Hotaro stared at the figure of Hinami standing at the entrance of the house with her hand on her waist. He did not even ask why and for what reason has she come to his house because there was no reason. She would just come here to hang out and if there was nothing to do, they would just be lying on the couch staring at whatever comes on the television.
Hana, on the other hand, did not know that.
"Hinami-nee-chan, why are you here?" she asked her innocently.
"To come and hang out with you two of course," Hana said with a smile on her face and her eyes fell on the bag Hotaro was carrying. "Movies? Cool, I am down for that."
"You are down for anything I do so it doesn't really matter. Get the home theater set up and call Hajime-san too," Hotaro told her. "We can all watch the movie together."
"Why don't you call her? She is your fiancée," Hinami said the last part teasingly.
"Because you don't know how to even make popcorn and I don't think you would like to start without it," he said with a blank expression on his face without even feeling embarrassed by Hinami's statement.
He had no reason to be.
"Hana, how about you go with Hinami and choose the movies you want to see first," Hotaro said patting her head and then heading to the kitchen to get the popcorn and soft drink out for everyone.
Hana followed Hinami who was holding the bag of the movies and then she turned the home theater on. The screen on the television changed and the disk slider opened to put the disk in. She put out the movies and they were all stacked up on one above another. There were a total of four movies in it and she understood that it was going to be an all-day thing.
She saw the covers of the movies and she had already seen the magical girl one but when she looked at the next three ones, she frowned and rubbed her temple.
'What was that idiot thinking?' Hinami thought to herself.
She looked at Hana who was staring at the movie's cover with a smile on her face and sparkles in her eyes. Hinami was not very good with the horror genre and she had never been. She would always try to put up a strong front but in the end, would just hold onto anything she has close by which in most of the cases was Hotaro's fragile body. She hated jump scares and she explains it with, "It does not scare me but just startles me."
"Hana-chan, did you get these movies?" she asked the little girl and she happily nodded her head.
"Oni-chan gets scared easily so I will hold him when he gets scared. He will know how strong and brave I am," she said puffing her chest proudly.
'Oh, you poor little thing. If only you knew."
"S-so, which one do you want to see first?" she asked Hana and the little girl thought a bit about it.
"This one," she said pointing at the magical girl movie.
Hinami lets out a sigh of relief because of Hana's pick and proceeds to put the disk in the reader and let it boot up. Then it hit her that she had completely forgotten to call Akari. She told Hana to sit and wait in the living room and went upstairs. As she went, she had this uneasy feeling in her heart and she opened the door slowly and Akari's voice was heard from the room.
"Yes, I am so sorry I could not call you yesterday but it is all fine now…It was a family issue but it has been resolved…Sure I can come and meet you right now…Okay, I will be there in half an hour."
Not realizing that Hinami had heard the entire conversation, Akari turned around seeing her standing there, and stiffened. She quickly recomposed herself and thought that Hinami had not heard what she had been talking about.
"Boyfriend?" Hinami bluntly asked in a plain tone and Akari stiffened again. "No need to hide it. Even I know that both you and Hotaro are being forced against your will and looking at you, you would certainly have one by now. I won't think anything weird of this."
"I-I see."
"So, I think you won't join the movies until later?" Hinami said and Akari nodded. "Thought so. Okay, I will tell Hotaro."
Hinami went downstairs and entered the living room seeing Hotaro and Hana ready with popcorn in a big bowl and soft drinks in the glasses. He had set out four glasses of soft drinks and saw that Hinami spoke up.
"Hajime won't be going to be here for now," she said making both the siblings look at her confused. "She is meeting up with her boyfriend. She says it is going to take a while."
"I see, do you have somewhere to go?" Hotaro asked Hinami and she shook her head. "Well, you have two glasses of soft drink now. Congratulations."
"I was a kid back then!!" Hinami shouted remembering her getting all riled up because she once wanted two glasses of soft drink for the movie night but her mother did not let her.
Hana tugged Hotaro's sleeve making him look at her. "Oni-chan, is Akari-nee-chan not joining us?"
"She is going to meet someone so she will join us later," Hotaro said patting her head. "We can start right now."
"You know, you should also get a girlfriend," Hinami said crashing on the couch with her popcorn and soft drinks in her hands.
Hotaro looked at her weirdly and did not say anything for some time which made her feel weird.
"Why would I need a girlfriend if I have Hana right now?" he said as if he was stating something obvious.
This earned him a weird look from Hinami who just looked at him with her jaw dropped down. Again, there was silence in the room it felt really awkward. Hinami kept racking her brain trying to comprehend what she just heard and Hotaro let out a sigh.
"Before you get any weird and unorthodox ideas, I meant right now, Hana is my top priority. In a situation like this, I know I may not be able to romantically love a girl so I don't want to get into a relationship. What if I am not really into it but the girl really likes me? I am just disrespecting her feeling that way and don't want that," Hotaro said and turned the movie on.
