Kaiwa mo shinai tsurekko no imouto ga, naganen issho ni baka yatte-kita Netoge no friend datta

She was the type of person who, ‘If there’s a drop I’m looking for, I’m going to continue until I get it,’ and ‘If it’s a gacha, I am going to spin until I get that.’ From the looks of what I heard from her, it seemed that she had definitely not told Nanjo Rin about any of that at all.

I should tell this matter to Nanjo Rin as well. I was sure she would give me some good advice.
 

“Speaking of which, is there anything else you need from me?”
 

“Eh… ah… un.”

What in the world was the purpose of calling me here?

Her cheeks had a reaction that probably even she didn’t notice until I told her about it, so that was probably not the case.

It wasn’t raining today like it was the other day, and unfortunately, I didn’t have any other idea of what else I was needed for here.

“Ah… um, that… the thing is…”

“I’ll go along with anything you ask, just ask it.”

I tried to tell her not to worry about it and just say it, but Shiyori, whose face had turned red, hesitated at this moment.

Was it really that hard for her to say?

… Still, it was a lot better than her running away from this scene, huh?

While thinking that, I kept waiting for Shiyori to say what she wanted to say.
 

“…”

Just like always, silence prevailed between us.

After a minute or two, she looked up as if she had finally made up her mind and looked straight into my eyes and said, “Clo—, please help me choose it…”
 

“Clothes?”

I wondered for a moment what she meant by that when she suddenly said clothes, but in other words, she wanted to find something to wear when she went shopping with Nanjo Rin this coming weekend.

I thought that she might choose the type of clothes that Nanjo Rin had picked out for her at the previous offline meeting but apparently that was no good. Somehow she wished to go in clothes which she had chosen by herself properly.

『 I—I want to choose something for myself properly. 』

So, she didn’t want to just rely on Nanjo Rin one-sidedly, but she also wanted to appeal to her that even she could choose her own clothes too. That was why she wanted me to help her out with this.

We came to a shopping mall adjacent to Hatsuseya Station on that note.

It was a three-story building on a large lot in a rural city that contained quite a variety of commercial facilities.
 

It could be said that it was the perfect nearby place to look for Shiyori’s clothes.

“Uuu~…”

As for Shiyori, she let out a groan with her well-groomed eyebrows in the figure eight.

If you followed her line of sight, all she was looking at were the clothes which were giving out a dark atmosphere and completely plain to look at. In a sense, if you could say that these clothes were exactly to Shiyori’s tastes. Well, yeah, they matched her exactly.
 

“As expected, don’t you think those are just too plain?”

“Ah…”

The one that she was going to pick up was just so bad of a choice that I unintentionally interrupted her. Now I could see that this was why she asked for my cooperation in the first place.

“Then which do you think will be good?” Shiyori appealed with her eyes. But this was also a field I was not good at. I involuntarily flinched. Then, at the end of the line of sight which I gently turned away from, I saw a mannequin standing nearby.

“…”
 

“Oh no, actually, Shiyori, the thing is…”

The mannequin was wearing gorgeous and cute designer clothes.

However, it was also designed in a way to emphasize the neckline. It had a revealing cut, showing more cleavage than normal.

Shiyori puffed out her cheeks and with teary eyes patted her br—-ts.

I Involuntarily apologized to her in my heart.

That said, since we had already come this far, we couldn’t just leave with just choosing nothing.

‘Let’s take a look Shiyori’s appearance right now.’

Her blouse was properly closed at this moment. She even had her ribbon tightly tied around it as well her skirt, which was lowered to the extent of what was appropriate. She was the total image of a proper and serious student.

Then, following Nanjo Rin’s advice, I started remembering Shiyori’s dress when she appeared as Philia-san in front of Nanjo Rin.

Just like now, it had also complimented Shiyori’s proper and serious image.

I could see that it certainly matched and went along with the usual image of Shiyori.

However, I also knew the Philia-san side of her, who had played games with me until now.
 

She was an innocent, however, a little pushy. But she was friendly and pulled people to her automatically.

Imagining that side of her, I tried picking up a certain piece of clothing.

“Say, how about this?”

“Eh?”

“I think it would suit you a lot. Why not give it a try?”

“Ehhh?!”

Shoving the surprised Shiyori to the fitting room, I might have been a little pushy over here. However, I did think that if what I did overlapped Shiyori with Philia-san, it would most likely suit her.

“Tsu.”

“… Haah.”

She had put on a sleeveless cut blouse with the main color as white and blood-red flowers along its collar and a small blue-colored tiered skirt with several small stars on it.

If I have to say anything about it, it looked cute and gave off an atmosphere of innocence.

