Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai:Volume 3 Chapter 4
Chapter 4
A week passed after she finished the manuscript for her cell phone novel and the morning of the annoying opening ceremony came.
Kirino had simply pushed herself too hard and her cold had gotten worse, so it seemed she was bedridden. I say “seemed” because she was so feverish that she stayed in her room even during meals, so I never had a chance to see her.
While I was eating breakfast, my mother came over to speak with me while looking a bit down.
“Kyousuke~. That girl still has a high fever, but she is insisting she goes to school.”
“She’s complaining about having practice and her job, isn’t she?”
“Yes, exactly. Sigh. She simply won’t listen, so I just asked your father to talk some sense into her.”
I knew it. That idiot brought this on herself.
Well, she isn’t going to get over this cold through pure willpower and she’ll have no choice but to stay home today once dad lectures her.
Tch. She’ll probably insist on going to school each and every day until she gets over this fever.
I could only shake my head.
“I’m worried, so I’m taking her to the hospital today. I’ve heard the flu has been going around lately.”
“Oh, I see.” I sipped at my miso soup. “Just warn her to make sure she doesn’t give it to me.”
“Hah. Why are you so heartless? You’re her brother.”
“Keh. Like I care about her.”
Are you stupid? Worrying for her isn’t going to make her get better any faster.
When I got back from school, my mom told me that Kirino did indeed have the flu. “Oh, I see,” was my honest reaction. I could not think of anything else to say.
After washing my hands and rinsing out my mouth more thoroughly than usual, I headed upstairs.
“…”
After a few moments of indecision, I knocked on my little sister’s door. She may have been asleep, so I knocked lightly.
I received no response. Deciding she must have been asleep, I scratched at my cheek and started to turn around, but then I heard a click and the door opened.
That door that usually slammed forcefully directly into my face had no energy today.
Kirino peered out at me in her pajamas through the cracked door.
“…What?”
…Oh, I haven’t thought of anything to say. Why did I even knock on her door? I don’t have any business with her. Um…uh…
“…Hey…do you want some yogurt?”
I held out the plastic bag hanging from one of my hands. I had bought the yogurt at a convenience store on the way home.
“…Sure.”
Kirino’s feverish head nodded and she took the convenience store bag. She seemed oddly docile, but that was likely because she did not have enough energy to verbally abuse me. Ironically, my sister was a lot cuter when she had the flu and didn’t talk much. It was worth giving up my yogurt for.
“Have you taken your medicine?”
“…No.”
“Take it.”
I then realized Kirino was holding her cell phone in her left hand.
“What are you doing with your phone?”
Don’t tell me she’s still working on that novel…
“Quit being stupid and get back in bed.”
“…”
Despite having been scolded by her brother, Kirino only hung her head down.
She seemed even more downhearted than you would expect of someone suffering from a fever.
Also, it looked a bit like she had been crying.
“What’s wrong?”
“…Nothing.”
Now, that’s a lie. I can’t have you thinking your brother is that stupid. I can tell how you’re feeling to certain extent just by looking at you. And now that I think about it, someone with as strong a sense of responsibility and awareness that she is a professional as you should be doing nothing but trying to get over this illness on her day home from school.
“It isn’t nothing, you idiot. If you’re worried about something, tell me. Tell me and then get to sleep. You need to recover so you can get back to practice and work.”
Kirino’s eyes opened wide in surprise at my bluntness.
“…What’s…with you? You’re being surprisingly kind.”
“Hah. I just want you to recover before you infect me.”
I had been trying to speak harshly to her, but Kirino only gave a small laugh.
“You’re an idiot,” she said. “Well, whatever. Come in. I doubt you can do anything about it, but I’ll tell you if you want to hear.”
“Fine, fine.”
I entered her room despite that meaning it would be my own fault if I caught her flu.
After inviting me in, Kirino sat on her bed and handed me her phone.
“Here.”
“Wh-what?”
I recoiled back at having it thrust out at me so suddenly. I then took it and looked at the screen. The main page for Cell Phone i-Club was displayed on the LCD screen. The site had a large announcement written on it.
