"Oh, Chisa-san. Good evening."
"Oh my, hello there, Makoto-kun."
It was the night after Ryuichi spoke with Akira. Chisa and Makoto were at the club where they'd met Satsuki. Their meeting wasn't a planned one; they'd run into each other by chance.
"Mind if I sit next to you?"
"Go ahead."
She was having some alcohol as he sat down next to her. Both of them were flamboyant-looking to fit the venue, but they were still quite picturesque seeing as they were both beautiful and handsome to boot. The club was always full of regulars, so Chisa and Makoto had many acquaintances. There were quite a few people who were after Chisa, just as there were quite a few who were after Makoto as well.
"Looks like you've been coming here a lot since then, huh, Chisa-san."
"I guess so. I really like the bustle here, you see."
While pouring some more beer into her now empty cup, she continued.
"Back then, I was just like Ryuichi—playing around and having fun with lots of men—but once I got to know him, no other man could satisfy me anymore. He really is a sinful man."
"Ahaha, does that 'other men' part include me?"
"What, you interested in me now?"
Makoto shook his head. He was only joking; he knew that Chisa wasn't in the market for any other man besides Ryuichi. So, had he nodded his head at her question, it would've surprised her, but more importantly, the image that he held of her would've been instantly shattered.
"Well, he is a sinful man, I'll give you that. The way he used to treat women like tools was kinda iffy to me, but lately it looks like he's been taking good care of you and Rindo. It's as if he's changed completely on the inside."
"So even you think that, huh, Makoto-kun."
Their thoughts were completely right, but as for how Ryuichi's change came about…the thought that he could've regained his memories didn't even cross their minds. They were, in the end, residents of this world alone, and unlike Ryuichi, they weren't aware of the existence of the other world.
"Boss, juice please."
"Ah, can I really have this?"
"Yup."
"Thanks!"
Well, even though he was underage, he sometimes drank alcohol, but Chisa obviously chose to offer him juice. He looked cute for his age as he happily drank the juice, and in this place where only adults gathered, young men like him were well-liked by older women, just like in the case of Ryuichi. Chisa didn't really think much of it, but he certainly had the makings to be popular.
"Haah, this juice is damn good."
"Thanks, kid."
"You got any snacks to go with these? …Nah, you've probably only got meals, huh."
"No, I've got some."
"You do?!"
They were a well-prepared bartender. Thus, Makoto snacked on some food while chatting with Chisa. After he ate a handful, he asked her this.
"Oh right, I've always wanted to ask you this."
"What?"
"I've already talked about how Ryuichi was a different man in the past. He was good at seducing women and pleasuring them…but he could also be cruel at times, couldn't he?"
"Right."
"So why did you choose to keep seeing him, Chisa-san? Were you unable to resist his charm, or were you perhaps unable to resist his manliness?"
Chisa let out a giggle at his words. She poured some more beer into her empty glass yet again, guzzled it down, and then answered him.
"The first time I slept with Ryuichi, I thought he was a very unusual man in so many ways. He was very good with women, and his choice of words, though offensive, was a mix between half-calculated and half-sincere so as not to make me feel uncomfortable. Basically, he was very good at making women happy."
"True. I think he's taught me how to woo women a few times before, too."
"Oh my, is that so? …Well, we can talk about that later, but basically, there was something about the way he made love to me that…I don't know, felt off. It felt like, as a woman, he was looking at me with hatred in his eyes, or more precisely, he was looking beyond me, the woman he was making love to, and at someone else."
"Huh…"
That was something Makoto had never heard before. Sure, he knew Ryuichi had some cruel parts to him, but he'd always thought that was the ultimate form of womanizing. As for the rest, well, he did know that Ryuichi truly hated his family from the bottom of his heart.
"My parents, well…they're trash. They don't deserve to be alive."
"Don't you think that's a bit much?"
"Well, that only applies to my shitty parents. Your mom and dad are really nice people, y'know? They treat even somebody like me normally."
Makoto realized that that conversation he'd had with Ryuichi a while back actually had a meaning.
"The moment I met Ryuichi, I realized he was an outcast just like me. That's why, well, I thought it'd be nice to sleep with him and stick by his side. I also thought that if he didn't have a special girl yet, I could put myself out to fill that role and be his lover."
Even Chisa thought that way of thinking was very much like her. Her encounter with Ryuichi had been out of left field, but it had also been a coincidence that she became aware of the darkness he was harboring. To Chisa, who practically lived a free life, it was her first time meeting a younger boy with a complicated past and darkness; he had charmed her in many ways, and that made her want to watch over him.
