Chapter 71: Siblings (The Feelings of Three)
“…How did it come to this?”
I found myself muttering those words as I stood in the shower, hands pressed against the bathroom wall, hot water pouring down over the back of my head.
『Was it… too much after all? If this was just my selfishness, we can stop right now if you want…』
Alicia sounded nervous as she made the offer, watching my reaction.
“It’s not that I don’t want to… but honestly, I’m still trying to process everything…”
『…I see. Well, Yuna’s waiting too, so shall we wash up quickly?』
“…Yeah, let’s do that.”
As I grabbed the shampoo, I found myself thinking back—how exactly did things end up like this?
…Where did it all go wrong?
※ ※ ※
“Alicia, that’s…”
Her suggestion had caught me completely off guard. It wasn’t good or bad—it just left me confused.
『…Is it not allowed?』
“It’s just… Yuna and I are siblings…”
『Is that a problem? At the temple I lived in, there were many siblings, and it wasn’t unusual for some of them to fall in love and be together.』
The temple she grew up in also served as an orphanage, so the "siblings" she mentioned weren’t related by blood. Raised in that isolated environment, Alicia had no ingrained understanding of social taboos around blood relatives.
“Um, Alicia… it’s different when the siblings are related by blood,” Yuna said awkwardly, struggling to explain.
『Why is it different if they’re related by blood?』
Alicia asked the question purely out of curiosity, genuinely trying to understand.
“W-Well… there’s the risk of birth defects if close relatives have children…”
『But Ikuto-san is currently female, right? So there’s no possibility of children with Yuna.』
“I-I mean, even putting that aside, it’s still problematic to have that kind of relationship with someone you’re related to by blood…”
『But Ikuto-san is in my body right now, so technically there’s no blood relation with Yuna, right? Doesn’t that make it okay?』
“…When you put it like that… I guess so…”
But still—I had been Yuna’s big brother.
『Ikuto-san… do you not want to be with Yuna?』
“It’s not that I don’t want to… It’s just—I’ve never even considered it before. That’s the honest truth.”
『If you don’t want to, I won’t force anything.』
“It’s not that I don’t want to. And if it’s something you genuinely wish for, Alicia… then I want to respect that. But more than that, shouldn’t we ask Yuna how she feels?”
『…Why?』
“What do you mean, why? If we’re checking how I feel, then of course we should check how she feels too…”
“I-I…”
『There’s no way Yuna would ever reject Ikuto-san.』
Alicia cut Yuna off as she tried to speak, stating it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
In that moment, Yuna’s face flushed bright red.
“W-Wha… I…”
She threw her hands up, flailing them in the air as she fumbled for words.
She was clearly completely flustered.
“It’s okay, Yuna. Just breathe. Inhale… and exhale…”
Together, we took some deep breaths, helping Yuna calm down.
After a few more deep breaths, her expression gradually eased, and she began to regain her composure.
“…I’m sorry. I’m fine now…”
“So… you really didn’t like the idea, right? I mean, no matter how much Alicia wants it, doing something like that with me must have—”
“I don’t hate it!”
The volume of her voice startled me at first—and then the meaning behind it hit me, leaving me even more shocked.
“…It’s not that I hate the idea. Just like Alicia said… When I thought about doing something like that with Alice, I was surprised by how naturally I accepted it. It didn’t disgust me at all—in fact, it felt strangely normal. And that just made me even more confused… But Alicia, why did you think I’d feel that way?”
『Because I’ve been watching the way you look at Ikuto-san… through him, I could always see it. You may not have realized it yourself, Yuna, but I’ve noticed.』
“Wha… Me? Really?”
Yuna blinked rapidly, clearly caught off guard by something about herself she hadn’t been aware of.
“I never noticed it at all…”
To be honest, I found Alicia’s reasoning a bit questionable. Having grown up without a family, I figured she might not clearly distinguish familial affection from romantic or physical feelings.
I was confident that what Yuna and I shared was the bond of family—pure and simple.
“But Alicia… are you really okay with this? If we go through with it, it means I’ll be touching Alice’s body, you know?”
『Isn’t that exactly why we’re doing it? To find out how we truly feel? Besides, I know that Yuna doesn’t just look at Ikuto-san. She sees me too… and that’s why I’m okay with it—because it’s you, Yuna.』
“…Oh no… That just made my heart flutter. Is this how Hisui-neesan felt too? I never imagined I’d understand how it feels between girls, but now… I think I kind of do.”
『Thank you, Yuna. I really do love you.』
“I love you too, Alicia. I think what I feel is still more like family love… but if that’s what you want, I think I can do something… intimate like that.”
Yuna’s face flushed bright red as she said it. She really was an adorable little sister.
『Alright, we have Yuna’s approval. Now then… Ikuto-san, how about you?』
“…If Yuna’s okay with it, then I’m not against it.”
『That means we have your consent too! Thank you very much.』
I looked over at Yuna again. She was the same as always—the Yuna I’d grown up with. I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that I was about to sleep with her.
Staring blankly into space like someone running a fever, Yuna suddenly noticed me looking and quickly averted her gaze, her cheeks still burning red. Her hands were tightly clasped on her lap.
“…Go shower first and wait in Alice’s room. I’ll shower too and come after.”
“O-Okay…”
Doing as I was told, I got up to prepare for a shower and headed toward my room.
――And now, here we are.
I don’t think anyone did anything wrong.
Alicia, Yuna, and I—we all care about each other, and all we wanted was to help Alicia work through her confusion.
But still… even if the reasoning made sense, I couldn’t quite wrap my head around how that somehow led to me sleeping with Yuna.
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