“An amazing newcomer to the cell phone novel world is having her debut work published in hard cover! It is being published by MediAscii Works! The whole novel is available ahead of time here on Cell Phone i-Club!”
Apparently, a hard cover novel from Cell Phone i-Club was being put online in full as a sales promotion.
Since the author was referred to as an “amazing newcomer” they must have had a lot of confidence in the novel.
The first thing that came to my mind was…
“Is this ‘amazing newcomer’ they’re talking about you!? Wow!”
“…”
Kirino gave no response. She took the phone from me, pressed some buttons while coughing a few times, and then handed it back to me. I looked at the screen and saw what must have been a page of the cell phone novel this “amazing newcomer” had written.
Its title was “Little Sister Sky”.
“Well, that couldn’t be any more obviously you!”
I could tell without even glancing through the text. This was clearly the cell phone novel Kirino had written.
The novel Kirino had so desperately worked to finish was awash in the limelight in a big way.
Below the title was a button labeled “review this work”. I clicked it and a large number of people’s impressions of the novel popped up.
“What a good story!” “I cried.” “Their pure love was the best part.” “As a girl, this really moved me.”
They went on and on. The book had not even been released yet and there were already over 100 reviews. And they were all favorable impressions. From what I could see, the novel had the strongest support from young girls.
…That’s amazing.
I didn’t actually say it out loud, but that was what I thought. But I was also a little dissatisfied that the readers had seen Toshi and Rino’s relationship as pure love like the author had.
After tagging along when she was gathering data and watching as she worked so hard to write the novel, I was actually moved by this positive reaction. I was amazed at how much talent she had.
…Sigh. She’s increased the gap yet again. How far behind are you trying to leave your brother, little sister? It’s so frustrating and pathetic that I might just get depressed.
As a smile that was a mixture of self-torture and joy appeared on my face, I realized something.
“Wait, then why do you look so upset?”
I didn’t make sense. The novel she had worked so hard to write was being well received, had a huge announcement, and was being published. Normally, that would be a time for joy.
“…else.”
“Ah? What?”
“They’ve made it so it’s written by someone else!” Kirino shouted as if she was about to cough up blood before she started coughing normally.
“H-hey, are you okay?”
She seemed to be suffering so much that I reached out to pat her on the back, but she brushed my hand aside.
She was still coughing pretty badly, so I wasn’t about to get angry with her.
“What do you mean they made it so it’s written by someone else?”
After coughing a bit more and catching her breath, she said, “I-I mean that I’m the one that wrote it, but the author is given as some penname I’ve never seen before in my life.”
I looked and, sure enough, it said “Author – Rino” below the title. The author’s name was the same as the protagonist of Little Sister Sky. Presumably they were trying to make it look like the story was something the author had actually experienced, as was common with cell phone novels.
“So they changed the penname without asking because they thought it would sell better with the author and the protagonist having the same name?”
“No! That’s not what happened…!” My little sister fell into another painful-looking fit of coughing. “I wouldn’t be so upset if that was all it was. Ever since I sent him the password to the site where I saved the manuscript, I haven’t heard anything from him. When I call the cell phone number written on the business card, I just get the voice mail, I don’t get any response to my emails, and this page appeared without warning.”
The site where she saved the manuscript? …Oh, I get it. You save a cell phone novel to your blog-like page on a cell phone site as you write it.
“Maybe there’s been some kind of misunderstanding. How about I call the editorial department for you?”
“I already called them! I told them I wrote the novel and that no one was contacting me and asked them what was going on, but they wouldn’t tell me anything! They listened to what I had to say, but they just treated it like a common complaint and wouldn’t transfer me over to my editor. Also, the password to the Cell Phone i-Club site I saved the manuscript to was changed, so I can’t log in!”
“So…”
This was not a turn of events I wanted to think about. But if what I thought was going on was indeed going on, then having my little sister speak the decisive words would have been too cruel.
That was why I stated my conclusion even if it was a bit premature to jump to that conclusion.
“He plagiarized you? That editor we met in Shinjuku before took the cell phone novel you wrote and is releasing it under someone else’s name?”
