「 That foreigner is ABCD from yesterday, right? She's dressed feminine than yesterday it seems 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba glares at Edie.

Edie was wearing Nagisa's shop's boiler suit yesterday, but today, she's wearing a stylish white dress with gold accessories.

「 She's Edie 」

I answer timidly.

Edie laughs as she looks at the grounds.

「 Well, okay. Then, what about her? Who are you? 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba's eyes turn to Mana this time.

Awawa.

When I noticed, not only captain Takes.h.i.+ba and the third years, but also the other members of the track and field club are looking at us.

Well of course.

Megu's fiance shows up while holding hands with a beauty.

「 Uhm, I 」

Mana tries to talk, but.

「 I'm asking him not you 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba stops Mana.

It looks like she'll persist to ask information about Mana from me.

「 Go on, say it 」

Err, how should I explain it.

I'm troubled.

「 She's my little sister 」

Turning around, I see Megu in her uniform.

Oh, we were late due to the trouble in front of the mansion's gate, so she changed clothes in the clubroom first.

「 Little sister? 」

「 Y-Yes, I'm Yamamine Mana. Thank you for always caring for Megu-oneechan 」

Mana bows her head.

「 Huh, Yamamine-san had a little sister? 」

One of the first years on the grounds asks.

She might be someone who entered the same middle school as Megu.

「 Ah, my body was weak, so I stayed over s.h.i.+zuoka for a long time, it's just been recent that I came back to Tokyo 」

Mana explains.

「 Today, I came with Onii-chan to pick up Megu-oneechan. But, it feels scary to enter a school I don't know so I asked Onii-chan to hold my hand 」

Mana said. Captain Takes.h.i.+ba listens.

「 I'm in the second year middle school, high school students look like adults to me 」

Mana's small for her age.

Her excuse is somewhat credible.

「 You're not lying? 」

「 It's true. Look at our faces and compare. We're really connected by blood! 」

Megu and Mana are real sisters. They have different mothers, however.

「 Hmmm, okay fine. Then, what about this foreigner? 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba returns her interest to Edie again.

「 Err, she's 」

When I try to explain Edie…

「 ！！！ 」

Edie's expression changed.

She starts sniffing.

Then.

She lets go of my hand.

Then she flips her skirt suddenly?!!!

「 Edie?! 」

Edie's showing off her white panty and nice a.s.s to the people.

The black case attacked on her tender looking thighs too.

《 HA 》

Edie pulls out a shuriken and throws it on the bushes on the side of the grounds.

Vuuuuoooonn!!!

Michi's special shuriken has a small hole opening so throwing it in the air creates a distinctive sound.

Zusa! Zusa! Zusa!

Baki!

The last shuriken sounded like it crashed to something metallic.

「 Hieeeeeeeeee!! 」

Then.

Two men roll out of the bushes.

「 W-What are you doing! 」

「 Hey, stop! You idiot! That's dangerous! 」

These guys are.

Err, who are they again?

If I recall, they're the second years from the baseball club.

「 What about you two, what are you doing in that place? 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba takes action.

「 You're holding a camera. Are you trying to take peep photos on us?! 」

Oh, the two of them have a video camera in hand.

Edie threw shuriken on the lens' back right away.

「 S-s.h.i.+t, run away! 」

「 Yeah! 」

The two tries to run away, but.

《 SHHAAA！！！ 》

Edie dashed so fast that the wind flipped her skirt.

「 T-This guy! 」

The boys try to confront Edie, but.

《 mee！weee！！ 》

Edie kicked them, and they got turned over in an instant.

s.h.i.+t.

「 Edie, don't kill them! 」

《 Don't　Kill！！！ 》

Mana shouts in English.

《 WOO！ 》

Edie's fist stops before the man's forehead.

◇　◇　◇

「 Then, what's your name and year? 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba and the track and field club members encircle and capture the men.

「 Err, that 」

「 Uhm. Uhm 」

「 Hurry up. I'm short-tempered 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba looks down on the two boys, crossing her arms.

「 Second year, Sugiyama 」

「 Same. Koizumi 」

Ah, I remember now. They're really from the baseball club.

If I recall, they're minions of Iwakursan.

「 Hmm, so why are you hiding from the gra.s.s and taking peep photos of us? 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba asks the two.

「 T-That's 」

Sugiyama and Koizumi look at each other's face.

「 I-It's because it's beautiful! 」

「 Y-Yeah, we would like to record the sweat and the youth forever 」

That's just a lie.

Perhaps, Iwakursan ordered them.

Minaho-neesan's busy lately, so she hasn't looked after her.

