Chapter 147: The Next Morning
Tuesday, April 4th
Morning. When I woke up, Hisui was staring intently at my sleeping face.
"Good morning, Alice."
"Nn... good morning."
Returning Hisui’s greeting, I fumbled around near the dashboard by my pillow. I quickly found what I was looking for—a basal body thermometer, used for measuring basal temperature. Unlike a normal thermometer, it had a large LCD and a shape resembling a rice paddle. You grip the handle-like narrow end in your mouth and hold it under your tongue to fix it in place.
Apparently, basal body temperature is the temperature taken immediately upon waking, before moving around. By keeping track of it, you can roughly figure out when you're most likely to get pregnant.
A woman’s body temperature goes through a low phase and a high phase. The low phase starts with menstruation, then drops slightly at ovulation, and then rises into the high phase. If you’re on a 28-day cycle, both phases are usually about 14 days each. The length of the high phase tends to be constant, but if your cycle isn't regular like mine, then the low phase shifts in length instead.
It's said that the best time to have sex for getting pregnant is one to two days before ovulation. That’s because it takes a few hours for sperm to be ready for fertilization after ejaculation, and while an egg only lasts about a day, sperm can survive for two to seven days.
Beep beep beep, the thermometer made a digital chime, and I took it out of my mouth.
Looking at the screen, the number wasn’t much different from yesterday’s.
"...How is it?"
Hisui, who had been watching me the whole time, asked.
"Hmm, I can’t really tell."
I only started tracking my basal body temperature yesterday. Before that, I almost never checked it, so I had no idea if this was the low phase or the high phase. Today marked the 27th day since my last period, so if I were going by a normal cycle, this should be the high phase right before menstruation. But there were times in the past two months when my period didn’t come at all, so I couldn’t be sure.
"Well, what matters is continuing to keep a record."
"Yeah."
I sat up, grabbed my phone, and entered the temperature into the app.
"By the way, do you have any plans for today?"
"Not really—"
Just as I was about to say that, I noticed a message from Souta.
Wanna go out together this morning, huh?
Pretty straightforward invitation...
Well, at least he's easy to read.
"—or so I thought, but maybe not."
I mumbled vaguely to Hisui, and she immediately seemed to catch on.
"Souta, right?"
"Y-Yeah..."
The silence that followed was terrifying.
"...Haaah, fine, I guess."
"Ah, but if there's somewhere you want to go, I can meet up with Souta after?"
"It’s okay. Just seeing your sleeping face all night was enough for me today."
"...Wait, you didn’t sleep?"
"I got about an hour."
...Why is she looking so smug about that?
I don’t think watching me sleep all night could possibly be that entertaining.
"...Don’t push yourself, okay?"
Hisui looked satisfied, so I decided not to overthink it.
After waking up, we went downstairs and had breakfast with the whole family, including Hisui.
"...Dad, what happened to you? Why are you all beat up?"
It came to mind during breakfast, so I asked. Dad hadn’t been around last night, and now he was here with injuries all over.
"Well, uh... it’s a long story..."
Dad scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Don’t go doing stuff that makes Mom worry, okay? You're not that young anymore."
I cast a healing spell on him. He didn’t have any major wounds, but he was covered in scrapes and small cuts.
"Thanks, Alice... I’ll be more careful."
Still, for Dad—who uses a no-holds-barred close combat style—to end up this scratched up... did he go fight a bear or something?
After breakfast, Hisui headed home ahead of me.
Apparently, she didn’t want to run into Souta when he came to pick me up, so she said she’d take a longer route home.
At the front door, she asked for a goodbye kiss on the lips, so I gave her one.
"You’re like a newlywed wife," Yuna said with a teasing grin.
Mind your own business.
Then I got ready to go out.
Today I was dressed as usual—a spring blouse and a plaid wrap skirt. My underwear was new, but it was a simple, everyday kind. I also took a quick shower after arriving at the apartment earlier, so that should be good enough.
