Christmas — Part 4

TL: Daemon

ED: PuffyPyjamas

“Sorry, I didn’t prepare any present—”

“Fufu~ It’s okay, it’s okay.”

It was just about to get pretty late into the night.

A naked Hiiragi-chan had placed her head on my chest, as if trying to listen to my heartbeat.

“To me, my present is just being able to date you without any issues until now.”

“Are you fine with that?”

“Yeah.”

It was easy to feel each other’s warmth as we were both naked together.

“Tomorrow, you have work at school, right?”

“Ah, I didn’t want to think about it today at all!”

Hiiragi-chan pouted as she poked me in the chest.

The two of us eventually fell asleep as we were having casual conversation within the dimly lit room.

The next morning. We got dressed and checked out of the hotel. Before the time leap, I had never stayed over like this before, so it’s definitely a first-time experience.

Not giving anything back after all of that is kind of questionable.

After climbing into the car in the underground parking lot, we headed home.

“The food and wine were both delicious, and the room was also amazing. I’m super satisfied… ♡”

Hiiragi-chan spoke happily as she reminisced about the food and wine from last night.

I also thought back, and spoke out what I thought was best.

“But, what I thought was the most amazing…”

“Hmmm? What is it?”

“Ah, no, never mind.”

“Eeeh? What? Now I’m curious.”

No, if I were to mention it, it might not be that good… Oh well.

“Haruka-san was also amazing.”

“Me? For what?”

“Umm… on the bed… your body.”

“!?”

Hiiragi-chan sitting next to me instantly turned red.

“Eh, S-Seiji-kun, were you wearing night vision goggles or something?”

Of course not. What type of special forces agent am I?

“I mean, you know, your eyes get used to the darkness… the moonlight was also shining into the room.”

“S-so I-I was in f-full vision…?”

The car started to swerve back and forth.

“That’s dangerous, Haruka-chan, calm down!”

T-this is bad! This is why I didn’t want to mention it!

I firmly grabbed onto the steering wheel next to me, and returned it to the steady position of normal driving.

“I-ich jusht a normal body…”

She bit her tongue. If that’s normal, then what standard is she going off of?

Hiiragi-chan started to take deep breaths in order to calm down.

“You should have the same amount of experience as me, and yet…”

“I-I did a lot of studying! Gosh, let’s stop it with this conversation.”

Hiiragi-chan who was frowning while blushing was still quite cute.

If I were to tease her more than this, there might actually be an accident, so I stopped going any further.

“The first time was all left to Seiji-kun… S-so, I thought that as the older one I would have to pull myself together.”

Ah, she’s become desperate. I inadvertently started to smile.

“What’s so weird? Geez.”

Hiiragi-chan acted like she was mad, before breaking out into a smile.

We arrived at the parking lot at Hiiragi-chan’s place, from which we ended up splitting.

“Enjoy your date with Sana-chan, okay?”

“Okaay.”

Hiiragi-chan was considerate of my schedule today, and ended up checking out early, so it was only a little bit past 8.

I personally would have liked to take things slower, but a promise is a promise.

I kissed Hiiragi-chan in the car as she seemed like she wanted it.

However, it seemed that there would be no end to it, so I got out of the car and closed the door after saying, “Sensei, good luck with your work!”

I could definitely hear her yelling out her usual retort from within the car.

I rode home on my bike, and then got changed into another set of clothes for going out.

“Nii-san? We’re heading out now, so wake up—… you’re awake…?”

Sana, who had come to wake me up, widened her eyes. I’m the weaker one when it comes to waking up in the morning, so I can understand if Sana stepped into my room without knocking.

“You also woke up pretty early.”

“W-well yeah…”

Moreover, she’s already done with all her preparations. She was wearing the same type of more mature outfit that I complimented at the Miss Contest.

“Where do you plan on going after putting so much effort into this.”

“S-shut up! It’s not like Sana did this for Nii-san to see!”

Sana turned her face to the side. Now that I think about it, Kanata did say that at the contest. When she says something like that…

“Ah, that’s right.”

It’s still 8.

“It’s the holidays so breakfast hasn’t been prepared… what should we do?”