Especially because Kyouko-san and Miss Cordelia, and s.h.i.+rasaka Sousuke were hiding in the school, Minaho-neesan should be keeping Iwakursan away from the princ.i.p.al's office.

Iwakursan had a previous offense of leaking information to the underground society so she could attack Nei and me before.

s.h.i.+rasaka Sousuke and Kyouko-san's presence in the school is a secret n.o.body should know.

But, Minaho-neesan's att.i.tude looks like she's ignoring Iwakursan, she doesn't like it it seems.

That's when I entered the gate together with Edie and Mana.

She must've sent them to check on us.

If she finds a weak point on us, then she can use it as a card to attack us.

She's not permitted to use the monitoring system in the school, so she used her cameras.

I look around.

Ah, there she is.

Iwakursan is hiding behind the tree outside the grounds.

「 Wow, you're the worst, I was wearing shorts today 」

「 My bra strings were seen through too 」

「 Voyeurism isn't a joke! 」

「 What did you plan on using that for?! 」

The girls in the track and field speak complain to Sugiyama.

「 I'd like to check the photos, but this is completely broken 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba looks at Sugiyama's video camera.

Edie's shuriken pierced it deeply that it destroyed the interior machine.

「 Captain, the memory card might be alive, how about taking out the card and look at it through other cameras? 」

One of the members raised her hand and said.

「 Memory? 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba looks for the slot.

Then, Edie comes forward.

She stretches her hand, gesturing to hand the video camera as she smiles.

「 Do you know where it is? 」

Captain hands over the camera.

Edie pulls out the memory card from the camera.

「 Oh, thanks 」

Then, she takes out an electric lighter from her skirt and burns the memory card.

「 ？？？！ 」

The intense heat melts down the memory card.

The lighter seems to be order-made too.

Edie smiles.

《 That's　OK！ 》

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba.

「 Yeah, well, the worries of the future disappeared with that 」

She stared at me.

「 What's with her? 」

Err.

「 Edie-chan likes to play Ninja 」

Mana gave up on thinking.

「 Look, j.a.panese ninjas are very popular among the Americans currently that they even have ninja Dojo over there. Edie-chan came from there 」

Err.

「 Ah, I've seen those in TV. It has American people doing ninja things in a ninja cla.s.sroom or something 」

One of the club members said.

「 So that's the reason for her high physical ability? 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba speaks amazed.

「 It's not just ninja cla.s.sroom, she seems to have done other martial arts too. I don't know the details though 」

Megu also complements the story.

「 Then, she wanted to go study at a j.a.panese school, by all means, so she's transferred to ours 」

Megu said. Edie's smiling.

「 Then, why is this girl with you? 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba asks us.

「 You see, Edie-chan's family has a deal with the company Yos.h.i.+-kun's father works for so she's staying over at Yos.h.i.+-kun's house 」

Megu, well done on making this. As expected, she's smarter than I am.

「 But, she's like this so if Yos.h.i.+-kun doesn't hold her hand then she'll go somewhere else right away, so he has no choice but to hold her hand 」

Megu made the story more coherent.

「 I'm aware of it, she's not a bad kid, I won't be jealous even if she's holding hands with Yos.h.i.+-kun 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba.

「 Does this girl understand j.a.panese? 」

「 No, she's American so she can't speak j.a.panese yet 」

I replied.

「 We're able to speak to each other with broken English 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba looks at the club members,

「 Hiramatsu, you're good at English, right? Try talking to this foreigner 」

What?

「 Try asking this foreigner if what they're saying is true 」

T-T-This is bad!

Will Edie be able to read the situation?

If she talks about something unnecessary, it'll become a more significant problem.

「 Hiramatsu's a returnee, so her English is perfect, how many years has it been? 」

「 I was in New York starting first grade in elementary until the second year in middle school 」

Isn't that really bad?

「 Then, try talking to her 」

「 Okay 」

Hiramatsu talks to Edie.

Edie smiles.

The two continues to talk for a while.

「 How is it, Hiramatsu? 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba asks.

「 Captain, I can't. I don't get what she's talking about. I can't follow the details 」

「 What do you mean? 」

「 Her English is a bit out of the ordinary 」

Hiramatsu-san replies with a troubled look.

「 Ah, Edie-chan's from New Orleans 」

Mana said.

「 Oh 」

Hiramatsu-san's convinced.

「 What's with New Orleans? 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba asks. Hiramatsu-san;

「 Those from New Orleans have a strong southern accent and a peculiar English coming from the French immigrants. They say it's Cajun culture 」

「 Is the accent too much? 」

「 Yes, it's hard even for me 」

No, it's true that Edie's accent is strong, but.

