ng here to eat.”

“It feels a little thick-skinned for me, but I'm rather happy to enjoy a bowl of soup.”

“..I'm looking forward to eat.”

“There's too much here, so it's a great help that you guys could help finish it with me.”

Even with so many people, there's still enough food. They didn't need to mind at all.

“Sorry for intruding.”

“Same here, sorry to bother you.”

“..Excuse me.”

“Here here, hurry up and come in.”

I tilted my body aside and let them into the house, put my hand behind the door to close it, and didn't forget to lock it.

“Mu? What's wrong? Is there a need to lock the door?”

“Ahaha, security's been bad recently.”

For added precaution, I hooked like the chain lock on the door. This move is extremely important, enough to delay them long enough when they run away.

“..Akihisa, I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this.”

Yuuji, who was standing at the front porch, seems to be hesitating over whether he should move forward.

“As expected of Yuuji, your primitive instincts are as sharp as ever.”

“What do you mean, Akihisa and Yuuji? Didn't we come here to enjoy a seafood meal? It's not like we're having some poisonous meal—”

As Hideyoshi spoke halfway, the door leading to the living room opened.

The person who appeared in front of us was..

“Ah, Sakamoto-kun, Kinosheeta-kun, Tsuchiya-kun, hello.”

Dressed in an apron, the killer cook, Himeji-san was standing there.

“..UU!!”

“You're running away?”

Yuuji immediately turned around and tried to run to the corridor, but having expected this, I raised my leg, BAM, and hit it low against the wall of the front porch to block Yuuji's escape.

“A, Akihisa, you bastard!”

“Yuuji, it's now a one way trip to Hell. Don't think you can escape!”

Nobody's going think of escaping this trip to Hell. If we must curse, we shall curse all you people who came here excitedly thinking that you're going to enjoy a great meal!

“A, Akihisa! Don't you find that doing this to your friends is too cruel!? I was wrong about you!”

“..(Nods head frantically)!”

Hideyoshi and Muttsurini looked sad and angry. That's right, every guy present here knew the terror of Himeji-san's cooking, so it's expected that they would have this kind of response. However..

“It's alright, I understand. Even though you guys say so, you guys aren't willing to see me suffer on my own, right? Shouldn't we go through thick and thin as friends?”

I trust this group of guys.

“You could have just died alone!”

“I don't think anyone who'll do this is a friend!”

“..The Devil!”

The completely dishonest friends actually said such heartfelt words. How stupid. Even if they said so, I have picked up the true feelings you people couldn't hide at all.

(((Akihisa, we'll kill you..)))

You guys will die together with me!

“Akihisa, you bastard. You're thinking about taking revenge for that incident during the sports meeting, right?”

“..Too heinous!”

“That has nothing to do with me, right?”

To be honest, I was hesitating over whether I should have gotten Hideyoshi involved in this, However, we're a four man gang with a great relationship with each other. I really couldn't bring myself to exclude Hideyoshi.

“Ara? Sakamoto, you guys are here? Hurry up and come in.”

Just when I was quarrelling with Yuuji and the rest, ane-san come over from the kitchen.

“There's really too much seafood, so I called everyone to come over to finish this.”

“This idea's not bad.”

With so many people eating, the serving each person will have will reduce a lot. If the situation's good, maybe I could save my precious life.

“In that case, shall we call Minami-san, Shouko-san and Aiko-san over for dinner? Everyone played together at the seaside before. It's not too bad to invite them over, right?”

“Eh? Can I?”

As ane-san said a lot of vicious words before, I thought that she would be really angry if I called other girls over, especially since I got those secret reference books confiscated from me. I have to be especially careful now.

“You can. After seeing Aki-kun's actions, I should..perhaps ane-san restricted you too much and caused a negative effect. You can invite girls to our house to play as long as ane-san's around.”

Ohh! An unexpectedly happy outcome even after she found so many reference books. That's great!

“But your life will be in danger if there's any lewd things like physical contact or peeping. You have to remember that.”

