantic moments like this after all.'

Koutetsu petted Tsurara, he was getting up to make her food along with Tsukikage as well. He took another look at Rumi sleeping still.

'I really hope I can be good enough for her. I really hope so.'