Koyuki Witnessed a Flasher

“SHOUTAROU, CALL THE POLICE!”

…was the jarring scream that I awoke to, followed by banging on my door.

“Don’t come out no matter what! I’ll protect you from this pervert until they get here!”

My gut reaction was to jump out of bed and reach for my phone, but after tripping over a candle from yesterday, the blow to the head that I took falling onto the floor woke me up just enough to remember that yes, I really had summoned a demonic being from He- the Nether and asked her to have sex with me.

As substantial as the memory was for me, I had yet to decide whether I cherished, or loathed it.

And while I was mostly ready to accept this new, very strange facet of my otherwise less-than-average life, I was absolutely not ready to confront the scene which I could only assume was on the other side of the door.

In one corner of the room, specifically the open kitchen area, was the succubus demon Hanako, who sported a frilly, heart-patterned apron. (She sure did keep things consistent, I guess.) She had a casually quizzical look on her face, with a spatula in one hand and what was presumably a delicious, home-cooked plate of omurice in the other.

In the other corner, right by my door, stood the human older sister Koyuki Suzuki, hunched, panicked, and kitchen knife in hand. Her cat-patterned pajamas were especially out of place.

You could describe the events of the day before using any sort of fantastical word, but undoubtedly, this scene before me was far too strange and nonsensical to be anything but stern reality.

So, bets?

Just kidding.

“Sh- SHOUTAROU! I told you to stay inside your room! There's a f-flasher out here!”

“I, uh…! She won’t hurt you!”

“Shou--wait, you know her?”

“She’s, well…”

I took a good long, panicked stare at Hanako, hoping she had some sort of false alibi I could latch onto. Even something cheesy would do, as long as it could extinguish this manic situation a bit.

She only flashed her usual innocent smile at me.

Damnit, she was really cute, too.

“She’s–a friend! From college! She goes to college!”

“Obviously that’s a lie! You don’t have friends!”

“That’s not the part you’re supposed to doubt!”

“Whatever! Who is she, Shoutarou!?”

Another glance towards the succubus.

Still nothing.

She really was cute though.

Dammit.

“She’s… a succubus… That I summoned… From Hell–Oh, but it’s rude in her culture to say ‘Hell’, so it’s really better to call it ‘The Nether’.”

This time, we both turned to look at her beaming smile in silence.

And then my sister peeked into my room, obviously checking on the demon summoning circle that was in clear view.

So she had seen it after all.

Back to Hanako.

Back to the room.

Then back to me.

And then her eyes ended on Hanako before speaking again.

“She’s really cute, huh…”

It’s possible that she was broken.

After a long sigh, Koyuki seemed to be able to calm herself, forfeiting any reality she thought she knew with her hands over her face.

“Well, for now, why don’t we all have breakfast together? I prepared some tea as well.”

The demon finally broke the unbearable awkward atmosphere as if it didn’t exist to begin with. In fact, if I didn’t know any better, I would say she was enjoying our reactions.

“I’m gonna need a really, really good explanation of what’s happening… But first, please put some clothes on. You can borrow some of mine. If they’ll fit.”

She glanced at me this time, obviously conscious of the situation.

“Of course, Suzuki’s sister. And thank you for the compliment earlier.”

Oh, so now she was happy to drop the whole “master” thing. She really was just teasing me before.

And my sister was blushing now too.

Suffice to say, we all sat down and ate breakfast together on a foldable low table I grabbed from the closet.

And the clothes didn’t fit at all.

To be honest, a meal with my sister didn’t feel much less unusual than her manically holding a knife. It was maybe the first time since we started living alone together that I had even considered the idea of being able to hold a normal conversation with her.

Not that this was anything remotely close to a normal conversation, but…

It wasn’t a bad feeling.

“This is actually really good! It feels like I haven’t eaten this well in ages.”

“Well, I’ve practiced many things in preparation for meeting your little brother, so little chores such as cooking and cleaning are nothing unfamiliar to me. I’d be more than happy to prepare meals for the Suzuki family from now on, if it pleases you.”