“Un, I can expect that without ane-san reminding me.”

Of course, I knew that my ane-san isn't going to say such nice things.

“Yuuji, can you call Kirishima-san?”

“Ah, I remember she said that she had something on today..”

“I called Shouko-chan already. She said that she'll be here in a while.”

“That's too fast already, Himeji!”

Then, we confirmed that Minami and Kudou-san were alright. Now the members of the 2 day 1 night seaside trip are all gathered together.

☆

“Oi, Akihisa, what do we do now?”

“Even if you ask me, I..”

Yuuji, who's sitting on the sofa in the living room, raised his chin to point at the kitchen. I wanted to enter the kitchen to invigilate to prevent them from adding some suspicious things into the food, but ane-san and Himeji-san chased me out with the reason that 'the kitchen's a woman's battlefield'. It would be an apt description if this can be used to measure the number of casualties.

“Well, Akihisa-kun..”

“Hm? Wha, what is it, Himeji-san?”

Himeji-san poked her head out from the kitchen. What happened?

“I'm looking for something..”

Something? Ahh, I got it. Since it's someone else's kitchen, Himeji-san probably doesn't know where the utensils or seasonings are at. And besides, ane-san doesn't cook often, so of course she doesn't know.

“Ok, what are you looking for?”

I nodded my head and got up as I prepared to head to the kitchen. What does she want? A steamer to steam prawns or oyster? Or a large pot to boil soup—

“Actually..I'm looking for instant glue.”

At this moment, the very definition of food crumbled from the base up.

“Not good..I'll definitely die here today..”

“Damn it..I still have lots of things I haven't done yet..”

“..I want to live, live a little longer!”

On hearing Himeji-san's words, a burial-like atmosphere started to swarm around my bad friends. Everyone, don't give up! Now that we know of the existence of instant glue in this, we can find a way to avoid this tragedy!

Thus, I told Himeji-san in a warning tone.

“We, well..Himeji-san, I guess you should be clear that you can kill people if you add instant glue into food. It's really dangerous—”

“What are you saying, Akihisa-kun? Wouldn't it be bad if I add instant glue into the food?”

Himeji-san looked puzzled as she answered. Wha, what, so it wasn't to be added into the food..

“Tha, that's right. It'll be bad if you add instant glue into food! Everyone knows that!”

“Yes. Fufu, Akihisa-kun's really weird.”

On seeing that Himeji-san's smiling, the burial-like atmosphere in the living room gradually vanished. That's great. Since Himeji-san still had such common sense, there should be no problems, right?

I heaved a sigh of relief, and now, there's only a little doubt in my head. Hm? In that case..

“Why do you need instant glue?”

“Ahh, I wanted to make French seafood stew, but the pressure cooker broke right down the middle, so—”

“““I'M GOING BACK!!!”””

“ARGH! HOLD IT RIGHT THERE! DON'T YOU DARE ESCAPE!”

Damn it, these idiots are leaving me behind!!

I chased after them to prevent them from leaving the trip to Hell. However, Yuuji opened the door and was about to run outside—

“..Why must you leave when I just arrived?”

“UWAAAHHH!! PLEASE, SHOUKO! LET GO OF ME!”

The moment he stepped out of the house, Yuuji was caught and grabbed tightly by Kirishima-san, who just arrived.

“Kinosheeta, Tsuchiya, where are you going?”

“Muttsurini-kun, even if I'm here, you don't have to be so embarrassed that you must leave, right?”

Hideyoshi, and Muttsurini were cut off too. Such idiots, leaving me behind and running away? Things aren't that simple.

“Minami, Kirishima-san, Kudou-san, welcome. Here here, hurry and come in.”

“““Pardon us for intruding.”””

Yuuji was long caught in Kirishima-san’s grasp, and I grabbed Hideyoshi and Muttsurini’s hands tightly and dragged them back into the house. The trio who were brought back looked like prisoners who failed in their prison break.

“Aki, here’s a souvenir.”

“..I brought a little something from my house to Akira-san.”

