In a hotel, Tasha and Kai finally put their luggage down.
At first, the hotel's staff were surprised since they were only students but only booked one hotel room. However, after giving their identity for a little bit and saying some random bullsh*t like they were on a mission or whatever, the hotel staff finally believed them. Of course, all of that was the hard work of Tasha.
Luckily, even though they were staying in one room, they had two single beds rather than one double bed. This way, Kai could protect himself if anything happened.
Kai immediately checked their surroundings to see whether they were under surveillance or not. Tasha also tried to check the room for hidden cameras.
Even though they might look a bit paranoid since they weren't spies, they needed to do this. It wouldn't do them any good if they got caught without even getting the chance to start their investigation.
After checking the hotel room, they looked at each other. Both of them shook their heads at the same time and finally felt relieved.
"Looks like we're good," Kai said.
"Yeah. Well, we've settled everything, and the sun is setting. Let's start the investigation tomorrow. I'm sure it'll only take one or two days since you'll have your first class in the outside world. I don't want to give you a spoiler, but it shouldn't be that dangerous."
"..." Kai twitched his eyebrows, "You just raised a flag for your own brother, you know. Haiz, I'm probably going to get bad luck in a few days."
"There's no way that'll happen. Those things only happen in stories," Tasha said.
Kai shrugged his shoulders.
…
The next day, Kai and Tasha went out of the hotel.
Tasha was having fun dragging Kai from place to place. They were like a couple going on a date.
Of course, even though they were going around like that, Kai and Tasha were actually investigating the area. They were always in a five-kilometer radius from the Katsuragi house.
It was also because of Kai's detection range. If they went past that range, it was simply useless as Kai wouldn't hear anything.
There was another reason why they didn't immediately go closer to the Katsuragi house. They wanted to make sure that no one was following them as well as check whether the Katsuragi family knew they were coming.
Of course, Tasha also used this time to go shopping for various things from clothes to souvenirs for their parents, as well as using it to make memories with Kai.
They finally came back to the hotel at 9 PM since they had achieved their objective. Not to mention, investigating past this hour might raise their suspicion. As soon as they came inside their room, Kai's and Tasha's expression became serious. Their expressions were nowhere like when they were going around as though they were having a date.
"Did you find anything?"
"I don't know, but there's one thing that's bothering me," Kai told her.
"Oh?" Tasha frowned.
"I just felt that there's a huge basement under the Katsuragi family's house, but because it was underground, I couldn't completely capture what was in there. If Ayaka is around, I can ask her to make an explosion. And If I can make a big enough Sound Insulation Room, I should be able to capture it more accurately," Kai sighed.
But when he turned to look at Tasha, she was pouting, "So, I've been trying to avoid this topic, but since you're bringing it up, I'm going to ask you. Which step are you already in with her?"
Kai was surprised. He just gave her an honest input, and this happened. "We're just friends. Since we're classmates, partners for the practice classes, and have experienced various things, I think yeah, we're friends.
"Well, she's also smart and easy to talk to. If she can mature up a little bit, she might be a partner that I can trust my back to no matter what."
"…" Tasha couldn't figure out whether she was a friend, a comrade, or a student. Kai said they were friends, but what they experienced together made them seem like comrades. And it seemed that Kai also gave her some pointers to get stronger.
However, one thing came to her mind. If all of those were to be combined… they might just be one step away from being lovers. As long as they started falling in love with each other… Tasha's face became pale when she realized that.
She never thought that they would have that much progress in less than a month. She asked with a hesitant tone, "You… you don't love her, right?"
"Love?" Kai looked at her, confused. He thought about it for a little while. It wasn't like he was a person who could express or act on his feelings in an instant. He didn't want to have this conversation for the time being because something else was in his mind, so he was planning to confuse her. "What is love anyway?"
"Eh?" This time, it was Tasha who was surprised.
Kai suddenly searched it on the internet. He typed 'What is love?' in the browser and clicked whatever it was. He sat on his bed and read the article. Tasha even came to his bed and read the article he was reading. It said, "What is love? Most people agree that love implies strong feelings of affection… Hmm, what kind of affection is that? Let me see... There are a few other possible definitions.
