「Onii-chan, you’re quite popular, aren’t you?」
That’s the first thing I heard when I got home.
I want to ask which part of my daily life made her judge that.
I tilted my head and asked my sister, who was wiggling her tentacles in dissatisfaction.
「Why?」
「I mean, you’re getting attention from such cute girls. And two of them at that.」
「Hmm.」
I see, from her perspective, Kusakabe Nanaka and Kusakabe Yuna appear as beautiful girls. I thought fellow monsters would see each other in their true forms, but apparently not.
To be honest, I’m not happy about being liked by a lump of meat and a zombie.
The end destination is probably a dead end.
「But today was fun.」
My sister stretched vertically as if reaching for the sky.
I guess it’s because she’s a shadow, she can do that freely.
Even when I recognize an existence that’s quite far removed from humans, I don’t get startled at all these days. Like cockroaches, for example. As long as they’re not life-sized, I just ignore them.
The cause is undoubtedly my sister in front of me and Nanaka.
「Then I’ll prepare dinner!」
「Please do.」
When my parents are on business trips, I usually cook for myself, but now my sister has taken on the task.
I’m not very good at housework, so I’m grateful.
I climb the stairs to return to my room and sigh at the schedule that has been forced upon me for tomorrow.
『Meet at the station at 10 AM tomorrow! Don’t oversleep!』
When I check my smartphone, there’s a message with those words in the chat app icon.
The sender’s name is “Kusakabe Yuna-sama”.
Yuna had forcefully entered her contact into my smartphone.
Maybe I should change it to “Mighty Meat-Devouring Warrior” now.
I reply shortly with “Roger”.
Just that seems to have consumed a lot of my energy, and I feel my shoulders getting heavier.
Today is Friday, so tomorrow is Saturday. For students, Saturday is supposed to be a day off──except for those in private schools or clubs──but sadly, it has been taken over by a zombie.
The moment my night activity was decided.
It’s a game where you just kill grotesque zombies that appear.
I open the door and casually throw my bag.
It flies in a perfect parabola without looking, but falls short of the intended target, the bed, and crashes down.
I hear an awkward thud.
「Haah…」
I’m not lucky.
Because of my involvement with the Kusakabe sisters, various rumors are spreading about me at school.
They say I have some kind of hold over them, or that I’m a terrible guy two-timing them, or that the three of us are actually childhood friends who made a promise to marry when we were little.
The defamation is severe.
If anything, I’m the one who’s being held by the weakness.
──Light Novels──
──Read Here──
A species-level weakness like between humans and zombies, humans and lumps of meat. If I incur their displeasure, my funeral would be held immediately.
I scratch my head as I descend the stairs.
My sister, who only poked out what seemed to be her face, said, “Perfect timing. Dinner’s ready” and waved a ladle.
I’m really dreading tomorrow.
◇
Amazing.
I absolutely don’t want to get close to that place.
I look at the rotary in front of the station with a twitching face.
There stood a zombie who seemed to have dressed up nicely, and two pickup artists were swarming around her, perhaps attracted by the stench of decay. Relatives of flies, maybe?
I’ve only seen zombies standing in front of a station in the early stages of post-apocalyptic stories, but I never thought I’d witness it in my short life.
Yuna crosses her arms and completely ignores the pair, looking displeased.
Eh, I have to go there?
Although I was told it was a date, I wasn’t given any plans, so I came in comfortable clothes for now.
For me, who is clueless about fashion, comfortable clothes mean something like a tracksuit that’s a bit too big, and since it doesn’t stand out, I can make a run for it.
Unfortunately, I’m starting to feel a headache coming on, so I’ll have to call in sick.
It can’t be helped. It’s because I’m not feeling well.
It’s very frustrating.
I really wanted to go on a date though.
「What are you doing?」
「…Just fixing my bangs a bit.」
「Creepy.」
You can’t escape from a zombie.
Yuna, with a skin color that seems to have reached the peak of displeasure, is glaring at me with furrowed brows.
The pair she had been ignoring so much are included.
It’s like a mean MPK.
「Hey hey, Onee-san, don’t ignore us.」
「Yeah, we’re definitely more fun than that plain guy.」
They’re guys with piercings all over. I don’t want to get close to them.
They bravely place their hands on Yuna’s shoulder, projecting glances that barely hide their ulterior motives.
From my perspective, it’s nothing but bad taste, but to them, she’s a beautiful girl.
「You──Adashino.」
「Hm.」
She probably thought calling me “you” would be confusing with others around. Yuna points at the pair with her chin while crossing her arms.
I know what she wants me to do, but I don’t want to.
But finally, she brought her mouth close to my ear and said, “Show your charm and polish yourself as a man”.
For a moment, I thought she was going to “paku” me.
「……Ah─, this girl is with me, so.」
Why do I have to act out a situation you see all the time in rom-coms with a zombie? Did I commit some great sin in my past life?
Feeling like I might cry a little, I snapped at the two rough-looking guys.
Double chap in a day, nice!