“I brought something too.”

The girls all brought different gifts. Actually, they didn’t need to spend so much effort, but in this situation, they aren’t as used to this place as Yuuji, who I knew for quite a while.

“I’m really grateful to you people.”

I thanked them as I received their gifts. Besides the fruits like oranges and grapefruit, Kirishima-san gave me what looked like some high-class grape wine in a wooden box. I have to be careful not to let Himeji-san or Kirishima-san drink this wine..

Everyone walked into the living room. Would it be too packed with too many people here?

“Ah, everyone’s here. Hello.”

“Welcome.”

Ane-san and Himeji-san invited everyone in. Minami and the rest greeted them, and everyone randomly chose a seat.

“Mizuki, what did you intend to do?”

Minami sat on the sofa and asked Himeji-san.

“I wanted to make French seafood stew, but..”

“But what?”

“I failed a little, so I have to redo it again..”

Himeji-san muttered sadly.

Who would have thought that the ‘little failure’ Himeji-san said would be a complete destruction of the pressure cooker?

“Arre, Mizuki, don't be so disheartened. Anyone can fail.”

“..Failure's the mother of success.”

“I don't really understand cooking, but you can definitely succeed next time.”

The girls encouraged Himeji-san in an understanding manner. I really want to encourage her too, but if it's cooking, I may end up endangering my own life if I say something wrong. I guess I better watch myself and be quiet.

“But there's no time. How can we prepare such food now that needs such a long time to prepare..”

Himeji-san said in regret. At this moment, Kudou-san look around at everyone and suggested,

“In that case, why don't we have hotpot?”

“Eh? You're saying..hotpot?”

Yeah. We have so many people, so a hotpot based on seafood should be good. There's no need to spend too much time preparing the food, and everyone can enjoy it. The problem is—

“Hotpot? I understand, I'll prepare it now.”

The problem is that this hotpot's going to be made from the hands of a killer chef.

“Ah, Himeji. Hotpot's my speciality, so just leave it to—”

“No, Sakamoto-kun, you and the rest can just wait for the start of the meal!”

Yuuji's proposal was instantly rejected.

“But Himeji, you just need to boil the soup for hotpot.”

“Why is Kinosheeta-kun saying that as well? The soup's very important.”

It seems like she's determined to prepare dinner no matter what as she wasn't letting us guys help. Yuuji, Hideyoshi and Muttsurini were chased out of the kitchen by her. Uu..now, what do we do..

“How about we have some dark hotpot?”

At this moment, ane-san suddenly raised this mysterious proposal in a mindless manner.

“Dark hotpot?”

“Yes. I heard that amongst all hotpots, the dark hotpot's the best kind.”

“No, ane-san, that's..”

That's not true—just when I was about to say this, I suddenly thought.

Hold on..this may be a good idea!

Even if us guys stand up and say that we can prepare a dish in a short time, Himeji-san will feel troubled and would insist on cooking. As long as Himeji-san's around, it'll be futile no matter what kind of food we cook.

But it'll be different if it's dark hotpot. Since we're going to add all our current ingredients, it will have nothing to do with Himeji-san's help. If it has nothing to do with her own culinary skills, she can't possibly create some dangerous dish. Maybe..maybe we can really come back safely!

I shot a glance at Yuuji, Hideyoshi and Muttsurini. They seemed to have the same idea as well as everyone gave the same look. No matter what, we have to make this dark hotpot the dinner for tonight. Great! Then it's decided!

“Well..Akira-san, dark hotpot's a little different from a normal hotpot..”

“This idea's good! I think that the dark hotpot's a rather good suggestion!”

“That's right! Dark hotpot's the hotpot amongst hotpots!”

“..Dark hotpot's the best!”

“As expected of ane-san! This is really great!”

We shouted out in agreement and deliberately shut off Minami's voice. It's definitely the correct choice to have dark hotpot today. It's not our bad intentions; this is for Minami's precious life's sake as well!

