Chapter 38: How did I suddenly become the one being tortured?

“Eh? Yukina, are you saying that was all a misunderstanding?”

On the park bench, Hiiragi Mizuki stared at Yukina, who was sitting next to her, with a look of surprise.

Yukina vigorously nodded, placing her hands on Charlotte’s shoulders and introducing her to Hiiragi Mizuki.

“Yes, yes! This is my distant relative’s child. Her name is Bai Shen…”

As she introduced her, Yukina’s face was covered in a strained, sweaty smile, like a teacher who had been caught cheating with a student by the Game Development Club.

But as she spoke, Yukina suddenly forgot the fake name she had given Charlotte and quickly turned to whisper to her.

“Brother, what was that fake name again?”

“Uh… I forgot what I said too.”

“What?! How could you forget something so important?”

Yukina yelled at Charlotte with a look of disbelief, but the next second, she snapped back to reality, seeing Hiiragi Mizuki staring at her with a look of astonishment. She instantly panicked.

“No, sorry, Little Xi, just wait a moment!”

She then unceremoniously grabbed Charlotte and pulled her to the side, lowering her voice to yell at her.

“Brother, don’t you know Memory Magic? You should be able to retrieve everything that happened just now with a playback. Hurry up and find the recording and check what weird name you gave yourself!”

Although Charlotte was a little reluctant, she followed Yukina’s instructions and used Memory Magic to review the memories from an hour ago.

“Oh, I remember now. My new name is Bai Shen Kanon.”

Hearing Charlotte’s answer, Yukina dragged Charlotte back and sat down in front of Hiiragi Mizuki, continuing her introduction as if nothing had happened.

“This child is Bai Shen Kanon. You can just call her little Kanon, Little Xi.”

‘So suspicious!’

Seeing Yukina’s utterly flustered state, Hiiragi Mizuki couldn’t help but think this.

“How come I’ve never heard you mention having a sister before, Yukina?”

“Well, she’s a distant relative’s child! We don’t usually keep in touch much. I wouldn’t have even known I had a sister like this if she hadn’t said anything! Hehe.”

“Then about you two in the restroom just now…”

“She doesn’t know how to use the toilet by herself yet. I told her to hurry up and take off her skirt, but she was slow and dilly-dallying for ages. That’s when you walked in. We’re really not in the kind of relationship you were thinking of, Little Xi! You know me better than that, don’t you?”

Saying this, Yukina suddenly grabbed Hiiragi Mizuki’s hand and stared at her with a sincere expression.

With Yukina acting like this, Hiiragi Mizuki felt it was really hard to press the issue further.

“Is that so? I guess I really misunderstood! I’m sorry, Yukina.”

“It’s alright, it’s alright. It’s just good that the misunderstanding is cleared up. We’re best friends! Nothing can break our friendship!”

Hiiragi Mizuki couldn’t help but shed tears of emotion. Realizing her current appearance was a little unseemly, she quickly wiped the tears from her eyes.

“Sorry, I’m just so happy to see you looking so cheerful, Yukina.”

“Eh? Is it that big a deal?”

“After all, Yukina’s brother passed away yesterday…” Saying this, Hiiragi Mizuki realized she had made a mistake and quickly covered her mouth. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring that up.”

However, hearing Hiiragi Mizuki’s words, Yukina paused.

Little Xi must be referring to Brother Xinghe’s death in the car accident yesterday.

But she hadn’t told anyone about that, not even her parents who were overseas.

After all, before she could even inform them, her brother, who had reincarnated as a cute, adorable, must-be-adopted little witch, had won the revival tournament and come back to her.

Perhaps out of selfishness, she didn’t want anyone else to know that her brother had reincarnated as a witch and returned.

“Little Xi, how did you know about this?”

“The news reported it last night! Although they didn’t release the name of the person who died in the car accident, they showed a few pictures of the crash. I immediately recognized that it was Yukina’s brother!”

Hearing this, Yukina frowned.

‘It was on the news?’

She had no idea that her trouble-making brother had even made it onto the news.

More importantly, she was only finding out about it now.

She had been watching her brother’s adventure in the other world all last night and hadn’t turned on the TV to see what the news was reporting.

If others found out about this…

Of course, it didn’t really matter if others found out. The most important thing was that her parents mustn’t know.

If they found out, they would immediately fly back from overseas, only to walk through the door and see that their son had turned into a daughter. The scene was too beautiful to even imagine.

She didn’t want the routine of living with her brother to end just yet.

If possible, she truly hoped that this daily life would continue without any change.

“Um, Little Xi, could you please keep this a secret for me? I don’t want anyone else to know that my brother died in a car accident.”

Hearing this request, Hiiragi Mizuki looked surprised, but then she understood. She was intimately familiar with the feeling of constantly being talked about behind her back.

“Okay, I understand. I’ll help you keep this secret, Yukina.”

“Really? Thank you so much!”

“I’m so happy to see you pulling yourself together, Yukina. I thought you would be depressed for a long time, after all, he was the brother you loved the most!”

“Eh?” Yukina paused.

“Hmm?” Charlotte, beside her, looked like a keyword had been triggered and stared at Little Xi with curiosity.

“Little Xi, what nonsense are you talking about? I don’t love my brother!”

“There you go again, Yukina. I’m your best friend. You can’t hide your feelings from me. No matter how much you say you hate your brother, I know very well that in your heart, your brother is the most important person to you.”

“He is not important at all! Even if he were burned to ashes, I wouldn’t have a single bit of lingering affection for him!”

Yukina hastily retorted loudly. Charlotte was about to speak, but Yukina quickly raised her hand to cover her mouth.

“Don’t speak yet!”

“Eh?” Hiiragi Mizuki looked surprised at Yukina’s rebuttal.

Seemingly realizing that her rebuttal had been a bit too forceful, Yukina quickly added a qualifier.

“No, I don’t mean that, I just mean…”

“I see, I understand now. For you, Yukina, your brother is someone who only lives in the past. You won’t let yourself be held back by someone from the past. Is that the reason you’ve pulled yourself together? You’re incredible!”

“Eh?” Yukina was stunned. It was clear to her that Hiiragi Mizuki’s tone was off.

“I think your brother would be proud to have a sister like you! Sorry, I have other things to do, so I won’t bother you anymore, Yukina.”

After saying this, Hiiragi Mizuki turned and walked away without even saying goodbye, leaving Yukina alone on the bench, lost in thought.

“Little Xi?”

She stayed frozen for a while before realizing that Charlotte was still tightly hugged in her arms with her mouth covered.

She quickly let go of Charlotte’s mouth.

“Sorry, brother, I almost forgot about you.”

But Charlotte was looking at Yukina with a mischievous expression.

“Oh? So your big brother is that important to you! But you shouldn’t be so obsessed with your big brother, Yukina! Your big bro is just a legend!”

“How old is that joke, brother? Are you still using it?”

Yukina, needing to vent, once again pinched Charlotte’s cheeks tightly, refusing to let go.