Mana's able to communicate with her.

There's no chance for someone who lived in America for years like Hiramatsu-san to not communicate properly.

In short.

Edie's reading the atmosphere.

That's why she strengthened her New Orleans accent and played out so Hiramatsu-san can't understand.

「 Anyway, she did say that Yamamine is her family. They're trustworthy, she added 」

Hiramatsu-san said.

Edie in question picks up the shuriken sticking on the camera.

Then, she slaps my shoulder.

She points at the bush Sugiyama was hiding earlier.

「 Yeah, I get it. Let's look for it together 」

I answered Edie.

「 What's wrong, Onii-chan? 」

Mana looks at me wondering.

「 She wants to collect the shuriken she threw earlier. Michi gave Edie those, so she wants to take good care of them 」

I go to the bushes with Edie.

She gave Rei-chan a piece earlier, but that was because she wants to encourage Rei-chan.

It's a significant act for Edie.

She thinks of Rei-chan as her precious family, so she handed her treasured shuriken to her.

「 Wait, Onii-chan, I'll look for them too! 」

Mana also comes running.

She crawled on the bushes.

「 Edie, your panty's visible! Don't turn your a.s.s on us! 」

Edie nodded and turned her body away.

Sugiyama and others are watching so I'd like you to be a bit more careful.

「 Edie-chan, there's one stuck here 」

Mana finds one stuck on the ground.

Edie also retrieves another.

The last one is stuck in a tree. I pull it out.

「 Here, Edie 」

《 Thank You 》

Edie smiles; wiped away the dirt on the shuriken and placed it back in her skirt.

Then, she sticks her hand to me.

「 Yeah 」

I grabbed her hand and came back to the club members.

「 Onii-chan 」

Mana extends her hand too.

「 Sure, Mana 」

I hold hands with Mana too, and we walk back together.

「 Oh, I get it now. I'm convinced 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba tells me.

「 What? 」

「 It's your hand 」

AH!

s.h.i.+t, I held hands with Edie and Mana naturally again.

「 You're very caring, aren't you? 」

「 No, that's 」

「 You idiot, I'm praising you 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba smiles.

「 I somehow understand what's your relations.h.i.+p with them, Yamamine doesn't look like she minds it, so I have no right to say anything about it 」

Oh, she understood.

「 By the way, this girl, Edie? She'll really transfer to our school, right? 」

「 Ah, yes, that's the plan 」

「 Then, tell her this 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba.

「 There are much more splendid martial arts in j.a.pan other than ninjutsu. You should do them 」

No way.

「 That martial arts is “athletics” Look at oneself and hone one skill. It's the best martial arts in the world! 」

Captain Takeks.h.i.+ba's view of athletics is that it's also a martial arts.

「 By the way, Captain, what should we do with them? 」

The third-year club member points at Sugiyama and the other.

「 Right, these guys tried to take photos of us. We need to penalize them 」

「 Uhm, captain Takes.h.i.+ba 」

I secretly point on Iwakursan who's hiding to the captain.

「 I know. This is a problem the female track and field club faces so I'll talk to her 」

Ah, she noticed.

「 My eyesight is 2.0 you know 」

She shows off her big eyes and smiled.

「 You lot can go now, there's a lot of work in your house, right? 」

Oh right.

「 Well then, we'll excuse ourselves 」

「 Everyone, I'll be leaving early. I'm very sorry for the troubles for the holidays 」

Megu bows her head to the members of the club.

She took a day off from practice and yesterday, she left early.

Megu's a first year, so she actually needed to clean up and yet;

「 Really sorry. I apologize as well! 」

I bow my head too.

Edie and Mana also bowed together.

「 It's inevitable, your house has a problem. It must be a lot of trouble for you too, you had a foolish man as a relative 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba's referring to Megu and Mana's father.

「 But, it will all end today 」

Megu said.

s.h.i.+rasaka Sousuke pa.s.sed away this morning.

He was transferred to another hospital and perhaps killed off by s.h.i.+rasaka house there.

「 I'll work my hardest in the club activities from tomorrow onwards. I look forward to working with everyone! 」

Megu said.

「 Well, it's unfortunate that Yamamine won't be on the closing party. The summer convention is also coming close. I'll be training you hard starting tomorrow 」

「 Thank you! 」

Captain Takes.h.i.+ba looks at me.

「 Take care of Yamamine 」

「 Yes, I know 」

Mana calls Megu.

