"Now that she's gone… mind telling me why you were faking your pain when touching the tetrahedrons?"

I froze. "You… knew?"

"Hehe, of course I did. I haven't been living with you for 14 years for nothing, after all."

… Great. My LUC stat is going to take a hit again, right after I just leveled it up. It seems my acting skills also needed some work. Was there an ACT stat or something? I needed one.

"Uh… well, I didn't want either of you trying to take multiple tetrahedrons, since I didn't know what consequences there were," I explained.

"If I fake my pain, I can just say I'm still experimenting with something and continue to take all the tetrahedrons, like what I did in the second reality rift. You know, the one where the core was a lot smaller and easier to get above of to see the paths. It also only had three tetrahedrons."

"Ah… so that's why you also suggested we go together for that one, huh? Under the guise of 'time doesn't pass on the outside while we're in the rift, so might as well stay as a group, safe and sound'. Clever."

"Yeah… besides, the experiment part was true. I am actually testing something out."

"Oh? What is it?"

"Remember the hollow feeling I told you about? Yeah, it's that. I confirmed it - every time I touched a tetrahedron, the feeling got worse, but progressively less each time."

"Progressively less…?"

"Mhm. For example, if the first time a touched a tetrahedron, the feeling I got was a 10, then the next one was a 9, to form a total of 19 'hollowness factor' in my heart."

"So… is it uncomfortable in any way?" Hina-nee asked in concern after a short pause.

"Uncomfortable… hm, not really. At the time, yes, but now… if anything, I feel less emotionally 'burdened', in a way."

Hina-nee pursed her lips. "Mm… I don't really get it, but as long as you're fine, that's all that matters to me."

"… I'm not sorry for lying to you," I said after a brief silence.

"You don't have to be. It was to protect me - I understand that. It's just… hm, how do I say this… can you tell me, after the situation is dealt with and there is no further need for the lie?"

I sighed deeply. "… No promises."

"Hehe. That's good enough."

*****

- The Next Morning -

"Mm… Kaze-kun…" Hina-nee moaned from beside me.

Slowly, my eyes opened - a mistake. I slowly shifted my gaze to my left, and nearly got a nosebleed. Hina-nee's cleavage was just barely covered by my own arm - apparently, she had ran out of crafting materials or something, because she wasn't wearing anything.

This damned older sister I have…! She snuck into my bed again while I was asleep! Ugh, now I can't even move with her latched onto my body like this…

"Hina-nee… it's time to get up…" I whispered gently, still feeling sleepy. I quickly opened up my System with my free hand to check the time, then let out a sigh of relief.

5:45 AM. Still have time until the main tournament starts, luckily.

"Mngh… do I have to…" she purred softly, tightening her grip on my arm.

For the love of god, Hina-nee… I already have a morning wood - are you doing this on purpose or something?!

"Y-Yes. You have to. The tournament's today."

"Ugh… fine… but before that… remember the promise you agreed to yesterday…?" She opened one eye and looked at me seductively.

"What… oh, the one about if you won the fight? Yeah. What about it?" I asked, rubbing my eyes with my spare hand after closing down my System.

"Mm… I want it now. A wake-up kiss."

I stopped rubbing my eyes. "A what now?"

"Wake. Up. Kiss. Now."

Faced with Hina-nee's demanding, pouty and immature tone that was unlike her, I was at a loss of what to do.

"Er… okay…"

Hesitantly, I turned my body around to face her, then leaned in close.

As her eyes closed, I gently kissed her… on the forehead.

I then backed away, as she opened her eyes, pouting.

"Mou, wrong place, Kaze-kun."

"Well, it's not like you specified…"

"Do it again. On the lips."

"Hina-nee…"

"C'mon. Hurry up. Don't leave a girl waiting~"

Biting my lip, I slowly moved closer once more, this time preparing to kiss her on the lips just as she wanted.

Closer, and closer. The room was so quiet that I could hear her breathing. Our lips were just about to touch, when-

"Hey! You up yet?" Furuwa's familiar voice shouted from outside the door.

I immediately froze, as Hina-nee continued to wait in anticipation.

"A-Ahem… yeah, we're up! Just… give us a few minutes!" I yelled back in response.

"Fine, but hurry up!"

Hina-nee opened her eyes, moaned in dissatisfaction, and turned away, clearly angry.

I took a deep breath, then slowly pulled her into a hug from behind. Her eyes widened, not expecting me to do this. I could feel her soft and warm bare skin, tracing my fingers across her stomach.

