Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ My College Romantic Comedy Was Wrong, As I Expected ❯ My College SNAFU: 17 ( Chapter 17 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Solo 02

 

It was the following week when a furious Yukino glared at me.

“What did you do?” she demanded once we were alone. It was the most emotion I’ve seen from her in some time.

“What did she tell you?” I asked ever-so-politely. And cold. I know she knows what coldness is.

“She told me nothing. But she went pale as a ghost. She was frightened. I’ve never seen Mother frightened.”

“The short answer is that we have a sister.”

“You mean Haruno?” asked Yukino, confused by the We.

“No. She’s also Haruno’s sister. And mine. And yours.”

“But you’re not… oh no.” Yukino was always smart.

“Oh yes. Maybe we should go visit?”

“Where is she?” Yukino asked, somewhat afraid.

“A three hour train trip. Tokyo Agriculture University is on the edge of Tokyo. Very rural. They do crops, cows and various other things, including harvest processing, so fermentation is part of that.”

I remembered all the details from a prior loop so Haruno turned up with Yukino on a Saturday morning at the Chiba train station. We took the train into Tokyo, mostly domestic tourists and people going into the city to shop and enjoy the various attractions of Japan’s capitol. I brought Komachi with me. The Yukinoshita girls fussed over her briefly and she mostly looked sleepy, but came anyway. I told mom we were going to Tokyo. We were, just not only there. I paid for tickets since this was my show and tell. We changed trains twice before getting to the line that took us out to the Agriculture university. There were houses and then suddenly fields, row crops, greenhouses, cows and animal pens, and all sorts of smells. I could still see homes and businesses on the other side of the train, but we stopped and got off at the station there, headed for the main office.

“Are you sure she’s going to be there?” asked Yukino.

“Animals still need care on the weekends. Someone is doing it. If she’s not scheduled she’ll be in the dorms or off campus housing,” I assured them.

“We’re here to see my cousin?” I asked at the office, which had a single bored student manning the desk. He was reading a dog-eared copy of one of my novels. He checked records and found her name and address, and school schedule. She was working on pigs this morning. Shift would end soon. He marked a xerox’d map and drew a line on it from here to there. I thanked him and our group meandered across campus to the animal area, the smells getting strong along with the noise.

There was an animal husbandry locker room to get cleaned up and change back into street clothes, and a lounge where there was a battered fridge and a very basic microwave and coffee maker burning some coffee into an offering to some god that likes their coffee burnt.

Seiya exited from the locker room, hair still damp and street clothes sticking to her. She’s not a gazelle like Komachi would grow up to be. A strong strapping woman, the same age as Haruno.

“Hi Seiya. I’m your cousin, Hikigaya Hachiman. This is my sister Komachi. These are Yukinoshita Haruno and Yukino. Is there somewhere we can talk?” I introduced us.

“I’m still on duty for another hour, so let’s talk here. Cousin huh?” she confirmed, eyeing the family ahoge. She had one too.

“Would you believe half-brother?” I offered. She nodded slowly. Komachi looked a lot more interested suddenly.

“I learned from my folks that Auntie was mom. And my trust fund was a big of tip off.”

Haruno stepped closer and eyed the girl. They were the same height, same age, same hair color, very similar cheekbones, different sized breasts, and hips, but one had the ahoge. They could be sisters.

“Yukinoshita. He’s on the Diet. So now I know who my Dad is. No wonder,” Seiya decided. She didn’t seem angry, at least. I would be if it were me, but I’m a mess of emotions held together by false maturity through time travel. My happiness was standing six meters away and didn’t know who I was.

“So, you’re my sister?” asked Haruno. She seemed to be coming to terms with this better than expected for a sleepwalker.

Yukino and Komachi held hands unconsciously, watching this meeting with the confusion of the young. They understood it was important, enough not to interrupt or take their eyes off the spectacle.

“How could this happen?” asked Haruno.

“There was alcohol involved, from what I understand. And some competition. Our moms were friends and rivals in high school, back when they were at Soubu,” I explained, as if Mom had told me in this loop. “Your mother was chosen, and mine gave up Seiya to family to raise. Her brother was childless and they wanted a baby so it was fine. It was fine, right Seiya?” I asked her.

“Mom and Dad gave me plenty of affection and time on the farm up north. They even let me go to Eezono High School in Hokkaido. It’s a feeder school for here. Hokkaido is all kinds of large animal agriculture. They do cows, pigs, chickens, even horses. Having a big specialist high school was great preparation for here.”

“It sounds really nice,” I admitted. “We live in Chiba City, if you want to visit sometime. Mom might get a bit fretful, but it might be good for you both.”

