Chapter 49: Therapy (2)

“…Please explain…”

“Hmm…so this is what it meant…”

“What do you mean…huh?!”

An unfamiliar voice echoes.

It is a voice I might have heard sometime, but it must have been my voice from the past, so it feels unfamiliar.

My voice, well, if I had to say, it was a voice that was probably close to a beautiful boy’s voice.

A voice mixed with the youthfulness of a beautiful voice resounds.

My vision is low, so I have to look up at Nagisa.

I, standing, have to look up at Nagisa, who is sitting.

“Ahem, please calm down. Actually, I was thinking maybe once…”

“What do you mean calm down?! Are you a lolicon?! Nagisa-sama?! Maybe you couldn’t do it to Mika-oneechan or Seia-sama, so you did it to me?!”

I can’t calm my emotions.

It’s not like my memories have disappeared, but the medicine I took must have had some effect on my mental state as well.

“Ah?! No! Absolutely not…and oneechan?!”

“Then please explain! Is this some kind of punishment?! Like only one out of three drinks is a winner?! Is that it?! Or is someone behind this?! There’s no one who would play such a prank!”

No, I wouldn’t be able to calm down even if it didn’t have a mental effect.

How long do I have to live like this…worry fills my mind.

I don’t want to be misunderstood every time I meet someone new or someone I know.

I don’t want to hear things like I’m a hidden younger sister…

“C…cough…Sora? Do the clothes fit?”

“No, they’re a bit big…”

The clothes I borrowed in a hurry were Seia-sama’s clothes.

To be precise, they were Seia-sama’s clothes from her middle school days.

Even though Seia-sama is relatively small, my body right now is, well?

It felt like it wasn’t even middle school, but elementary school level, so even Seia-sama’s clothes, who was small in stature and height, felt a little big to me.

The sleeves cover half of my hands.

The shoulders are slightly slipping.

The skirt…I managed to adjust it somehow so it wouldn’t fall, but it’s still a bit big…

“Wow….”

“Did Onee-chan know…?”

“Ahaha☆ Sorry? Sora-chan? But I didn’t know it was this kind of medicine?”

“…”

When I looked at her with cold eyes, Onee-chan also avoided my gaze.

They’re really incorrigible.

I see, so these people are also students…no, people…so they can play pranks, right?

No, isn’t this going too far for a prank?

Seriously, how long is this going to last?

“Ahem…you’ve calmed down…”

“So, how long will this last?”

“I heard it lasts about 3 days.”

3 days…fortunately, it’s not a very long time, and I won’t have to live like this forever.

If it was that kind of thing, the three of them wouldn’t have given me this in the first place, so I should have thought that it wouldn’t be long…

Well…then…since it’s come to this, let’s try to enjoy what I can only do in this form.

“…? What’s wrong? Sora-san?”

Let’s be a little mischievous. Slowly approaching Nagisa-sama…

“?! Sora-chan?!”

“Wait, Sora-san?!”

I jump up.

I land on Nagisa-sama’s lap.

Since I jumped from the front, we are facing each other.

I turn my body to face the front again.

Seia-sama’s eyes widen and the black tea she was holding in her mouth spills back into the teacup with a slurp sound.

Mika looks at me with a look that says, “Are you serious?”.

Mischief, what I’m doing is just mischief, but…there’s a bit of sincerity mixed in.

That sincerity is…

“Huh..? Do you like Nagi-chan more than me…huh? Sora-chan…? Nagi-chan too? Huh?”

“Wai-, Mika-san? You know that’s not it?!”

Wow, her expression has become a little dangerous.

But…I, my sincerity is not that…

“Because…if it’s not this way, I can’t see Onee-chan face to face…”

It’s sophistry, but it’s sincere.

Honestly, if I cling to Onee-chan in this form, I feel like I’ll end up acting spoiled in many ways, and I might have a hard time dealing with it later, but…even so, what I just said was definitely sincere to me.

“…Ah…um…yes!”

“Mika-san…?”

“Onee-chan…?”

Onee-chan gets up from her seat and approaches me and Nagisa-sama, standing in front of me.