Daringly, I leaned in close to her ear.

"I'll make it up to you some other time, okay, Hina-nee?"

She blushed at my sudden movement, then smiled happily as she tried to hide her face.

"Hehe… you're taking the lead now, huh?"

"… Just give me some time."

"Of course. I'll wait for you, no matter how long it takes."

*****

She's my sister… she's my sister, and yet…

Although we're not blood-related, it was still… difficult to suddenly change my perspective of Hina-nee from family to lover. Luckily, she agreed to giving me some time to adapt.

On the surface, it was because I just wasn't old enough for a romantic and sexual relationship yet, but deep down, it was mainly because I simply needed some more time to start seeing Hina-nee in 'that' way.

In any case, we headed out to the center of the city soon after that. Of course, we took showers and brushed our teeth beforehand.

When we exited the inn, Nadeshiko was there waiting for us once again. It was clear by now that she was also staying at this inn, and woke up earlier than us every day.

"What a fine day for killing~" she giggled and looked straight into my eyes. "Kaze-kun, are you ready?"

Hina-nee scoffed, unamused, from beside me, but didn't interrupt.

"Sure. I just hope you know… if you're going to try and kill me, it's within my rights to kill you back."

"Naturally~ though I have yet to meet someone who can…" she smirked smugly, as if she had already won.

"…" I fell silent, not wanting to continue this conversation any further because of a certain reason. And, of course, with my shitty luck, she just happened to bring that reason up.

"Oh yeah, by the way… I received quite the interesting message through my System when I woke up today. Do you want to know what it said, Kaze-kun?"

"Who asked," Furuwa interjected, unable to watch this any longer. "If you have a feud, settle it in the tourna-"

"Shut up," Nadeshiko whipped her head around to glare at Furuwa, beautiful pink eyes ruined by the bloodthirst held within them.

Even Furuwa, who was normally calm faced with any situation, flinched a bit upon receiving this sudden and unexpected response. Before the two could argue any further and things got violent, I cut in.

"Sure. Tell me about the message."

Nadeshiko slowly turned back to me, then smiled happily, her killing intent from just now nowhere to be seen.

"Heehee, the message told me that… I was now stuck inside this game, unable to log out or leave, no matter the method. Crazy, right?"

"Crazy indeed," I responded stoically, not letting an ounce of truth get past my ignorant demeanor.

"Not as crazy as you," Furuwa scoffed quietly from behind me. Nadeshiko definitely heard, but she probably didn't care.

"I mean, we're in a video game. How is it possible to get stuck, right? HAHA!" Nadeshiko laughed hysterically, attracting the attention of various passing-by citizens.

"That's what I thought too…" she continued. "… Until I tried logging out. Can you believe it? IT DIDN'T WORK!"

"… It might just be a bug or something…?" I continued to feign ignorance.

"Oh? Then explain why your name was mentioned," she leaned in closer and tried to cup my chin, but I took a step back to avoid her hand.

"The message told me… you would have the answer. So? Tell me the answer. Why I'm stuck here."

I shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about."

She smiled like a devil. "Sure, sure~ keep pretending to not know. But I have a proposal. If you lose to me in our fight, you have to answer my question - after you respawn, of course. Because I'll kill you."

Man… she talks about killing so casually.

"Like I said, I don't know what you're talking about," I sighed exasperatedly, keeping my act up until the very end.

"Fine - then I'll change up the agreement. If I win, you have to fulfill any one request that I have."

"And… what do I gain out of this?"

"Well, if you beat me, I'll be yours~" she winked seductively, licking her lips and placing her finger on them.

I blinked.

"Sorry, I don't see how this is beneficial to me in any way."

"Hm… in that case, what if I put it like this?" she smiled evilly. "I'll be yours, meaning you'll have gained a powerful new soldier as well - your slave, essentially. Don't you have that kink~?"

"Unfortunately not. That said, I can't deny that you're powerful. Having you on my side will be useful for the future," I decided at last. "Very well - I accept your proposal. But… aren't you a little too confident?"

"Hehe, you think you can beat me?"

"We'll find out shortly, won't we?" I smirked in response, the first form of emotion I've shown since this conversation began.

"Yes… we will. I can't wait to carve you up into pieces, my sweet Kaze-kun…"

Despite her vulgar words, I smiled. She had thoroughly been manipulated by me, falling directly into my trap and walking exactly where I wanted her to go.

With but a deceivingly simple conversation on the surface, unbeknownst to Nadeshiko, I had controlled her decisions.