"And you’re going on a date with Sou-nii too..." Yuna muttered, clearly displeased.
"There’s no need to dress up for Souta anymore."
I already fulfilled the duty of our first time.
"Besides, Souta's just going to show up in his usual clothes, right? If I put in too much effort, it’d feel unbalanced."
"...You’ve got a point," Yuna sighed deeply.
"So we’ll have to start by changing Sou-nii, huh..."
"For the record, I have no intention of trying to change Souta. If anyone’s going to do that, it’s all yours."
While we were having that exchange, Souta arrived to pick me up.
He was wearing jeans and a hoodie—yep, his usual clothes.
…See?
Yuna gave him a dead-eyed stare, which made Souta look confused. I took his hand and pulled him outside.
"By the way… were you thinking of doing it this morning?"
Not that I’d mind, but thinking about how things had changed between me and Souta made me feel a bit sad. But what came out of his mouth was:
"Hm? Oh—did I not say? I figured you were too busy to keep track of it, but today’s the release date for the new Wiso card set. So I invited you to come along for the release tournament."
"I didn’t hear about that."
So he’s still the same old Wiso nerd.
…And here I was, worrying for nothing.
I couldn’t help but smile.
"Is that so? My bad."
"I thought you wanted to do it first thing in the morning."
Souta hadn’t changed, and that left me feeling oddly relieved… maybe a bit let down too.
"You know... sure, helping Alicia is important and all, but if you don’t take a break sometimes, you’re gonna burn out."
"Ugh... You’re totally right, but hearing it from you just feels... so unfair."
"What the hell do you take me for?"
"So... does that mean we’re not doing it today...?"
"Ah, no, I mean... that is..."
Pervert.
Even if you're trying to play it cool, you fall apart immediately. You're so obvious when you panic...
"Haha, you’re trying way too hard, Souta! ...I’m just joking. I’d be the one in trouble if we didn’t do it."
"I-I see..."
The way he looked so relieved was stupidly cute.
"...By the way, I’ve been wondering—why are you covered in cuts and bruises?"
"Ah—yeah, well… that’s…"
I had a hunch.
"Dad...?"
"Yeah... Yesterday, I had a sparring session with your uncle for the first time in a while..."
"Unbelievable. Why would you do something like that—"
"Well, um... because I’m a man, I guess."
"I see..."
I let out a sigh.
I didn’t fully get it, but somehow, I understood.
It was probably some kind of rite of passage—Dad’s way of venting as he came to terms with the situation.
"I’ll use healing magic. Turn around."
"O-Okay."
After making sure no one was around, I placed both hands on Souta’s back, leaned in close, and rested my forehead against him.
"...Sorry," he murmured, barely audible.
Then I began the incantation for the spell. The pain might not disappear from memory, but at least the wounds could.
Souta watched, looking a little sheepish, as his injuries healed and glowed faintly.
When we arrived at the card shop, the place was packed. After registering for the tournament, we tried our luck with a few booster packs, checked out the new cards beside others unboxing full sets, and excitedly looked through all the new releases.
Once the tournament began, we played to our hearts’ content using the new cards until early afternoon.
It was... really fun.
After that, we had a slightly late lunch at a burger shop. While we ate and exchanged thoughts about the new cards, I happened to notice Souta drinking something that looked like medicine.
"What are you drinking?"
"This? Uh... it’s a stamina supplement."
Souta answered hesitantly.
Apparently, it contained things like maca, black ginger, zinc, and more. It was obviously something Dad had given him.
"...I took some last night and again this morning."
"Does it work?"
"Y-Yeah... scarily well."
"I-I see..."
The effects—what exactly it "enhanced"—were pretty clear.
In other words, that.
After that, we both became hyper-aware of each other and the conversation dwindled.
It felt like neither of us was fully present in the moment, and I could tell Souta’s eyes kept wandering toward my chest or thighs. I didn’t hate it, but... it was kind of embarrassing.
We left the shop in silence and headed toward the apartment.
...We did it five times today. Those supplements are insane.
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