“…I think so. …What else could it be?” Kirino muttered painfully while sitting on her bed.
Her face was red from her fever and I could see tears welling up in her eyes. Having this trouble occur while she was bedridden from the flu was like kicking her while she was down.
“So what are you going to do? Surely you aren’t just going to lie here crying.”
“I’m not going to do anything,” was my little sister’s unexpected response. “Make no mistake. I only told you about this because you asked. I have no intention of doing anything about this trouble. In fact, I wasn’t worried about this at all.”
“Why not?”
That had to have been a lie. She had worked so hard on it and it had all been snatched away from her.
I knew just how much she hated to lose, so I knew she had to hate it with all of her being.
“Why not?” repeated Kirino with a scornful laugh. “Isn’t that obvious? What I need to do right now is work my hardest to recover and get back to work and practice as soon as I can. Even if I was tricked, that only affects me. I don’t have time to deal with something like that. I have much more important things to do.”
Her arrogant tone made it sound like she was looking down on the entire world. To me, it sounded forced.
After another fit of coughing, she continued.
“It does piss me off that I was used and I want to kill that faggot. But isn’t all that just more proof of my talent? He only stole my novel because it was that valuable, right? Heh. If that one was stolen, I just need to write another one. I’ll make this one even more amazing.” Kirino folded her arms like usual and gave a small laugh. “Also, that cell phone novel was really nothing more than something to do for fun. I tried to keep it up alongside everything else, but I only ended up collapsing and causing trouble for everyone. I’ve learned my lesson. I’ll make sure that never happens again. In a way, this was perfect.”
If she hadn’t so clearly been crying, that might have sounded pretty cool.
“So just get out of here and leave me alone.”
You really do suck at lying.
My little sister was indeed amazing. She had plenty of talent, put in plenty of hard work, and had an almost creepy passion for something once she started it. As a result, I had thought that everything would always go the way she wanted. However, she was not without her weaknesses.
She had major problems dealing with trouble she had not expected. With difficulties that she saw coming, she was able to thoroughly prepare herself and come up with a plan. But when an attack came from a blind spot or she came across a problem she had not prepared for, she had no idea what to do.
I had experienced that weakness of my sister’s in the troubles with dad and Ayase.
She was only 14 years old and in middle school.
No matter how amazing or talented she seemed, I could not forget that fact.
I was her big brother, after all.
“Hoo…”
What do I do now?
After hearing what my little sister had to say and leaving her room, I bit my lower lip while thinking.
Except I wasn’t really thinking. While the voice of my heart may have been asking what to do, I had already decided deep down.
What I was doing was worrying. I could not accept why I was so settled on what to do.
After all, I hated my little sister. I really, really hated her.
I may be repeating myself, but I just want to make that very clear.
I had only ever accepted that life consultation way back when as a careless way to end that conversation with her as quickly as possible. My efforts to help her with the trouble with dad or the issues with Ayase were nothing but abnormalities. I had only done those things to put an end to the life consultations I had started. That was why, since she had said she wasn’t going to do anything and had not “consulted” in me, this had nothing to do with me. Seeing that damn conceited brat suffer a defeat like that should have been a refreshing scene to behold.
“Shit…What is going on?”
These vague feelings had not started just then. They were a major problem I had been carrying for a little bit at that point. My distant relationship with my sister had changed when I had learned her secret and she had come to me with those life consultations. The vague distance between us was continuing to change even then. I was losing the indifference I had for my little sister.
What was going on? I tried to peer into my own heart, but I only found a jumbled mess of swirling feelings there. That was no help.
I felt nauseous and annoyed and disgusted…
Agh! This really pisses me off. What am I supposed to do? I can’t get over this.
Tch. What is this? I wish I knew someone in a similar position, so I could ask them.
Why do I have to feel so bad for that brat of a little sister?
Don’t tell me I’m wrong about hating her. Don’t tell me I actually…
“Gyahhh!! Like hell I do!”
As my true feelings came out in a yell, I began doing what my sister would normally do on her own since she was too sick to do it herself.
