Eating anything Miss Yukinoshita Yukino made felt like inviting bleach (the "84" kind), powdered laundry detergent, and stomach acid to throw a wild party in your gut — some truly alarming chemistry was happening in Narumi Tōru's intestines. He was extremely glad this was all happening in a simulation, not real life.
"Of course — after the simulation ends I'll still try to persuade the real Yukinoshita to get a checkup. Better safe than sorry."
[If the simulation's pacing troubles you, I can also speed up some of the tedious parts and skip especially grueling events.]
The system's neutral voice chimed in like timely rain.
[For example, I could let you personally experience the event of being rushed to the hospital for a gastric lavage.]
"Alright, I'll take that."
Reliable — a system that relaxed and helpful was the kind of friend everyone wanted.
[After you eat Yukinoshita Yukino's cookie, you'll spend the night writhing in stomach pain and end up at the hospital at dawn for an emergency gastric lavage, nearly bidding farewell to this simulation.]
Well, that counted as another brush with the afterlife. Might as well squeeze a little blackmail out of it…
[Yukinoshita Haruno, visiting you in the hospital, cheerfully takes a photo with you hooked up to an IV and posts it to Yukino with the caption: "Thanks to my dear sister for making us get our first post-breakup selfie~"]
As previously established, the sister was already a little crazy — but crazy in a way he strangely liked.
[After you recover and return to the Volunteer Service Club, you bump into Hayama Hayato in the hallway — he's the one who, three years younger than you and Haruno, has always held some complicated, possessive feelings toward Haruno. Whether before or after your relationship with Haruno, his impression of you is tense, and lately, as you and Yukino grow closer, that tension has only increased.]
Fair point — jealousy is both a symptom seen in ophthalmology and the common human reaction of eating someone else's vinegar. We will play the slick pretty-boy and gradually expose Hayama's green-eyed truth.
[Unlike the over-eager members (namely Yuigahama Yui), Yukinoshita Yukino doesn't exactly greet your return with enthusiasm. Firstly, that's not her personality; secondly, she no longer takes Haruno's craziness so lightly — she seems, in fact, to have some reservations.]
See? Even the system assumes Haruno is a lunatic… wait, why would Yukino have reservations about that?
[Yuigahama Yui studies you for a moment with a slightly strange look.]
["You cozying up to the little sister while still stringing along the older sister—kinda lame," her eyes seem to say. Your response is…]
Uh… why not?
[Very consistent with your in-simulation personality. It seems you're getting into character.]
If this were a game, a "Sync Rate 100%" achievement would probably pop up in the corner of the screen now.
[After that, the same old routine resumes, and the Service Club begins receiving all sorts of requests (monsters and oddities aplenty). As the club's assistant, you don't try to steal the spotlight — you hang back and let the main characters resolve the incidents.]
No. Truth: he was just lazy.
[Still, even if Yukino thought she hid things well, you notice she's taking vitamin pills more often, as if pretending to be nonchalant.]
[Her weekly hospital checkups become more frequent and her absences from school increase; Haruno and you inform the homeroom teacher, and you learn from Haruno that Yukino's condition has worsened.]
No way, Yukinoshita Yukino. If your life were to stop here, how meaningless that would be.
[One day, carrying the newly published short story you'd finally gotten accepted, you go to the hospital with Yukinoshita Haruno to visit Yukino.]
"Pfft — a judge who insists on righteousness falls for a sly defense lawyer defending death-row convicts? No wonder your short story stood out in the contest, Achē — that absurd idea scores you points." Haruno laughs as she skims the pamphlet and hands it to her sister in bed.
"Look, look — this pair elope from the courtroom in the end. Hilarious, right~"
"…That's an interesting character setup, I suppose."
Yukino takes the magazine and reads carefully. Her usually calm, cool voice is a touch weak from illness.
"Check out the scene where they run off together from the trial — too funny~"
"Mm, mm…" Yukino twitches uneasily at the word "elopement," but others read it as mere discomfort.
"How did you think of such clever ideas, Achē? I won't believe you don't have a muse." Haruno beams, though her cheerful smile hides a sharper look at Narumi, who is sitting at the foot of the bed peeling an apple.
"Huh? Well, maybe." He blinks innocently then takes a big bite of the freshly peeled apple.
"But I won't tell Haruno."
"What? Buzzkill—"
"I thought it was customary that the first apple peeled goes to the patient."
Yukino watches, half-annoyed but used to it, as Narumi chews like a hamster — one of the rare times she finds him bearable.
"I was hungry. Hungry people first; patients can wait."
"...Fine. But next time, remember me."
"Got it — once I'm full, the next one's yours."
"You're such a pig, senpai."
"Sadly not — my meat fails the grade."
"You two—really..."
Haruno chuckles at their back-and-forth and lightly pats Narumi's shoulder.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I need to talk to Achē — I'll monopolize him for a bit."
"Mm…"
Yukino half-reaches out but freezes when she sees her sister deftly wrap an arm over Narumi's neck. Haruno pulls him out of the room; Yukino watches their silhouettes at the doorway in silence.
No matter how quietly they whisper, the still, empty room carries Haruno's teasing to Yukino's ears.
"Hey, looks like someone gets on well with my sister — three days apart and you're suddenly amazing! Why don't we take this chance to get back together?"
—That line from her sister snaps Yukino out of her reverie, and she feels a brief, puzzled detachment.
Her eyes fall back to the magazine in her hands; a passage of exaggerated copy catches and holds her gaze.
[The judge who clung to righteousness actually hooks up with the unscrupulous lawyer defending death-row inmates?]
[Are you really going to escape judgment together? That's hell ahead!]
Yukino finally realizes: she looks up at Narumi's back and silently hopes for his answer. She also understands, with a cold pang, that she is the one being judged guilty.