This Japanese Monogatari Isn't Lame
Chapter 88. Every Sister has a Brother-Complex Heart

Chapter 88: Chapter 88. Every Sister has a Brother-Complex Heart

"This little fellow... is this what Mr. Temple gained from his trip to Yashan City?" Shen Gu Mirai swallowed, her greenish-white fingers reaching out to touch Nishijou Kerenai, but then she hesitated and withdrew her hand.

Last time she wanted to touch that strange black aura on Beichuan Si, but she had been stopped by Beichuan Si. If this puppet also had something special about it, wouldn’t it be suicidal for her to touch it willingly?

Shen Gu Mirai indeed liked supernatural and bizarre incidents, but she also held a sense of awe towards the unknown.

Beichuan Si nodded without changing his expression, "Pretty much."

At the same time, Beichuan Si couldn’t help but take another glance at Shen Gu Mirai.

He had been prepared for Shen Gu Mirai’s barrage of questions, like a sudden storm, since this young girl had always been extremely enthusiastic about these matters.

But, unexpectedly, Shen Gu Mirai just kept her mouth shut, her face flushing, her bright eyes fixed on Nishijou Kerenai in his arms, and she didn’t bombard him with questions like he had imagined.

This was strange; it was not Shen Gu Mirai’s usual style.

"Don’t you have anything to ask?" Beichuan Si patted the dust off Nishijou Kerenai and said to Shen Gu Mirai.

"Do I have anything... to ask..." Shen Gu Mirai stammered, her gaze reluctantly moving away from Nishijou Kerenai, "I do have a lot of questions to ask, but... Mr. Temple, you’ve never liked me asking too much, have you?"

I’m so curious!

I’m so curious!

I’m really curious—but I can’t ask!

The emotions of grievance and contradiction leaking out from someone meters away softened Beichuan Si’s expression.

This young girl, who used to be overly lively, was now behaving much too obediently.

"Feel free to ask anything you want to know," Beichuan Si said calmly.

"Eh? Can I really?" Shen Gu Mirai became excited.

"But I might not answer you."

Ah?

The excitement of Shen Gu Mirai deflated quite a bit.

"About what I did in Yashan City, I can tell you most of it—let’s go inside first."

Isn’t this pretty much the same as planning to tell me everything?

Shen Gu Mirai stared somewhat blankly at Beichuan Si’s stern face, pondering.

Could it be that Mr. Temple is the kind whose words disparage but whose actions approve, a cold tsundere?

It seemed like Beichuan Si felt Shen Gu Mirai’s thoughts, and his gaze softened, fixating on her.

The intensity of Beichuan Si’s stare made Shen Gu Mirai shudder, and she unconsciously bowed and apologized to him.

The two re-entered the Beichuan Family home.

...

After entering the Beichuan Family home, Beichuan Si omitted the specifics of Nishijou Kerenai and Sakurazaka Yuuki’s affairs, simply telling Shen Gu Mirai not to worry about the murderer anymore.

Then Beichuan Si told Shen Gu Mirai about his experiences in Yashan City.

These included visiting Xucha High School at night, the gruesome murder of Sato Ryosuke, and the subsequent ghost-hunting live stream.

All of this was information that could be disclosed to Shen Gu Mirai.

After all, with a little effort, anyone could find this on local Yashan City news and on the internet.

Beichuan Si kept his word choice and phrasing very concise, following a basic pattern: I went to XX place, encountered XX incident, but it’s not a big deal, it’s pretty much resolved.

Naturally, Beichuan Si’s understated narrative style lacked passion, but Shen Gu Mirai listened with great interest.

Especially when the young girl heard that Beichuan Si was also involved in a supernatural forum live broadcast, she became even more excited and directly asked Beichuan Si for the YouTube live stream addresses of those two supernatural forum hosts, wanting to find the recorded broadcast left by Tanaka and Yamakou that day.

While Shen Gu Mirai was busy searching for the live stream addresses, Beichuan Si called over Beichuan Huili.

Seeing the anxious expression on her face, Beichuan Si just pointed to the sofa, indicating for her to sit down.

Beichuan Si hadn’t avoided Beichuan Huili while discussing with Shen Gu Mirai earlier.

As Beichuan Huili listened to the two of them, she was completely confused.

Murder case? Xucha High School fire incident...

These words, too cruel for her age, made the already timid Beichuan Huili shiver with fear.

Were all these incidents related to Brother Temple?

How come she didn’t know anything about it?

Shouldn’t she be his sister? How could her own brother be involved in a murder case and she had no idea?

Was she just a lousy little sister?

Beichuan Huili instinctively felt uneasy.

Indeed, at Beichuan Huili’s age, she should be enjoying her youth at school.

Beichuan Si really shouldn’t be discussing these matters in front of her.

But—

In this world, there truly existed anomalies, supernatural phenomena, and beings beyond common understanding.

Beichuan Si didn’t want his current bit of kindness to inadvertently cast Beichuan Huili into unknown dangers.

So he’d rather be ’cruel’ to Beichuan Huili now, rather than have her learn from others’ deadly behaviors, deliberately seeking out those unknown and terrifying beings.

No one dictated that an urban male protagonist with a system must hide his abilities.

Thus, Beichuan Si would rather let Beichuan Huili know about his abilities, to let her believe in the existence of anomalies, thereby ensuring her safety.

But who could have expected that after listening to Beichuan Si’s explanation, Beichuan Huili’s eyes would light up, and she tightly grasped Beichuan Si’s sleeve:

"Brother Temple, are you an Onmyoji? Like the cool ones in the animes who carry sacred talismans and effortlessly exorcise evil spirits and monsters?"

Her voice was excited and her gaze admiring as she tugged at Beichuan Si’s sleeve.

"..." But seeing her like this, Beichuan Si’s expression involuntarily darkened.

He had intended to instill a sense of awe in Beichuan Huili towards the strange, but now it seemed to have had the opposite effect.

She wasn’t much different from those youths seeking thrills, becoming even more excited upon hearing that such unknown entities existed in the world.

Beichuan Si could even detect a hint of ’chuunibyou’ from her tone.

Watching her excited and admiring attitude left Beichuan Si expressionless, and later when he used a wooden ruler to hit her palms, he put a bit more force into it.

Take that for liking strangeness! Take that for liking the supernatural!

Beichuan Si truly loved with intensity and disciplined with depth, hitting Beichuan Huili until she was nearly in tears.

But once it was almost over, Beichuan Si felt as if he might have been too harsh, and with a frown, he disdainfully used his dead spirit healing to restore her swollen palms back to their original state.

Then—

Then Beichuan Huili admired him even more.

"..." Beichuan Si.

Feeling Beichuan Huili’s pure and clear gaze, Beichuan Si’s expressionless face clouded over with a shade of gloom.

He was now contemplating whether he should give Beichuan Huili another beating for good measure.