To Protect Her Precious Collection (3)

꒰ঌ To Protect Her Precious Collection 3

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Having managed to stop Mom, I went to look out for Naruko. But, I had no idea where she could have gone after rushing out of the house like that. I didn't even have a guess.

As the sun was setting, I ran off into the town without a particular destination in mind. Should I call her cell phone? She probably won't answer it.

"Dammit… where the hell did that girl go…?"

The park, the shopping district, the arcade, the school, in front of the train station… I could not see the conspicuously pretty form of my sister anywhere. She's not here either! Shit! Where else should I look… dammit!

Just like the protagonist in the game my sister lent me, Uzumaki Haruto had flown out of his house looking for his sister, dashing into the sunset-lit town. Images of cute little sisters ran through my mind. In the game, Haruto met his sister again in the city dyed with the color of dusk. Out of breath, while looking up at the sunset, the protagonist saw his sister appear in front of him.

Well, that was just a game. In reality, the scene in which I found my sister was a far cry from such a romantic scene filled with promises. It was the evening, in the shopping district in front of the station. I was running by the side of the arcade, when… a familiar head of bright red hair was attached to someone angrily and violently striking her drumsticks against the drums in a taiko game. Completely ignoring rhythm, she continued with a Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Do you want to break it or something!? Stupid. Unconsciously, I murmured to myself. This idiot. Even though I've been so frantically looking for her… agh, my head began to hurt. Well, this is how it is. It wasn't that dramatic after all.

"Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!"

Why in the world is she yelling words like that!? I drew near to my highly praised sister who was in the middle of throwing an angry fit. From behind, I lightly tapped the back of her head.

"You, die!"

Bang! As Naruko turned around she swung the drumstick with her. I took it completely in the face.

"Guahh!"

"Wha…! It's just you…"

"Idiot! Without even figuring out who I was, you hit me!? What if I was a store employee coming to tell you to calm down!?"

Dammit, she really can't control her anger, can she!? However, it was hard to believe that the Naruko who had turned around and the Naruko who was so angrily yelling for people to die were one and the same. Her tone of voice and her facial expression were incredibly sorrowful.

"What did you come here for?"

"What did I come here for…? Well, you ran out of the house… so I came to look for you."

"Huh? Why do you have to do that?"

"Well… Mom tried to go into your room, you know…"

"Wha—!?" Naruko watched me with weepy eyes, and began to tighten her hands over the back of my neck. Ahh! That hurts Idiot! "And you stopped her, right?"

"Dammit, why do you say that as if it's obvious? I'm your brother, not your manservant. Hey, you understand that, don't you? But of course I stopped her… I risked my life for you."

"Alright, s-sorry…"

"Geez… for now, let's go somewhere else. We stand out too much here."

We found a nearby Starbucks and moved there. Even though it was early Summer, it was slowly growing dark. Dressed in plain clothes, Naruko and I sat across from each other in front of a small round table. Guests in this place were generally college students and office workers who were coming back from work. High school students, perhaps coming back from club activities, were nowhere to be seen. We were in the middle of that. What did the people around us think of us, I wonder?

We had not said a single word to each other since before. Wearing an angry aura, Naruko had been continually glaring at me with her bloodshot eyes… not being able to bear the silence any longer, I spoke without really thinking. "Hey… Naruko."

"What?"

"What are you going to do? After this."

"… I don't know."

As I thought. If she went back home, our mother would be there. I'm not surprised she doesn't know what to do. In fact, Naruko asked me just that.

"What do you think I should do?" She asked. She was in such a rut and had no choice but to depend on me, and I felt cornered. It was the same as that other time. That's why I couldn't respond with "How should I know?" here. Even if that's really what I thought.

Throw away everything, without leaving a single one. I still haven't told Naruko what Mom said to me. In our house, Mom's word was absolute. What would she think when told her that she had resolved to destroy her entire prized collection? It would be troublesome if she threw a fit here. For now, I have to figure out what exactly happened.

"Before we talk about anything else, Naruko, there are a few things I want to ask you. Is that okay?"

"What?"

"What exactly did Mom say to you? You two really seemed to be in a heated argument." I asked this question to clarify exactly what position Naruko had been put in. Unexpectedly, at that Moment, Naruko panicked. "Naruko… ?"

It was the moment I had asked my question. Naruko's face flushed bright red, and her entire body began to shake. Holding her chest with one hand, her other hand tightened into a fist on top of the table. Her cute face was jumbled up. I could feel the extent of the violent emotions stirring inside her, to the point where it was quite unpleasant. Anger. Regret. And, just a bit of resignation. Frustration. Frustration. Frustration frustration frustration frustration frustration… and sadness. Those kinds of unbearable feelings were keenly being transmitted to me. What exactly happened in the living room back then? But, just by how Naruko was acting right now, I could guess that something must have happened.

"… worthless… " My sister, with her head downcast, whispered darkly. When I asked "What?" Naruko violently beat her hand on the table.

Bang!

"She called them worthless! The anime I love! My games! The offline meeting I was going to today! Everything everything everything! E… even though… they're… not like that… and I… I couldn't… "

After that, she degraded into mostly sobbing, and I couldn't really make out what she was saying. As she hit the table with her fist, Naruko kept her head down and convulsed with sobs.