My sister twitched at her words and paused her sloppy eating, remembering that she was supposed to be responsibly dealing with the situation.

Though, I couldn’t blame her either. The breakfast Hanako had prepared tasted like it was straight out of a family diner. Even the tea was really tasty, though it was still just tea.

“Right, so… As Shoutarou’s legal guardian, I’m definitely not comfortable with this situation. I don’t even want to begin to address the logistics of how and why you exist and are in our house, but even putting that aside for now, Shoutarou is just a child. He’s barely in a place to be caring for a pet, let alone an intelligent being. He’s just not at the age for those kinds of things. And no matter how good your cooking is, I don’t trust you either.”

She took another bite.

“I’m not religious, but you seem reasonable enough to understand that this whole situation is more than just a little suspicious to me. Frankly speaking, you should be grateful that I haven’t called the police already. As far as I am concerned, you are still an intruder on my property.”

Suddenly, my sister’s extensive corporate experience was on full display. It was the same way she talked at my parent-teacher meetings, and honestly made me lose a little bit of hope that the situation would resolve smoothly.

But even more than that, I really couldn’t stand how she talked down to Hanako like that. It was my fault that she was here to begin with. She had done nothing wrong.

“Koyuki, you’re-”

“Quiet, Shoutarou. This is between me and her.”

Right. Of course she didn’t spare a single thought for my opinion. Actually, Koyuki didn’t even want me to be part of the conversation to begin with, but Hanako insisted that I was there with them on the pretext of breakfast. Surprisingly, she was very calculating.

Though, my sister must have noticed that as well. Her distrust peeked through her calm expression.

“Of course, and I appreciate that you’ve been gracious enough to talk things over properly with Shoutarou and I. But with all due respect, Ms. Suzuki, it’s precisely because your little brother is the person he is that I am interested in helping him with his struggles. I simply have a deep respect for him, and would like to help him grow into a wonderful adult.”

“A respect? For Shoutarou?”

She darted her eyes towards me with a look of distrust. It was obvious what she wanted to say, but she wouldn’t say it while I was right here.

It might have upset me even more that she kept her thoughts to herself than otherwise. As if I wasn’t even worth the honesty.

“I’m still skeptical regardless, and I have every right to be. I don’t know what kind of culture you come from, or what you consider normal for a demon, angel, or whatever. But that doesn’t matter. I’ve worked hard over many years to create and maintain a safe space for both him and myself, and don’t plan on letting such a dangerous outside influence ruin that.”

“I don’t disagree with you there, but I pledge with all of my being that I bear no ill intentions towards anybody. I only seek your permission because I prefer to go through the proper channels, and with full respect to you as the one who has created a home for him.”

She looked right at me without skipping a beat.

“I ask for no more than your trust.”

“Well I’m sorry, but I can’t give that to you. That’s that.”

Her composure was beginning to crumble a bit. It was like I was seeing a new side to my sister, but not necessarily a good one either.

“How does Shoutarou feel about that? We haven’t let him express his opinion at all.”

“How he feels is irrelevant! He’s the one who’s being tricked by you! And it’s my job to shut this nonsense down!”

“How he feels is the most important. If not for his strong feelings, I wouldn’t be here at all. It was him who summoned me, after all.”

While Koyuki’s calm manner had left the room entirely, Hanako was still entirely collected, as if she had already won the argument. And despite her serious expression, which was also new for me, she still smiled at me whenever we made eye contact.

With the both of them now looking in my direction, it was beginning to feel like it might actually be my turn to talk.

“She’s right. Why did you summon her?”

Not exactly the question I wanted to answer though. I sat in a nervous silence, unsure what to do. Sure enough, she didn’t seem to mind making up her own answer.

“I’m sure it had something to do with you being on the net too much again. You know I’ve seen your browsing history, right? It’s my laptop, after all. You just wanted to do dirty things, didn’t you? Please, I’m dying to know!”

