"Why are you hiding?" exclaimed Jinno.
Sagiri muttered softly, "Who told you to speak so loudly? It's too embarrassing..."
Jinno: "..."
"I'm sorry for making you feel embarrassed!"
"Megumin, are you here to be a model for Sagiri again?" Homura smiled.
Jinno stiffened again, and Sagiri's eyes immediately lit up with a fiery gaze that made her uncomfortable.
Her reaction made Homura and the other girls chuckle.
"No, Onii-san, I'm not here for that. Sagiri-chan lent me a lot of books last time, and I'm here to return them... and borrow the sequel as well."
Everyone had the same thought, 'Borrowing the sequel?'
"We're all friends here now! Let's go inside first, and you can talk to Sagiri later." Homura spoke up.
"Okay!" Jinno nodded decisively, then looked at the house opposite Minamiya's. "By the way, Onii-san, is there nobody living in the house across the street?"
The moving company's truck had already left, so Jinno didn't know that a new resident had moved in today.
"It used to be unoccupied for many years, but a new resident moved in today. I'm curious too!" Homura explained to her.
Jinno patted her chest in relief and said, "Oh, I see! I thought it was haunted! I saw a shadow flash across the second floor over there just now."
"Haunted?!" Nanami exclaimed nervously.
"Huh? I didn't meet this Onee-san last time!" Jinno noticed that she hadn't met Nanami before, and looked at Homura with a strange smile. "So, Onii-san, did your harem just get bigger again?"
"Harem?! What?!" Nanami's shy habits resurfaced. "A-Are we in that kind of relationship? But that's not good, we're still high school students!"
Once again, she spoke her mind, lost in her own delusion. Everyone else was too embarrassed to look, except for Mashiro who was planning to make things right.
"Nanami, you said your thought again."
Seeing the awkward expressions on everyone's faces, including Jinno's devilish grin, Nanami's face turned red and she ran back home.
Homura angrily patted Jinno's head. "Can't you stop teasing people like this? Nanami's shy personality can't handle your wild words."
"Te~he~!" Jinno tilted her head and lightly tapped her head, trying to act cute.
But Homura wouldn't let it go and said, "You can't do that anymore! If you want to tease someone, find me and I'll be your opponent!"
Jinno: "..."
'Sorry! I'm really sorry! I'm not your opponent!'
"Hurry up, Sagiri-chan, let's go to your room!" Jinno took Sagiri's hand and followed Nanami's path, directly entering the house.
"Sure enough, Megumin needs you to keep her in check!" Eriri thought about Jinno's appearance just now, and her mouth curved into a smile.
Homura shrugged. "There's nothing I can do. That's just her personality. She doesn't mean any harm, but it's not easy for Nanami to handle that."
"Let's go in too."
===
"By the way, I'm planning to visit the new neighbor across the street. Do you have any thoughts on it? Do you want to come too?" Homura asked everyone for their opinions.
Utaha asked, "Homura-kun, shouldn't they come to visit us instead?"
Her question was reasonable. As a new resident, it was only natural to visit the neighbors around them.
But there was no problem with Homura going to visit them either. It showed his enthusiasm and hospitality, and if the new neighbors had any questions or needed help, he could lend a hand.
"After all, it's a house that hasn't been inhabited for many years. I want to see what kind of people move in there," Homura stated his own thoughts.
After listening to Homura, they all nodded in understanding.
Megumi offered an opinion, "I think it would be better if Homura-kun went alone if he wants to do this."
Homura listened attentively as she continued, "Because you don't know the specifics of the situation over there, is it a family or just one person? If it's a family, that's fine, but if it's just one person, it might not be good to have too many people going over there all at once."
That made sense, so Homura decided, "Then I'll go ahead as a scout!"
With the women watching him, Homura left the house.
As soon as he arrived at the other side, the sound of a piano began to play.
Homura: "???"
Did they already finish cleaning the house? They even have time to play the piano! How fast are they?
'Maybe they're just taking a break in the middle.' He thought to himself and realized he might be overthinking things and that it was none of his business whether or not they had finished cleaning up.
Homura rang the doorbell, but there was no response from inside and the piano continued to play.
Homura complained, "This is starting to feel like a haunted house!"
After ringing the doorbell a few more times, Homura became helpless. Was the doorbell broken?!
'Maybe I should sneak in and take a look?'
Something didn't feel right.
He quietly made his way to the window on the first floor and peeked inside...
Homura exclaimed, "!!!"
There was a young girl with golden hair playing the piano completely naked!
Wait... was she Elf?! Yamada Elf?!
Homura didn't think that Elf could really appear on the other side of his huge house like in the original plot. He thought it was impossible since his Minamiya residence was different from the Izumi's, but it was really happening?!
"This is almost like the convergence of a world line, if fate will it; it will happen." Homura felt the irony in this situation. However, he was happy because he had found another valuable asset.
Should he remind her now or just watch her naked body playing piano?
Watching the girl who was playing the piano with enthusiasm, Homura decided, "I better interrupt her! Who knows how long she will play for?"
He couldn't bear to disturb the girl who was so engrossed in playing the piano, so he simply watched her, feeling guilt-free as her body wasn't obstructed by the holy light, fog, or dark shadows that always appeared in anime.
But then he realized, wouldn't that be too low for him? He was a gentleman!
So, Homura went back to his senses, walked to the door, and cleared his throat. "Excuse me! Is anyone home?"
This shout was effective, as the sound of the piano immediately stopped.
Homura's sensitive hearing caught a commotion inside the house, and then Elf dressed in gothic lolita appeared in front of him.
"Who are you?" Elf looked at the unfamiliar boy and felt somewhat unhappy that her piano's play was interrupted!
Homura pointed to his own house and said, "I am from the Minamiya family opposite your house. My name is Minamiya Homura. I discovered that there is a new neighbor today, so I came to visit. By the way, is the doorbell broken?"
Elf glanced at the house with an exaggerated courtyard across from hers and felt surprised. With such a large house, he must be wealthy, right? And yet he had come to visit a stranger like her. Were wealthy people nowadays this humble?
"Who knows? I just moved in, and I am not sure. But it will be replaced soon, so whether it is broken or not doesn't matter!" Elf said indifferently.
Homura raised his eyebrows.
Was this attitude a clear indication that she didn't want any further contact with him?