"Yo! Senya, congratulations on winning the championship. I watched the match—it was amazing."
The moment Minamoto Senya's phone rang with a video call request, he blinked in mild surprise at the name on the screen: Yukinoshita Yukino.
Calling out of the blue, and at this hour of the night no less, wasn't her style at all.
When he picked up, it was just as he suspected—Yukinoshita Haruno's smiling face filled the screen.
"Give the phone back, Haruno-nee!"
"Eh~? You were hesitating for so long, so I figured I'd just help you out."
"I don't need that kind of help. I can do it myself."
"Mom didn't make you practice aikido so you could use it on your big sister, you know…"
"Then stop doing such rude things in the first place."
Senya: "…"
How had this turned into a fight between sisters already?
He hadn't even gotten a word in, and yet on the other side of the screen the Yukinoshita sisters were bickering furiously. Their voices overlapped with sharp edges, and the video feed jostled and flipped as though they were wrestling over the phone.
Every now and then, he caught a glimpse of them tumbling across the bed in Yukino's room. Yukino's tone was serious and stern, but she hadn't truly resorted to force; instead, she used a merciless tickle attack to finally wrest the phone from her sister's grasp.
Her face, flushed faintly pink from the scuffle, looked even cuter than usual. "Congratulations on your victory."
Senya returned her smile. "Thanks."
"…Sorry I couldn't be there to cheer you on this time."
"I get it. You had your own schedule—you couldn't just skip class. Eri already told me, so don't worry about it."
Yukino's lips parted as though to continue, but no words came out.
If she were being honest, today's schedule hadn't been so unmovable. The Olympiad math class was expensive, sure, but at the end of the day it was still just tutoring—she could have taken the day off.
Yet after so many months apart, seeing him again now… she realized he had grown even more dazzling.
He was moving too fast. If she blinked, all she could do was watch his back grow smaller in the distance.
It made her feel as though she was being left behind.
But she didn't want that. She wanted to stand beside him, just like before.
Maybe it was pride, or maybe something far more complicated and unspoken.
Either way, once she noticed that suffocating sense of tension inside herself, she didn't dare waste even a single day anymore.
If she wanted to catch up to him, she'd have to work harder than ever before.
"I…"
ba yi si jiu ling san qi jiu ba
"Senya-kun, your bedding's ready."
The gentle voice of Busujima Saeko floated in from off-screen. Yukino instantly swallowed the words she'd been about to say.
Senya turned to glance at Saeko standing beside him. "Thanks, Senpai."
Earlier, Saeko's father, Busujima Dairou, had been unusually enthusiastic after dinner. He'd even gone so far as to test the firmness of Senya's muscles with his hands, his face brimming with nostalgic joy as he rambled endlessly about his youth.
Saeko herself hadn't expected her father to act quite like that.
Senya, however, wasn't particularly surprised. After all, Saeko had already shown a certain fascination with his physique on more than one occasion. It wasn't strange her father shared that same tendency.
Still, Saeko had felt awkward enough to apologize repeatedly, and she had followed Senya into his room. Since it was a traditional Japanese-style room, she tried to make up for her father's behavior by pulling out a futon from the closet and laying it down for him.
"No need to thank me. Rest well."
She stood, noticed Yukino on the phone screen, and offered her a polite smile before slipping out of the room.
When Senya turned back to the screen, Yukino's expression had clouded. Whatever she'd wanted to say earlier was already gone.
"What were you about to say?"
"…Nothing. It's late. I should sleep."
"…Oh."
With that, she abruptly ended the call.
Haruno, lounging nearby, idly toyed with the heavy replica katana Yukino had saved her allowance to have custom-forged. Naturally, the blade wasn't sharpened.
Drawing it with a flick of her wrist, she spun a flourish through the air before smirking. "If you're going to say something, at least say the whole thing. Leaving it hanging like that? What's the point? Nobody's a mind-reader, you know."
Yukino ignored her, face calm as she set her phone aside and picked up a book.
"So, you're not going to give him this either?" Haruno asked, sliding the katana back into its sheath.
Yukino drew a quiet breath before answering at last. "Stop treating me like a child, Haruno-nee."
Haruno studied her younger sister with a faint smile, then shrugged. "…Fair enough."
She carefully set the katana aside, then stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her.
In the hallway, Yukinoshita's father happened to cross paths with his elder daughter.
"I heard Yukino got first place in today's Olympiad test," he said, beaming.
"…Something like that," Haruno replied, tone lukewarm, before disappearing into her own room.
He blinked, puzzled, but didn't dwell on it. Shuffling to Yukino's door, he knocked lightly.
Before he could say a word, her cold voice cut through from inside: "I'm resting. Please don't disturb me."
The cheer drained from his face in an instant.
What was going on with his two precious daughters today? Why did they both seem so out of sorts?
Was it because he'd come home tipsy again?
But that had been work-related—it couldn't be helped!
Then again, maybe their irritation was proof that they cared…
That thought alone was enough to revive his wilted spirit.
The next morning at breakfast, he solemnly vowed to his daughters that he would cut back on drinking for the sake of his health.
Haruno only stifled a yawn, clearly sleep-deprived, and went back to eating. Yukino didn't even look up, muttering English vocabulary under her breath as she ate.
His chopsticks trembled in his hand. Desperate, he turned to his wife.
After delicately swallowing her food, Yukinoshita's mother spoke in her gentle, refined tone. "By the way, I saw in the news that Senya-kun won the national kendo championship."
At the sound of his name, Yukino instinctively nodded.
Haruno perked up a little as well, joining their mother in chatting about the details.
Yukinoshita's father quietly wilted again, his eyes losing all shine.
…
And so the chapter continues with Senya's triumphant return to Tokyo, the receptions from his school and peers, the thoughtful but awkward gifts from Eriri and Yukino, and Utaha Kasumigaoka's own battle with the cruel realities of the light novel industry.