"First, a willingness to prioritize another's well-being or happiness above my own… half-half, I think. I wouldn't prioritize her if my family is at stake, but if by prioritizing her, mom and dad will be fine, then it's fine, I guess.
"Second, extreme feelings of attachment, affection, and need. Attachment? What is this attachment all about? If it's talking about if I need to choose someone to go to the outside world… I will bring her indeed since she's a powerful person with a lot of potential. She also could absorb any advice easily. Well, I only compared her with my other classmates, which I don't know that much about.
"Third, dramatic, sudden feelings of attraction and respect. My feelings about her are something like this, I guess. I truly respect her from the bottom of my heart. She has powerful strength and talent, but still wants to keep improving.
"The fourth is 'a choice to commit to helping, respecting, and caring for another'. I will undoubtedly help her if we're surrounded by magical beasts, and I respect her. And from my experience, I've always taken care of her this entire time.
"Oh wait… 'Note: Such as in marriage or when having a child?' Eh? I don't understand why it suddenly came to this stage already? How can this article talk about marriage or having a child when someone just asked about love? Isn't it a bit too far? I'll put this definition aside for now.
"As for the last one, it's a combination of the above emotions… combination? But they're talking about the same thing I believe, it's about caring, respecting, and helping… Big Sister, am I falling in love with her?" Kai asked innocently, trying to change the topic. The research or whatever bullsh*t he said earlier was just a distraction.
But when he looked at her, she had already dropped her jaw and froze. Even when he shook her body, she still didn't move. "Big Sister?"
After a while, Tasha finally came back to life. She just got shocked out of her life. "Sigh…"
Tasha knew about Kai not believing in love at first sight. But it turned out that it was far worse than that. In fact, he clearly didn't understand love this entire time. She was stupid having not seen this earlier. In fact, this might be the reason why her advances never succeeded.
Even after so many years of living together, she had never known about this. No, she had never known because she was too afraid to hear Kai say that it was impossible for them. She continued teasing him while hoping that Kai's heart would be moved.
Unfortunately, she finally realized that it didn't affect him. All her energy was drained when she heard this. She asked out of frustration. "Well, how about me? What do you think about me?"
"You're my family."
"But we're not blood-related because father and mother adopted me when I was small. You know that. If father and mother hadn't adopted me, would you love me as a woman?"
Kai couldn't understand why she suddenly became like this. After all, when his parents adopted her, he was already six years old.
"No, I'll change my question. Is it possible for me? People say that marrying your own family is not good because it will affect their children. But we're not blood-related…"
"…I don't know the answer to that question. But I do know that you're irreplaceable in my life, I already knew that from long ago. If you're gone, I might go insane. I don't know if this is love or not though," Kai honestly answered her question. He didn't know if this was the best answer or not, but he needed to pretend for the time being.
"That is enough. That answer is enough for now. Ah, why didn't I realize this earlier… I was too scared. Don't you know, you were the one who gave me this life," Tasha suddenly hugged him from behind with a hoarse voice.
Kai could feel that she was shaking. He could clearly feel her anxiety and fear. He didn't understand love. They said that if two people of opposite genders stayed in the same place for a long time, love might bud in their hearts. But Kai thought it that must have been because they were in a comfort zone.
Even if they were separated, there wouldn't be any dramatic drama like in those stories, and they might be fine not long after that. He thought that was the case because they had been living together for a long time.
But when he thought about losing Tasha, he didn't know why, but pain clutched his heart. This never happened when he was thinking about Ayaka.
"Woah!" He suddenly felt a strong force from behind, and it pulled him to the bed.
"Big Sister?"
"Fuu…fu…" He heard her soft voice from behind. And with his ears, he knew from her breathing that she fell asleep.
He sighed helplessly. He stared at the air in front of him. He felt her warm embrace and thought, 'Love, huh… Just wait a little bit more, all right...'
'Though it's not like I hate being like this once in a while,' Kai thought as he also closed his eyes.