“I'm interested in dark hotpot as well, and I've never tried it before.”

“..Me too. It doesn't seem to be a bad idea to try it out.”

Kudou-san and Kirishima-san added on. You two really helped out a lot!

“Ah, but our house doesn't have a cassette gas stove..”

At this point, I finally remembered something important. My house's cassette gas stove was spoilt a while back, and we haven't bought a new one since then. But this is a life-and-death situation. It seems that I can only ask ane-san to buy one..

“Akihisa-kun, I can get a cassette gas stove from my house if you need to. My house's nearby anyway.”

“Eh? Really?”

“Of course. I intend to bring some other things over as well, so I can bring them all in one go.”

Himeji-san proposed happily. In that case, I'll just ask her to bring it over.

“Then, before Mizuki comes back, I'll make a few appetisers. Aki, can I use these ingredients?”

“Mn, you can.”

Minami asked as she pointed at the box with lots of seafood inside. This is really a proposal I really wanted. It's rare to have so many good ingredients, so it's a waste to use them for the dark hotpot.

“..In that case, I'll help out as well.”

“I'll help out too~”

After Minami said so, Kirishima-san and Kudou-san followed. I don't know how's Kirishima-san's culinary skills, but since Yuuji didn't stop her, at least it won't be fatal. Kudou-san definitely won't add some weird things inside as well, so there shouldn't be any problems with leaving it to them.

“Minami-chan, I might need to spend some time, so if you need to do something, you can start on your own without me.”

“Is that so? I understand then.”

“I'm going back then.”

After Himeji-san said that to Minami, she ran towards the entrance in small steps.

“I'll prepare the soup base for the dark hotpot then.”

“A, ane-san! I'll boil the soup base later, so just sit over and rest for a while!”

I continued to try and stop ane-san, who intended to walk to the kitchen.

In the end, Minami, Kirishima-san and Kudou-san all entered the kitchen. Himeji-san went back home to get some stuff, and the rest are just waiting for the execution in the living room.

☆

“Everyone, sorry to keep you waiting. The appetiser's done.”

“..Sorry for keeping you waiting for so long.”

After we waited in the living room, Minami and Kirishima-san brought a large plate as they walked towards us. What kind of appetiser did they prepare for us?

“As there's grape wine, we tried to make seafood cold dish.”

“““WWOOOOHHH!!!”””

The entire plate was filled with fresh fish, and the fish was surrounded with lush green vegetables. There's also the beautiful lines of sauce on it. This fish should be the one drawn from the lucky draw, right? I remember that this fish wasn't sliced..

“Minami, did you slice this fish?”

“No, I was in charge of the sauce and the arrangement. The fish was—”

“I sliced it.”

“Wow, so Kirishima-san did that?”

The fish that was arranged aren't inferior to the sashimi sold outside, as every single piece was sliced to perfection. I had never known that Kirishima-san can cook.

“..Because this is a part a bride has to learn.”

Kirishima-san explained shyly.

I see. She always dreamt of being a bride when she was young, so she worked hard to learn how to be a good wife. Kirishima-san's really hardworking, and passionately devoted.

“There's sashimi, steamed oysters and seafood salad~!”

Then, Kudou-san served up a large plate. The plate has steamed oysters with the shells on and a salad that's laced with shrimp and cuttlefish.

“But then again, I was just in charge of washing the vegetable and arranging the dish~”

“No no no, this is already impressive enough.”

There's such appetizing food on the table. The most important thing about eating seafood is the freshness, and we have to savor the food before the cold dish becomes warm.

“Well, it's a bit bad to Mizuki, but we better start first.”

Minami took off the apron and then sat on the carpet. Kirishima-san and Kudou-san found their seats as well.

“Shouldn't we wait for Himeji-san.”

“We can wait for her..but if we do that, Mizuki will be troubled that she kept us waiting. That's her personality after all.”

“That's true. Himeji-san did say that 'you can start first' before she left. I think we should just follow what Minami said.

“Then, I'm a little sorry to Mizuki, but let's tuck in.”