And then…

“Ehehe…yes! This is Sora-chan’s fault, okay?”

“Yes…? What kind of forced logic is…eh?!”

She naturally picked me up.

It’s like handling a child…ah, I am a child right now.

Anyway, I’m being treated like a child.

It felt a little strange…but it wasn’t bad.

It’s like my intelligence is decreasing…or…like I’m becoming more daring than usual?…

Hmm…it seems that the medicine does affect the mental part…it’s definitely not because I’m being treated in a way that I can’t normally feel or receive from that person…probably…

As my face flushed, I lowered my head and Seia-sama was looking up at me from below.

“Hmm….Hmm…you seem to be enjoying it?”

In the end, I ended up failing to withstand the three’s coordinated attack again.

“Ehehe…”

“Mika-san…when are you going to work?”

“Hmm? But this kind of opportunity is rare, isn’t it?”

After the situation had calmed down to some extent, I ended up becoming Onee-chan’s attachment doll.

It’s the first time I’ve realized that sitting on her lap is quite comfortable.

The height of the table and sofa is set for high school students, so it’s a bit high for me to sit in this state, which probably played a part.

I watch Onee-chan and Nagisa-sama’s usual bickering, which isn’t really bickering.

Onee-chan’s voice is coming from right behind me, but what does it matter?

It’s nice to listen to, so it doesn’t matter, right? While thinking such thoughts, I take a sip of black tea.

This time, it’s pure Darjeeling, without any medicine, and the scent of Darjeeling spreads in my mouth…

“Ugh?!”

An unfamiliar disgust rises.

The taste of the black tea hasn’t changed.

Rather, the meaningless taste from the medicine has disappeared, and only the taste and aroma of Darjeeling, which is somewhere between green tea and black tea, remains, making it a wonderful black tea taste.

“Huh?! What’s wrong? Sora-chan, is something wrong?!”

“That’s…I can’t drink it…”

“Yes? There shouldn’t be anything wrong with the tea…”

For some reason, even though the taste was that of a wonderful black tea, brewed at the right temperature and time, a black tea that I would normally drink with pleasure, a disgust rises.

My eyebrows furrow and a feeling of nausea rises.

“Hup…?!”

To wash away the disgust a little, I put the desserts that were spread out in front of me into my mouth.

Sweetness, sweetness spreads in my mouth.

I didn’t dislike sweetness before, but for some reason, it goes down better now.

Could it be…

“Interesting, has your taste changed too?”

“Wow…oh? Then is Sora-chan now a mentally mature child?”

“No…that…my mind is also a little…'”

“…”

Wow…um…did my thinking become a little shorter?

Come to think of it, I didn’t think about what kind of people the three of them were, so I was thinking about how long I had to be like this.

Thinking about it, it seems like it has shortened.

-Munch munch-

I enjoy the sweetness in my mouth.

It feels like my thoughts keep changing here and there, but I just rationalize it as being because of the medicine.

“Wow~! Cute~!”

“Kehuk…kehuk…”

“?! Sora?! Wait…something sweet that even a child can drink…hmm…”

“What are you doing…in this case, you should at least offer some water…”

I couldn’t put the tea in my mouth at all, so I just put the desserts in my mouth, and my throat started to get blocked.

The three of them are busy…no, Onee-chan was behind me, not knowing what to do.

Were they originally this clumsy?

Anyway, Seia-sama gave me a glass of moderately lukewarm water, so I quickly drank it and solved the problem.

-Gulp gulp-

“Haa…haa…”

“That’s a relief…should we keep some juice in the office…”

“Yes, I agree! We’ll need it for at least 3 days…”

After quickly drinking the water, I looked around and something was going on.

All three of them were treating me a little, no, excessively differently than usual.

The reason…I can roughly guess…

It wasn’t a very pleasant experience to realize that people around me were watching me for some reason…and a very awkward time passed.

No, just because I’ve become younger doesn’t mean the contents have changed, so why…

I wanted to avoid going outside as much as possible, so I was spending time just doing work in the office.