The girls talked about various things and I mostly just watched my older sister, wondering what it would have been like to have someone looking after me and Komachi rather than being the Big Brother. Would I have become the man I am if I’d had a responsible sibling to fall back on? Probably not.

Komachi eventually approached for a hug from Seiya who gave it and started talking to my little sis. Seiya was an only child, only now she isn’t. That must be pretty weird to learn, and possibly very nice.

“So tell me about you, Hachiman. What is my little brother like?” Seiya asked. I considered my words.

“I write books. I’m published. I can send a set to your dorm if you want. I’m a good student, but classwork is pretty boring. I am looking forward to college,” I said.  

“He’s the best student in the school,” snarled Yukino.

“I don’t think that’s worth bragging about. It’s just high school,” I waved off her angry words as beneath my notice.

“I’ve seen your papers. All of them are perfect. All your quizzes are perfect. The scores on the tests are perfect and you get the extra credit, too. You speak perfect English with the foreign students in our class,” complained Yukino.

Haruno looked nonplussed at this unseemly outburst from ever-proper Yukino, who rarely speaks to anyone.

“Hmm. Do I remind you of someone?” I asked. “Because that sounds like jealousy.”

I can sort of see how Haruno does it, this teasing of her sister. Naturally, this is when mine butted in.

“You really get perfect scores? And published books?” she asked.

“Yes. I’ve been keeping the books secret. Dad knows.”

“Is that why he’s all smug around Mom these days?” she complained.

“Probably. I don’t ask for an allowance. I’m saving what I earn. The series got made into a B-movie at a college down in Nara. They’ve offered me a scholarship once I graduate.”

“And when will that be? With your grades you could test out at any time,” complained Yukino. Haruno seemed amused.

“Any time. Yes, I could. But High School is so much fun. It’s full of memories of Youth.”

“Youth? What memories do you have? Would anyone read about them, or is your book filled with chuuni nonsense?” demanded Yukino.

Haruno looked amused, finally. Still not my girl, but she was amused at least.

“I’ve kept my identity as an author secret. If they knew they wouldn’t let me write some of them.”

“So you write dirty books! I knew it. All those girls fawning all over you from the first day,” she sobbed. And then she was crying. Haruno’s amusement vanished.

“Yukino. If I paid you attention they would hate you even more and bully you, wouldn’t they? And now we have a secret we share, don’t we?” I said, hugging the crying girl. “We’re sort-of not-really siblings.”

She stopped crying at least.

“Jokes. You make jokes. So what books did you write anyway?”

I told her.

“What?” her head shot up.

“Middle School was boring. I needed some way to pass the time.”

“But there’s a movie! And those are best sellers. And nobody knows who you are. Not even your publisher knows!”

“They know my name. It’s on the checks. They officially don’t know because that would require them to block publication of my college romance series, and those are best sellers and make a lot of money. Probably going to be another movie for that.”

“I was going to start a Service Club because I liked it in the books. And why was the high school called Summer Noodle?”

“Soubu to Sobu. When you’re an author puns are one of the joys of writing.”

“Those names. What’s up with those names?” she demanded, realization.

“Been to class 2F and check on Hayama? Did you catch any of the names of the other students?” I taunted. Little Yukino looked confused. Started matching up names mentally with descriptions.

“But you wrote that years ago…” she corrected herself. She was thinking really hard and sank into the chair.

“And apparently my little brother likes to tease. The college novels are popular in the dorms. How did you know about all that stuff? Aren’t you still a blossoming virgin?” Seiya asked.

“No comment. I will say I had an excellent teacher but she’s beyond my reach right now.”

“Ah, the famously common state for young men. Well, good job. The women like that book. Especially the love triangles at Kitayama.”

“I’m mostly waiting to graduate so I can get there at the right time,” I admitted to her.

“Time travel is real!” burst out Yukino, staring at me.

“And we have a winner! What would you like as your prize?” I offered the girl, who stared at me with shock.

“Seems the littlest half sis is a chuuni,” dismissed Seiya. “He’s a professional author.”

“The names are just a little off. And there’s a Yui and the tsundere love interest with the vampy older sister, that’s supposed to be me, isn’t it? But we’ve never met before this year, even though you published the first novel three years ago. You can’t have known all this unless you were a time traveler.”

She’s smart. Really smart, like her sister, only without the benefit of infinite loops.

“I’m a good writer. It’s probably just coincidence.”

“Yeah right…” and the sentence was interrupted by a jump. Damn it. I was having a moment of smugness.