“Let's have a toast first then. Didn't Kirishima-san just give us a bottle of grape wine? Why don't you open it and drink it, ane-san?”

I don't really understand wine, but since it's white grape wine that's iced, it should be suitable to go along with these dishes.

“That's true, but it's a little awkward when I'm the only one drinking.”

“It couldn't be helped then. We're all underaged here.”

“Yeah. Why don't we replace wine with juice?”

“Ah, Kinosheeta, hold on a minute! We just prepared some drink as well. I'll bring them over.”

Minami said as she stood up. Speaking of which, she just borrowed a juice blender from me. So she wanted to make fruit juice.

“Here we here. This is my specially-made fresh fruit juice.”

Minami took out a few glasses of fruit juice from the kitchen. They sure looks good. Minami herself said that she had no confidence in cooking, but she should be rather good at that, right?

“Then, cheers!”

“““Cheers!”””

After everyone called out 'cheers' in unison, I slowly brought the cup to my mouth. The sweet and sour taste of the freshly squeezed juice is about to reach my mouth. This glass of fruit juice should have lots of assorted fruits in them, and I smelt lots of different aromas in my nose. It's rare to get a chance to drink freshly squeezed juice. I have to enjoy this.

Tilting the glass, I took a sip of fruit juice and swirled it with my tongue twice. The fruit juice in my mouth let out a rather familiar taste, but it was a taste I never tried before.

The strong taste that's full of intensity.

“..”

The intense flavor of..Tabasco.

“IT'S HOT! IT'S TOO SPICY! ARE YOU DELIBERATELY BULLYING ME NOW!?”

It was so hot that I couldn't help but roll on the floor. Why must Minami do such a cruel thing!?

“Because my hand naturally reached for the Tabasco the moment I thought of Aki.”

“What? So Akihisa's drink was the only special one.”

“Shimada's really thoughtful about Akihisa.”

“..It couldn't be helped that your hand naturally reached over.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY IT COULDN'T BE HELPED! AND THIS SORT OF GIRL'S ROMANCE THINGY ISN'T CUTE AT ALL!”

“I was too careless! So tonight's enemy isn't just Himeji-san!

Anyway, get me something I can drink! Hurry up and give me something I can drink!

“Yuuji! Hand me your fruit juice!”

“No can do, Akihisa. Wouldn't it be an indirect kiss if I let you drink my fruit juice?”

“What are you saying now!? You don't care about this in the past, right?”

This damned bastard! He must be feeling happy after seeing me in such pain, right!?

“Th, then, Muttsurini can do too!”

“..I refuse.”

“Wait a second! Muttsurini, have you been deliberately keeping your distance from me recently!?”

That was a misunderstanding! I was only joking when I said that Muttsurini looked cute in a girl's outfit during the sports meeting!

How about Hideyoshi..but this will really end up being an indirect kiss. This won't do. And I can't drink the other girls' drinks!

“Aki-kun, what's wrong?”

At this moment, ane-san said to me in the same calm tone as ever. Damn it, I don't care whether she's my ane-san at this time! I'm facing an emergency here!

“Ane-san, get me something to drink now!!”

“A drink? I got it.”

After saying that, ane-san gulped down the glass of wine in her hand. No, wait, you're mistaken, ane-san! I didn't ask you to drink—eh?

“NOOOOOO!!!”

Ane-san suddenly grabbed my head, and her face gradually closed in on me. Hold on a minute! What is ane-san intending to do!

“(Gulp) Didn't you want to drink?”

“I DIDN'T ASK YOU TO FEED ME WITH YOUR MOUTH!!!”

What is ane-san thinking! Will she really make me drink with her mouth if I don't resist?

“I..I see..feeding through the mouth..”

“Oi, Shouko, hold it right there! Don't slip the Tabasco into my drink.”

Unable to do anything else, I could only groan as I ran to the kitchen, gulp a large mouthful of clean water to wash the terrifying Tabasco taste away. Really, Minami actually did such a terrifying thing! Now I can't taste the delicious looking dishes on the table now!