I thought about various problems, but I solved most of them for now.

That’s because the ringleaders were the student council presidents, and they somehow managed to solve it well, so I was relieved.

I was especially worried about proving my identity during commuting to and from school and my original attendance, but it seems they handled it well.

-Knock knock-

[I’m coming in.]

“Yes, please come in.”

Along with the sound of knocking, a familiar voice, Sensei’s voice, was heard from beyond the door.

Nagisa-sama reacted to this and the door opens.

[Long ti…ah, it’s today, right?]

As soon as Sensei came in, he reacted to Mika-oneechan and me sitting on her lap.

Judging from Sensei’s reaction, it is clear that he already knew.

Having deduced this far, I silently glared at Sensei.

“…”

[I’m…sorry?]

“Ahaha☆ Sensei~ You’re caught~”

“Hmph…”

I turn my head away and put my hands back on the dessert and documents.

But I was stopped.

[I’m…sorry? It looks a bit bad…]

“Ahaha…um, I think I know what you mean…”

“What do you mean…”

[Haha, it’s better not to know?]

I don’t know why he’s saying that, but Sensei also started treating me carefully.

No, I’m asking why?!

“You know I’ll be ve-ry bored like this, right?”

“Oh my, you were fine just standing guard before, but you’ve definitely…become younger.”

“Hmm…huh? Is that so?”

“Eh?! Sora-chan? Are you agreeing with that…?”

I almost felt bad about what Nagisa-sama said, but when I think about it, it seems to be true.

In fact, even when I was just standing still for hours doing bodyguard work, I didn’t feel particularly tired or anything, so it might be true.

Ah, is this a high-level word game? I started to think that, but seeing the reactions of the people around me, I decided to let it go because I didn’t think it would be a very pleasant feeling even if I heard the truth.

Sensei and the three of them started talking about work.

The main topics were joint tactical training, rescheduling the postponed Eden Treaty, and the comprehensive tactical exam, and in fact, none of the three were things I could participate in, so I was just a bystander, an observer…I was….

“Wow…”

[Ha, now you’re acting like a child.]

A suspiciously mature student, making her difficult to deal with, difficult to give advice to, and difficult to recommend rest to.

When Nagisa brought Saya’s rejuvenation medicine, I wanted to stop her, but as soon as I found out that the target was Sora, I thought deeply.

I thought that if I left that child alone, she would eventually get tired and collapse.

I wanted to make her take a break sometime.

A child who originally refuses to rest will never rest unless someone around her forces her to rest.

So I have to make her rest like this.

That being said…

[I…know about your relationship…but isn’t she completely an attachment doll…?]

“But this is Sora-chan’s, um, right? She doesn’t usually, um, do things like skinship…so, um, that’s why I’m doing this…I know it’s consideration, but it’s a bit sad…”

[Hahaha, that’s just like Sora.]

“Yes! So this is self-defense!”

Don’t have the prejudice that a teacher will look down on same-s*x relationships.

In the first place, as Kivotos has an extreme gender ratio, I was somewhat expecting this kind of case.

As such, I am often courted by students, so I am having a hard time, so there may be children with other tastes.

“Ahem…come to think of it…the security has gotten a little worse lately, hasn’t it?”

[Hmm, certainly…]

I quickly change the subject.

It was content that I could say I sympathized with to some extent.

It’s probably because the Justice Realization Committee has recently been assigned to take care of the Arius members who have joined the knights, and the Eden Treaty has made things a bit chaotic.

Should I ask Valkyrie for help…

“That’s right, the Justice Realization Committee members are doing their best, but they are also short-staffed to fill the hole in the Eden Treaty and assist the Arius students.”

“Hmm~ Then…”

Huh? The atmosphere is a little different from what I expected.

Is it not a story to be solved in a slightly static, public atmosphere?

Could it be…the discussion between the two of them now…

“It would be better to stay at my house.”

“Ahaha☆ I’ll take her?”

“Both of you reflect…shouldn’t we solve the Justice Realization Committee first?!”

[Haha…you’re so passionate…]

It seems that the suspiciously mature child is loved by many.