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“Puh~.”

Kanata was sulking. Or rather, he was puffing out his cheeks. Though this was coming from me, it looked flirtatious.

“Don’t puff out your cheeks like that.”
“But…”

Well, you could say it was unavoidable that Kanata was in such a mood. There were several reasons for it.

Since the day Rir arrived on Earth, we had alternated between here and Anazumu for a bit more than three weeks on each side¹ (one and a half months in total). During that time, lots of things happened.

First, news about Mika and me dating spread throughout pretty much the whole region. Maybe thanks to that, the number of people trying to make a move on her or me had noticeably declined. Though we still encountered tons of talent scouts.

Then, the frequency of being called out to for other reasons had gone up, the number of passersby gazing at us had risen, and people often turned to look at us two or three times in a row. Though after tallying everything up, things weren’t quite as hard for Mika and me as they used to be. No matter who, it was harder to approach a boyfriend and girlfriend couple.

Well, things did get harder. For Kanata and Sakura, that is… Well, to be exact, it was mostly Sakura. Life for her apparently turned crazy after people realized that she was just as cute as her older sister. At the same time, news spread about her being in a relationship with Kanata, so it didn’t get as bad as during Mika’s and my heyday, but they still got pestered abnormally often.

No matter how you sliced it, they had been on TV once. That alone made it easier for people to approach them on the street. Obviously, this led to Kanata – Sakura’s knight – having higher workload. He apparently had to stretch out his radar² and stay vigilant whenever they were on the train or walking together in the city.

But that was only the beginning. What really kept those two busy didn’t have anything to do with Sakura’s beauty. It was the whole situation with her suddenly being able to see.

The reason Sakura’s eyesight had been so bad was a clock falling on her face when she was little, damaging crucial parts of her eyes. She had been almost blind, and it was only thanks to the advanced optics technologies in today’s world that she was able to live a normal life by wearing what looked like bottle-bottom glasses, but if the world was different… her fate might have been to carefully walk the road, using the kind of tactile paving you no longer saw today.

And her eyes, which were in such a terrible state, suddenly healed. Such a thing had to be researched.

A lot of Sakura’s time every week (apart from when she was at school) was now taken up by being studied at the ophthalmology department of the same research institute where Kanata’s brain had been investigated³.

In other words, it became impossible for Kanata and Sakura to go out somewhere, like enjoying their time at the amusement park. That was the reason for my brother’s grumpiness. Well, half of it was probably due to the constant teasing.

Oh, on that note, Mika and I still hadn’t gone on a date on Earth. For now, we would observe how things went for one more week. Since we didn’t want to die again.

“So, if we go on a date on Earth… it should be possible this month… I’m sorry, alright? You always come with me when I go to the research institute.”
“It’s fine, I go with you because I want to. I know a lot of people there. Besides, I get what you want to say about the date. I’m just annoyed because of the teasing, don’t worry about it.”

Kanata and Sakura were flirting harmoniously.
Well, it’s heartwarming, I guess. Though I’m just standing here with Mika, arms linked.

“At any rate… Rir is late,” Shuu muttered while looking at his smartphone.
“She wrote that her plane was delayed, so it would take a bit longer.”
“True. But I’m a bit worried…” he replied to Mika, sounding seriously concerned.

Right now, we were standing around in front of Shuu’s home. As for why… because today Rir would finally come to Japan. It was to welcome her.

As a matter of fact, the moving agency was currently bringing Rir’s luggage into the room she’d be using (they showed it to us first). For that reason, there was a truck parked in front of the house.

Additionally, there were also people from the media and the government. Rir was apparently the first to use this new system to support foreign orphans.
Either way, what am I going to do with all those business cards they gave me?

“Hm~, guess I’ll call her…”
“If she’s on the train, she won’t be able to pick up.”
“True.”

Shuu put back his phone right after taking it from his pocket.

“…Ah. Heh-heh-heh,” Mika giggled quietly with a suspicious grin on her face.

Her grin also looks cute.
But it made me curious, so I asked her what she was thinking of.

“Is something wrong, Mika?”
“No… I just got a hunch. Heh-heh-heh.”

A hunch, huh? Her hunches tend to be scary accurate.
She was probably using that to achieve something. Indeed, she now called out to Shuu.

“Hey, Shuu. What do you think about Rir?”
“Huh? Well… uhm…”
“You don’t need to tell me if it’s too embarrassing, okay? I just thought since you always said all this stuff about Ayumu and me. This time, you should talk about yourself.”

She seemed to go at it with great enthusiasm. Maybe it was out of genuine curiosity. In Anazumu, she was on good terms with Rir.

“R-Right, that’s… that’s true. Well, if I’m being frank… I mean-” Shuu stammered while scratching his cheek bashfully.

Mika… wasn’t looking at him, but in a different direction. I also turned my gaze there.

A human silhouette pulling a trolley was closing in on us. I immediately recognized who it was.

1. Poor Rir had to put up with jetlag on a daily basis.
2. Not sure if this is meant figuratively or if he actually uses radar-like skills he brought from Anazumu.
3. Not sure why that would take so long. They’d look at the eyes and see that they’re completely fine. Maybe take some blood and tissue samples, but what else could they do apart from intentionally damaging her eyes to see if they heal again?

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