As much as her increasingly malicious tone frustrated me, she really wasn’t far off. All I could think of was what I asked of Hanako during our initial greeting, and the disappointment in her eyes. Somehow, I had let myself forget about that and put it up to her to protect me anyway.

How weak was I?

Would I spend the rest of my life unable to stand up for myself?

Wasn’t her feelings of trust towards me just misplaced to begin with? My own sister, who I had spent my entire life around, seemed to feel the opposite.

So why was she so confident regardless?

Even now?

Especially now?

No, wait.

Her words before.

I’m asking you to trust me.

Was that question actually directed towards me?

It was, wasn’t it? Not my sister.

Out of all three of us, she was the only one who was able to put her trust in me. I wasn’t even by her side to honestly argue that I was worth defending. If anything, I was thinking more like my sister; that I couldn’t handle something like this.

She wanted me to trust in the Hanako that trusted me.

“I- I wanted a friend.”

I looked Koyuki in the eyes with every ounce of confidence I could muster. It wasn’t much, but I was able to push some words out at the very least.

She didn’t have anything to say in return, either. And of course she didn’t. She was the one who understood how alone I was the most. There was barely a proper relationship between the two of us, after all.

That’s what her expression seemed to say.

“Do what you want then.”

She finished getting ready in silence, then made her way to the door without another word. I won my first argument against her.

Though, it didn’t feel good to do it when her response was something like that. For some reason, I couldn’t shake my guilt regardless of the result.

Even Hanako, who was once again smiling at me, couldn’t lift my spirits.

“Thank you for breakfast.”

My sister made a final utterance from the front door in a reserved tone before scurrying outside and slamming the door. Our relationship must have gotten a little worse again.

But at the very least, Hanako would be able to stay for now.

My first friend.

“I’m sorry you had to be the one to stand up for me like that.”

“At times like this, I believe it’s better to say ‘thank you.’”

“Oh, um… thank you, then.”

She giggled, welcoming in a more casual mood.

“Not to me, silly. To your sister.”

“What!? Why? She tried to kick you out! She even threatened to call the police on you! She’s just annoying!”

“Exactly. And I would be much more skeptical if she didn’t. But just like I thought, she cares about you a lot. Actually, I’m even a little jealous. I have some competition for ‘biggest Shoutarou-complex’.”

She was saying something embarrassing again. Was she just teasing me, or was she serious this time? It was getting hard to tell through her ever-mysterious smile, and eyes that never wavered.

“Your sister loves you very much. It might seem like you have a rough relationship right now, but I can assure you that you two actually get along, even if in a bit of an unusual sense. And besides, she did agree to let me stay, didn’t she?”

I didn’t want to agree with her. I really didn’t. But at the same time, she was technically right about at least the last point. And she had done far too much for me to really even have a right to argue with her.

“Fine. I’ll go thank her. But in exchange, you have to help me make friends at school.”

“Of course, anything within my power!”

The hearty demon seemed ecstatic just with the fact that I asked her to do something for me. I’m sure she’d be ecstatic even if it wasn’t in exchange for anything. She didn’t even have a hint of suspicion about what I might make her do.

She really did trust me entirely.

And so, I ran to catch my sister.

Opening the front door however, she was already right there on the other side of it, facing in my direction.

“Ah!”

“Koyuki!”

“W-what is it!”

“Um…”

It was really hard to get the words out, now that I had her eyes on me. I was hoping for more of a “yell it to her while she was facing away” type of situation.

“T-thank you. For, well, you know… letting Hanako stay.”

“I-”

She paused. This was probably an over-the-door moment for her. In fact, I was sure of it. It was bad timing.

“Yeah.”

She wasn’t looking at me, but through her tone, it seemed like she at least wasn’t upset about it.

“You’re gonna go to school today, right?”

“I- I will.”

“Good.”

Without a moment to waste, she scurried down the hallway and into the elevator waiting at the end.

Maybe it wasn’t a bad interaction after all.

I think.