Though it felt a little childish, it also suited a petite person like Shiyori well.

“Un, isn’t that fine?”

“But this skirt is a little too short…”

“Is that so? If you don’t like it, we can try something el–“
 

“– I’ll buy it. After all, you’ve gone to the trouble of… choosing this… for me…”

Shiyori seemed a bit worried, but in the end, decided to buy it with a blushing face.

Imagining Nanjo Rin’s astonished face, I was groaning softly in the back of my throat, feeling amused despite everything.

After finishing up with our shopping, it was time to head home with a somewhat blushed and happy-faced Shiyori.

“Ah, um! Wait a.. minute, please…”
 

“Un? Is there anywhere else to go?”
 

“Oh… the restroom…”

Shiyori leaves with a red face. Apparently, I lacked quite a bit of delicacy.

I scratched my head with an awkward face.

What followed was some free time. It appeared that I had some time on my hands, but I also had to do something really important at this time.

《 I Met Yoshida Shiyori at the nearest station. Her cheeks were so red as if someone had slapped her hard. 》

I had to formulate a report for Nanjo Rin.

This matter was a bit out of my hands. Her cooperation would be absolutely essential.

If it was Nanjo Rin, I was sure she would be more than willing to lend me a hand.
 

While thinking that, I was writing the message while scratching my head thinking the relationship between Shiyori and me would not be found out by her.

Feeling a little unfaithful to Nanjo Rin, a sense of guilt overcame me right then.

Maybe that was why it took me so long to think about what to write in the text that I would be sending her.

And even though it took me a lot of time to write it all down, the return of Shiyori was visibly slow.

Shiyori was the type of girl who thought that it was better for her to wait than to make people wait for her. Even during recruiting members for party battles in the game, I had seen that tendency, and even during grooming her hair in the morning, the fact that she would always wake up earlier than me was proof of that.

――Could it be that she got involved in something strange?

As I remembered her red cheeks from earlier, unable to stand still, and before I knew it, I had already started going toward the restroom where Shiyori had headed to earlier.
 

“Say, it’s okay, right? Let’s play together. Just give your contact information for now, okay?”
 

“Eh… ah…”

After a short walk, I saw Shiyori being forcibly courted by a frivolous-looking blond man.

Her face looked terrified, and even from here, I could see that her shoulders were trembling clearly.

Before thinking about who my opponent was, my body had already moved toward that guy.
 

“HEY!”

Pushing the man away I get in between the two. As I stood in front of Shiyori to protect her, I glared back at him with a face with bloodthirsty emotions.

“Do you need something from MY Shiyori?”

My voice was so low that even I was shocked by the sound of it.

The fact that he made Shiyori feel terrified made my brain boil all the way to the top.

“Tch, so you already have a man?”

I was sure I had the face and attitude of a hungry beast who could even swallow a sword at this point in time right now.
 

After a while, the man cursed and left. More than that, how was Shiyori doing?
 

“Are you okay?”
 

“Eh, ah, I’m o–ay…”

Contrary to the mouth as if her waist and legs had finally relaxed, she stumbled.

Come to think of it, until just the other day, Shiyori was a plain and inconspicuous girl.

And if suddenly a stranger would try and make advances on her, it might not be strange for her to be taken by surprise and become fearful because of it.

“… It can’t be helped, I guess.”

“… Eh, um…”

“Here, get on my back. I’m sure you can’t walk like this, can you?
 

“Ah… uuu…”

I bent down in front of Shiyori and turned my back toward her.

I could feel feelings of contemplating and bewilderment from behind me, but perhaps, as if giving up on them, I felt a weight much lighter than I had expected beforehand. And as if running away from that location, I went in the direction of home.

“…”

On the way home, we both were completely silent again.

The only difference in this situation was that, maybe the fact that I couldn’t hide my frustration any longer.

It wasn’t something that was directed at someone though, it was most likely directed at myself.
 

“Ah, umm, I’m sorry…”
 

“…! No, it’s not like that at all.”

And since I made Shiyori apologize to me because of it, a feeling of being hot and unnecessarily simmering was swirling inside my stomach.

“I, — because of my careless–“
 

“Shiyori.”

It was a word mixed with emotions, like knowing that I was pathetic or that, I was sorry and various other emotions that came along with it.

Admonishing, muddled up, and perplexed might be the closest to segregating those emotions.

But, there was still something I really wanted to say to Shiyori.
 

“Be a little more aware of how cute you are.”
 

“Hueeh?!”
 

“Do you understand that, Shiyori?”
 

“… Hau.”

Instead of replying, the folded arm wrapped around her neck tightened up.

I sigh again at the answer that couldn’t even be taken as a yes or a no.

I also had to change myself even more for her…