After rinsing my mouth a few times, I silently wait for the intense taste in my mouth to fade away. At this moment, Minami brought a cup over as she approached me.

“Here, Aki, this is your real fruit juice.”

“Eh? Oh, thanks.”

I received the cup Minami passed to me and timidly took a sip out of it. This cup doesn't have any strange taste inside; it's a fruit punch with a nice sweet taste.

Minami watched me as I enjoyed the fruity taste, and gave a smirk of mischief.

“Aki, have you reflected on it?”

“Hm? What?”

Reflected? Did I do something bad? I don't remember doing anything to Minami..

“Really, I can tell from your expression that you don't understand what I'm talking about, right?”

“Muu..sorry.”

“Oh well, it's not like Aki's slow-wittedness isn't some rare thing. Really, I'll just tell you then. What made me angry was that—”

Minami pointed at me, puffed her cheeks slightly and pouts,

“—You actually asked Mizuki out first and not me!”

“Eh?”

Unexpectedly, this was what Minami said. For a while, I could only react while not understanding what's going on?

Did she think that I left her out of my good friends' list? But I didn't specially ask Himeji-san alone. I just so happened to meet her on the way home after the shopping trip.

“That's how it is. It's nothing actually. Let's go back.”

“Eh? Ah, un..you're right.”

Recently, Minami seemed like she would say some things with cryptic meanings behind them. What should I say? It's like..some words that would make me have some expectations..perhaps I'm thinking too much, I guess?

I thought of this as I return back to the living room. Seeing me all teary in the eyes, Yuuji couldn't help but laugh.

“Akihisa, how was the special fruit juice? Seems like you were rather excited WWWAHHHH IT'S SPICY!!!”

However, just when Yuuji lifted his glass and took a sip, he immediately spit the drink out.

“..Yuuji, do you want my drink?”

“DA, DAMN IT, SHOUKO! DID YOU SWITCH MY FRUIT JUICE WITH AKIHISA'S!?”

Nice going, Kirishima-san!

“Really, I say, why are you guys always so noisy.”

“..Not calm at all.”

“But I like this. I like it like this~”

On the other side, Hideyoshi, Muttsurini and Kudou-san were all watching. Kudou-san, the reason why you're so happy is because you were just watching. The bad things haven't happened to you yet.

I happily watched Yuuji suffer as he rolled on the floor in minute and returned back to my seat. At this moment, ane-san reached her hand out and tugged at my sleeve.

“Aki-kun, sit over here.”

“Eh? Ane-san?”

Damn it, is she going to tell me off again? Did I make her angry for being all noisy before we started?

“Aki-kun, sit here.”

And then, I was pressed down by ane-san onto her thighs..HOLD ON A MINUTE!

“WHA, WHAT KIND OF JOKE IS THIS, ANE-SAN! I'M ALREADY A HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT. FOR YOU TO HUG ME LIKE THIS IS..fuu..”

“Good, good, Aki-kun's a good kid.”

Once I'm hugged by ane-san, I'll lose all my strength.

“““..”””

Seeing me being all weak, everyone present was shocked and speechless. No, it's not like that! Everyone, don't look at me like that! I'm not in love with my sister!!!

“The foods' nice, and the wine's good.”

Ignoring everyone's gazes, ane-san continued to put the wine and food into her mouth. What's going on? I didn't notice it for a while, but how is it that the bottle's only half-filled with wine..

“Ane-san, don't tell me you're drunk?”

“Speaking of which, I may be a little drunk.”

No, it's not just 'a little'. Even if it's my ane-san, she couldn't do this in a conscious state in front of everyone. She won't do this stupid thing if she wasn't drunk to a certain extent.

“Shall I get you a glass of water?”

“I see, that's great.”

I jumped off from ane-san's thighs, went to the kitchen to fill up a glass of water, and returned back to the living room.

“Ane-san, here.”

“Thanks.”

After handing the glass of wa-->>

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