"That sounds like such a dumb explanation," Hinami said smacking Hotaro's head but chuckling a little. "But when you are the one saying it, it does not sound dumb at all."
"Oni-chan, Hinami-nee-chan, no talking during the movie," Hana said scoldingly showing them both to put a finger on their lips.
They looked at her cute demeanor and chuckled and did as she said. The movie finally started and the events of the movie fit somewhere between the early episodes of the timeline of the show. The main character was on her magical island where she would go every now and then to check up on her friends and family who were not chosen to be sent to the world without magic.
Hana's eyes were glued to the television because of the movie and she did not notice Akari coming and telling that she was leaving. When her eyes fell on Hana who was watching the movie with great interest, she couldn't help but smile at it.
Unknown to Hana, Hotaro had already got his supply of sweets for the day and was eating them from time to time. The sweet smell tingled Hana's nose and she would look at Hotaro and see nothing in his hand so she would look back. She was enjoying her soft drink and popcorns a lot so she did not really mind it at all. Because of how strict her parents were when it came to Hana's diet, she had never eaten or drunk anything like this so it was quite a treat for her.
"Go Manoka!!" Hana shouted and jumped on her seat as the first fight between the main character and one of the villain's lackeys started. "Yaay!!"
Seeing her jumping and shouting in her seat completely showing what hypocrisy is, Hotaro and Hinami chuckled and kept watching the movie. Both of them had seen the movie multiple times as a kid so they already knew what was going to happen.
"She is acting just like you when you were small," Hotaro whispered to Hinami and she hit on the arm.
"I was a kid back then and thought magical girls were cool. It's not my fault. Even you wanted to be a power ranger back then," Hinami said and Hotaro leaned back on the couch.
"That certainly is true," he said and looked at Hinami. "It is a wonder about how much you changed from back then. You were the most girlish of girls I had ever seen."
"People change with time and the movie keeps on playing."
"That is true."
As the movie progressed, Manoka made some more companions along the way and they were on their way to find the lair of the villain. They were walking through an abandoned street and then the entire world started to shift its shape. Everything became a dark shade of all the primary colors and the main cast was being surrounded by the lackeys of the villain.
"Thinking back on it, it had so many clichés in it but it still turned out to be one of the greatest," Hinami said and put her hand on her bowl only to catch nothing. "Hotaro, I need a refill on popcorn and drinks."
"No Manoka, don't go there! There are vanisaurs there to attack you!" Hinami shouted at the screen. "Nooooo!"
Seeing the main character pinned down on the ground and the villain walking in front of her, Hana was at the edge of her seat. For her six-year-old brain, this was the biggest turn of events she had ever seen. Her eyes were anxious about what would happen next and she had her hands clasped together and then Manoka started being attacked by one spell after another. Hinami's eyes widened and she looked at Hotaro.
"Oni-chan, Manoka is losing! She is losing!" she said to Hotaro.
'Didn't something similar happened multiple times in the show marathon we watched before?' Hotaro thought and then pats Hana's head.
She pulled herself closer to Hotaro and rested her head on him. "Don't worry Hana, Manoka has still not used that."
Even if he was vague, Hana's eye widened and she looked at the screen since she knew was Hotaro was talking about. Hinami was just left there with no popcorn and soft drink to go with and was feeling dejected.
'How cruel this world is,' she thought.
"E-even i-if I were to b-be defeated now, I w-will make sure you go w-with me," Manoka said slowly standing up on her feet.
"Manoka! No! Don't tell me you are going to use that!" shouted Hajime from behind. He was a normal non-magic user Manoka met and was the first one she ever met when she came to the world of the non-magic users and got him dragged in all her adventures.
She looked behind at him with a faint smile on her face. "It's fine Hajime-kun, I am sorry for dragging you in all this, but it has to be done."
"Manoka-chan, don't!" shouted the other magical girls who were there assisting her.
"I am so happy, I met you all," Manoka said and faced the villain.
"Oni-chan, Manoka won't lose right? She won't lose, right? She can't lose," Hana said tugging Hotaro's sleeve shaking him all up.
"She won't," Hotaro said with a reassuring smile.
Manoka's entire body started changing into a bright pink color and her magical suit started to change too. Due to the bright light, the villain covered her eyes and when she looked at Manoka, her eyes widened. Her magical suit looked the same but different at the same time too.
"Here I go, Lovely beam!" she shouted and a bright pink beam hit the villain and she started countering it with her.
The two bright colors were fighting each other pushing the other one back and sometimes it was Manoka's beam winning, sometimes it was the villains.
"Go Manoka!" Hana shouted.
Manoka started being pushed back and was about to be blasted off only for a big explosion to happen which made Hana gasp.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Join the discord server for updates on all my books
https://discord.gg/fbSzW3F5r2