“Let’s go to a café for breakfast… it’s Christmas after all.”

The two of us were completely done with preparations, so that proposal wasn’t bad.

“Then, why don’t we go.”

I did promise that I would do anything she asked after all.

“Sana was constantly thinking about what game to buy all throughout last night in the bed. No, not just yesterday. Ever since final exams! Now, it’s finally here, and here is my decision.”

“Oh? After all your worrying, let’s hear your decision.”

“Your condescending attitude… well, it’s okay. I’ll let you hear it.”

We left home and got on a train headed downtown.

Since it was around 9 in the morning, there weren’t very many people and we were able to walk along the sidewalk without worrying about the usual holiday crowd.

The café we found was pretty empty, making it the perfect place to have our own quiet conversation about games.

After entering, we ordered with the waiter, and our coffee was soon brought over.

“… Sana has narrowed it down to 3.”

Sana put a lot of sugar and milk into her coffee.

“Oh. And?”

Is three really narrowing it down? I guess the amount from before was probably a lot higher.

“There’s a new game for that RPG series, the one we play all the time. Also— ”

Oh, when Sana said three, she meant three RPG games. They were ones that we’ve been playing since middle school. The second one was a SRPG with a training element. The third was a first-person shooting game. You can play co-op. The choices were quite good.

“Well done”

“It’s all from careful consideration. Of course.”

She flipped her hair before drinking the coffee filled with milk and sugar.

“Hot!?”

She burned her tongue.

“Hmmm, any of them are fine, right…?”

I also brought my coffee to my mouth, and glanced over the cup at Sana, who was cooling her tongue off by sticking it out.

I recognize the style of art that Sana has in the present day.

She was in charge of a few of the illustrations that were part of the documents detailing preparations for the social game.

It’s hard to put it into words exactly, but there was a feeling of fantasy, with just a little bit of transparency in the character design.

It was drawn in a way which it almost felt too good, cute, and cool for Sana to have drawn it. I guess it’s good because she likes it?

It seems that the first RPG series listed had a large influence on that. However, this influence was something I only recognized because I had future insight.

Which means that the games she played during this time period really influenced Sana’s art style…

“Hmmm? However, if I change that, wouldn’t that be bad? ”

“What are you muttering about?”

She then continued to cut a slice of French toast before sticking it into her mouth. It’s pretty much a dessert, but since it’s technically toast, she considers it a breakfast meal it seems. It looked good though, so I also ordered it.

“What’s the new title like?”

“Fufufu. The explanation will be long.”

“Please make it short.”

I said that, but she talked about a bunch of things and didn’t stop, taking a full twenty minutes.

“It’s alright now, I got it, I got it!”

“What do you understand? People who say that never understand anything.”

Sana pursed her lips while wanting to continue.

If I continue to listen, the day will end.

“Today, I’m Big Brother Santa.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ll buy you all three of them.”

“Eh?”

“Don’t underestimate what I get from my part time job. I can at least do this much.”

“How long are you going to continue to act arrogant about having a part time job?”

“Shut up.”

“Big Brother Santa… I-is that really okay?”

“Big Brother Santa doesn’t go back on his word. Three is easy.”

“This is unprecedented generosity…”

I took a glance inside my wallet.

Two of… Yukichi-sensei… [1]

Hey… umm… what’s the price exactly? I was acting arrogant, but is this actually enough?

I was having a cold sweat on the inside. However, I didn’t reveal any of it as I put on a smug face.

We ended our game talk for now, as Sana began talking about how she was hanging out with Kanata yesterday.

Summarizing it, she went to Kanata’s house to eat cake and play games.

“… Hey.”

“Hmm?”

“Sana came back for dinner yesterday, but Nii-san didn’t come back… You went somewhere, didn’t you?”

“Ah, uhh. I just went to hang out at night. It was Christmas Eve after all.”

I brought up Fujimoto and the names of some other classmates, but there was no reaction.

Sana looked like she made up her mind, as she turned her downwards gaze up.

“… Nii-san, what did you actually do yesterday?”

TN:

Slang for the 10,000 yen bill as his image is on the bill.