"Now he has Shizuna-chan, doesn't he? She's one hell of a girl. I'm sure she can enter the recesses of Ryuichi's mind much sooner than I can. I wonder if that makes her good at handling men, in a sense?"
"Nah, that girl's genuinely in love with Ryuichi. In fact, judging from the way you phrased yourself, I'm sure you've realized it too, huh."
"Well, yeah. Y'know, it almost feels like she's a heroine straight out of a story."
"A heroine, you say…yeah, I can totally see that."
A voice saying, No, she actually is a genuine, bona-fide heroine, could be heard somewhere.
"It looks like Ryuichi's working his ass off for another girl today."
"Ah, he did mention something about going to Shirasagi's house… Is she the woman from that one time?"
"Yep, yep. She said she has a younger brother."
"Haha, so that's the connection. Well, I'm sure Ryuichi will be just fine."
"Totally. Well, even if he doesn't interfere, I'm sure Satsuki-chan will be just fine, too."
Thus, the two spent the rest of their time chatting happily with each other. Naturally, their topics of conversation were mainly related to Ryuichi, and if he were around, he would definitely yell at them to stop talking about him.
To Satsuki, Akira was just a brother to her. Nothing more, and nothing less. That was how she felt even now as he was pushing her down like this.
"Akira, get off of me."
"Onee-chan…I!"
"Get off of me."
Ryuichi had contacted her and reassured her that he would be waiting for her outside, and Satsuki went home and waited for the time to come in her room. Well, she wasn't sure if Akira would take any action, but in the end, he actually entered her room silently without knocking and pushed her down.
Honestly, she felt uncomfortable to be seen in a sexual light by her own brother. It was enough to make her instantly lose all the feelings she had for him as her brother.
"I love you, Onee-chan… Hey, what did you do with Shishido…? What did you do with him, Onee-chan?! You have me, don't you?! I've always been by your side, haven't I?!"
"Yes, you have. But that was you being by my side as my brother, right?"
As she'd said many times before, she only saw Akira as her brother and nothing more. No matter what he did to her, she would never see him as somebody of the opposite sex, much less think of him as a man, forever. If she searched all across the world, she was sure she could find an older sister who could fall in love with her blood-related brother…but Satsuki couldn't see herself like that at all.
But I think the old me would've just kept quiet. The old me might've even dared to accept whatever he did to me, just to protect his heart.
It was a chilling thought.
No matter how much she may have cared about her brother, she was terrified of her past self, who would have accepted such an irreversible decision as right and just.
"…I…I!"
"Get off of me, Akira. Now."
Akira got away from her as if he'd lost all the strength in his body. He sat there and stayed where he was, unmoving, but Satsuki had no more words left to say to him. Putting her disheveled clothes back in order, she told her parents that she would be heading outside for a bit and went out.
"…Ah."
Immediately, she found Ryuichi standing with his back against a telephone pole near her house. If anyone had seen him loitering around there like that, they might've even reported him to the police, but even so, he stood there the entire time just in case something happened to her.
"By the looks of things, it doesn't look like anything happened to you…did it?"
"Yes. He told me he liked me…but I told him to put an end to it. Akira is such an important brother to me…how did things come to this?"
Human emotions couldn't be controlled, and it wasn't up to others to tell someone when to fall in love. Even if one fell in love with someone related to them by blood, it was easy to point out to them they shouldn't harbor those feelings, but one couldn't simply make them disappear.
"…I guess part of the blame does lie on me, though."
"That's not true. It's useless to worry about that now, so please don't. Actually, no, that's not it."
"What do you mean?"
He cocked his head to the side. She continued.
"I met you and came to like you, Ryuichi-kun. Please don't call those pure feelings of mine the cause of all this."
"…I…guess that's true."
"Yes. ♪"
Satsuki's smile was beautiful under the light of the street lamp.
Comparing his past memories with his current self, Ryuichi had really brought about a huge change. The simple act of deviating from the world's course at the start had now brought him to attract and charm many people. He would soon learn that that was a fate he himself had brought about.
"Onee-chan! Onee-chan!"
"..."
Why am I doing this with my brother…? Argh, I don't care anymore. I had a screw loose in my head the moment I let him force himself on my body as he pleased. I'm so dirty now…who cares what he does to me anymore.
Yes, the world had truly changed just by a simple deviation.