「 Onee-chan, you can have Onii-chan's side 」

「 Thanks, Mana 」

They only look like close sisters from the outside.

「 Then, excuse us 」

We bow our head to the track and field club members once again and left the ground.

◇　◇　◇

「 Earlier, I said that I'm not jealous, but 」

The sun's down already.

Megu speaks while we walk around the school.

「 I'm actually a bit jealous 」

She looks at me.

「 Huh? 」

「 Yos.h.i.+-kun, since when did you get along with Edie-san? 」

Edie's holding my hand, smiling.

「 Earlier, I guess? 」

「 Earlier? 」

「 Earlier, I took a bath with Edie? 」

「 Together, bath? 」

「 No, with Misuzu, Ruriko, Mana, and Agnes too 」

Megu's eyes look at me.

「 Hmmm, what did you do in the bath? 」

Err.

「 They licked my whole body, and I e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed 」

「 I see 」

「 No, back then, Edie wasn't there, she came to the bathroom after that 」

「 A lot happened while I was away 」1

Megu.

I hug Megu, kiss her.

「 Yos.h.i.+-kun? 」

「 You're now, here with me 」

「 Sorry 」

「 It's okay 」

「 You're right, I can't get jealous on every single thing 」

Then, Edie comes to me.

《 darling！ 》

Huh?

She sticks out her face to me.

She wants a kiss too?

「 Not now 」

I said.

Iwakursan might have other minions in school.

My relations.h.i.+p with Megu is recognized by the school but not Edie.

It would be hard if they make strange rumors.

《 MOOO！ 》

Edie breathes out in ill-humor, but this is all I can do.

Hmm.

Mana tells Edie something.

Then, Edie's expression softens.

《 OK、darling！ 》

「 Mana, what did you tell Edie? 」

Mana;

「 Onii-chan's embarra.s.sed. Besides, he wants to kiss Edie-chan in a romantic situation 」

Haa.

A romantic situation with Edie?

「 Yos.h.i.+-kun, I want to make it romantic too 」

Megu said.

「 Onii-chan. Mana wants it to be romantic too! 」

The three beauties cuddle with me.

◇　◇　◇

「 Nagissan and others are already here 」

Megu checks her mail on her phone in front of the school gate.

《 darling！darling！ 》

Edie approaches me with her eyes s.h.i.+ning.

She points at the vending machine.

Oh right, she likes vending machines.

「 Sure, buy some 」

I take out my wallet.

「 Ah, Onii-chan I'll go buy it with Edie-chan 」

「 I see, then take care 」

「 What does Onii-chan want? 」

「 I'd like some tea. I feel a bit thirsty 」

「 What about Megu-oneechan? 」

「 Sports Drink. Lemon flavor. The non-carbonated 」

「 Okay 」

Mana goes with Edie carrying my wallet.

Oh right, Mana doesn't have money at all.

I have to think about that too.

How much does a girl in second-year middle school have for their pocket money?

Mana's a lady from s.h.i.+rasaka house so she might've received quite a lot.

I need to start a part-time job so I can hand money to Mana.

「 Yos.h.i.+-kun, what are you thinking? 」

Megu asks me.

「 Nothing, just Is.h.i.+da Kazhus.h.i.+ge from the past 」

「 Is.h.i.+da? 」

「 When his fief was still 500 jewels worth, he wanted to get a competent va.s.sal and used all of his jewels 」

「 I see 」

What am I talking about?

「 Edie-san's calling Yos.h.i.+-kun Darling, isn't she? 」

Megu mutters.

「 Oh right. Was she saying Darling? 」

I only hear D something but.

Was 《 darling 》ダーリン?

「 Eh, you didn't notice? 」

「 Well, I don't get English 」

Yeah.

「 What does darling mean? 」

Megu bursts out laughing.

「 Huh, Megu? 」

「 Geez, Yos.h.i.+-kun 」

She laughs loudly.

「 That's what I love about you, Yos.h.i.+-kun 」

That's what?

Oh right.

「 Look, Megu 」

「 What? 」

I have to tell her.

「 Yukino decided to go to Green Mountain Studio on her will 」

「 I see 」

「 She won't be my family. Yukino and I both know that.

Megu.

「 Are you okay with that? 」

I.

「 Yeah, I am. I have Megu and everyone. A family I must protect 」

I look at Mana and Edie having fun buying juice at the vending machine.

Megu holds my hand.

「 Then, I won't mind it anymore2 」

She cuddles up with me.

「 If Yos.h.i.+-kun made his decision already then… 」

1. When Megu's away, Yos.h.i.+ will play

2. Top ten anime lies