"You couldn't say anything back… could you?"

"Yeah… "

Drip, drip. Her tears fell in drops onto the table. As the person she had come to for life counseling, it took me not too long to understand what was happening. Today, Naruko had faced our mother's wrath. Her important things, which she had shown me that time, were being trampled underfoot. That's why Naruko was so angry now, that she was deathly frustrated, and why tears were flowing from her eyes. I too had things that were important to me. If she had dismissed those things as worthless, even I would have blown up in anger. Definitely. Even if it was Mom, I would strike out. If I didn't do that, I wouldn't be able to calm down. Naruko feels the same way, doesn't she?

"I couldn't say anything back… and then… I took the crystal ashtray and tried to hit her with it… but she caught my arm… ahh… this is so frustrating… "

Finding a blunt weapon there so quickly… she's seriously pretty frightening. I couldn't hear much of what was going on in there, but to think such a battle was unfolding… I take back what I said about having the same feelings. Dammit… she wasn't trying to kill her own mother, right?

"Here, Naruko, use this handkerchief."

"Ugh… dammit… my makeup… "

I gave her a handkerchief, and she wiped her face. She then excused herself from the table for a little while. She fixed her makeup. And in the meantime, we both calmed down, and started over.

Huh?

"Hey, what are you looking at!" I glared at the people around me, and the inquisitive stares quickly turned away. I'm glad that we're here at this time. At this time, neither Naruko's nor my classmates should be around to see what's happening.

As I downed the rest of my iced coffee, Naruko came back with all her makeup taken off. Quietly, she sat down across from me. It's not like I would ever say this out loud, but she's pretty cute without her makeup on, isn't she?

"… Hey?"

"Hhm? What?"

The makeup-less Naruko then began to talk, in a very subdued tone of voice.

"Do you think… I'm weird? Liking that kind of stuff… is it bad?"

"Naruko… " Looking at me with tear-filled eyes like that, how exactly am I supposed to respond that?

"At the very least, that's what Mom said. But it's not like she was being especially strict. Any normal parent would say something like that, I think that's obvious. You said it yourself, right? You have a public image to maintain, so you can't expose your secret to anyone else."

"But… I mean… already… it's already been exposed… "

"Yeah. So, it's too late for that. We can't change the fact that it's been exposed," I spoke with as much sincerity and goodwill as I could muster. "So, you have to choose."

After saying that, I fell silent. I focused intently on my sister's eyes.

"You mean… whether or not to give this hobby up?"

"If you can do that, then this all will end peacefully. If you stop being an otaku, your problems will vanish. Mom will stop being angry, and the constantly ticking bomb that's always ticking away next to your public image will also go away… You know, you're amazing. You're great at sports, you excel at school work, you work as a model, you're also in an afterschool club… you're really managing to do some very difficult things. I honestly believe that. And, without that one hobby, you would be absolutely perfect, don't you think? Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

"I know. I know more than anybody that I'm good at a lot of things. If I stop being an otaku, just about everything would be perfect… I've known that from the start." Naruko tapped lightly on the table with her fist. Calmed down, she spoke, "But, I won't stop. I definitely, absolutely won't stop. Because… the things I like… I really like them! For me to stop anyways… I don't want to do that. I can't do that… "

"I see. But as far as Mom's concerned, this has nothing to do with your feelings. You have to correct yourself if you're doing something bad… she'll say that to you until your ears fall off, won't she? No matter how much you like these things, to Mom they'll always be good for nothing and worthless. And if she tries to force you to stop, we can't really do anything about it, can we?"

"Even so!" Naruko shouted with a serious expression. "I won't stop. I won't stop doing what I like to do. You said it yourself before, didn't you? I am both sides of me… if I got rid of one of those sides… if I stopped doing one of them, I wouldn't be myself anymore. I know that I'm a child, so I have to listen to what my parent say. That's obvious, so I can't resist what she says… but, even if my entire collection is thrown away… even if that becomes no more, I would still be the same person… so, the one thing I definitely won't do, is stop doing the things I like to do."

That's what she said. Even if her entire collection were thrown out. Even if her cell phone and computer were taken away, and even if she couldn't connect to the internet anymore, she wouldn't stop being an otaku. She would definitely not stop. Because that's what she likes. If I got rid of one of those sides, I wouldn't be myself anymore…

I see. You're an idiot. Seriously an idiot. I can't believe how much of an idiot you are. Are anime and eroge really that important? You have to be stubborn and defend them to your dying breath? I don't understand. Seriously, I don't understand at all. It's a hobby that nobody would praise you for, so why do you think it's so important? How can you be having fun with these things, collecting them, raising a fuss about them? Ahh… geez… it's not like otaku are all like this. Even so, it's not like I expected her to say anything different.

"It's not bad."

"Huh?"

I spoke with a brazen smile to my confused sister. "I said it's not bad. That's my answer to the question you asked before."

I slowly stood up. "Naruko." Looking at Naruko's face, I pointed at my own face with my thumb. "Leave it to your brother."

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