VOLUME 1

Chapter 17: A Sakura Blossoms Out of Season (1)

“Sasamisaaan~~.”

My brother was calling me.

As I dressed myself in the Konohana Sakuya Academy uniform, I used the black screen on custom-built desktop no. 13 as a mirror, checking that my hair looked alright.

The sarcoma, now suppressed with a spiritual charm, squirmed around restlessly in my chest, but I pinched it and shut it up.

Pinching it hurt me too, but whatever.

The sarcoma quieted down and shrunk, until it became almost invisible under the sticker-like spiritual charm.

Fully satisfied, I picked up my school bag with my shiny new textbooks and college-ruled notebooks inside, and opened the door to my room.

“Good morning, oniichan.”

“Good morning, Sasami-san.”

My brother was standing outside.

His tall, familiar form was clad in a crisp suit.

My brother had returned to the shrine but was kicked out by my father, and had returned to the house in low spirits.

He was a pathetic sight to behold, but he had no sense of shame, so although things were a bit awkward for a little while he had already returned to normal.

Also, to him, it also seemed to be uplifting that I had decided to go to school again. With sketchy, spring-like steps, he walked down the hallway.

We turned on the TV, and sat across from each other eating breakfast and engaging in pointless chitchat.

I tried to secretly pour the milk I didn’t like down the sink, but my brother saw me. “This is why your b.r.e.a.s.t.s are so small,” he dared to say to me. Ugh, someday I’ll definitely kill him.

I checked myself in the mirror again, brushed my teeth, and then went out of our house with my brother.

My brother straddled his bike, and I sat behind him on the bike’s luggage carrier.

“Sasami-san, it’s dangerous to ride together like this.”

“I haven’t walked around for a while, so my muscles are pretty week. So just think of it as a part of nursing me back to health, oniichan. Come on, hurry up and go.”

We set off, flying through this town of Amenonuboko.

I was afraid of falling off, so I resigned myself to wrapping my arms around my brother. I stared at the scenery as it streamed past us.

I no longer felt nauseous. I no longer was afraid. And the reason for that was simple.

There was something I had been really misunderstanding before.

I had mistakenly believed that I had pushed the power of the Supreme G.o.d onto my brother. And in truth, all the evidence pointed in that direction… so I don’t think anybody could really blame me for making that mistake.

But in the end, the power of the Supreme G.o.d still rested within me.

The person who was creating alterations in this world was me, and not my brother.

If I thought about it a bit, this was an obvious conclusion. If the power of the Supreme G.o.d really belonged to my brother, this world would have become a world that was most suitable for him.

If that were the case, the first victim of his alterations… would have been me.

My brother really loved me, so he would have unconsciously desired me, and then created an alteration to make me his.

Or maybe the laws would have suddenly changed so that brother-sister relationships were legal, or maybe all the girls in the world would suddenly have to wear maid uniforms… alterations that would make my brother happy would have happened.

My brother thought of me as something truly precious, so he wouldn’t have wanted to forcibly bond me to him. But the other G.o.ds would have gone off by themselves and tried to appease my brother.

Like what had happened in the Valentine’s Day Tragedy, all the G.o.ds would have gathered together and tried to alter me to the ideal woman for my brother in order to suck up to him.

But such a thing never happened.

After all, the power of the Supreme G.o.d still belonged to me, so I was able to fend off the attempts of those G.o.ds to meddle in my life. That sarcoma also couldn’t really make a move until it found a crack in my defenses when my psyche was separated from my body.

As long as I held onto my own sense of self and could use my spiritual energy to control my powers, the irregularities couldn’t touch me. Even if they tried something, they couldn’t use alterations to affect the Supreme G.o.d, so everything they did would get blocked, defended against, and I myself would not be harmed.

And because I was keeping my power in check (especially in my room where I had erected a spiritual barrier), I didn’t give rise to any alterations that benefited me.

I had trained day after day after day to make sure those alterations didn’t happen.

But, I had unconsciously wished for something.

I had wished for my brother to have a happy life.

I mean, I had dragged him out from home, got him mixed up in all of this, and even made him betray our family… at the very least, I didn’t want him to regret the decision he had made.

I also felt a sense of guilt.

So in order to make sure my brother could live happily, in order for that wish to be granted, I issued an order without even knowing it.

In response, the G.o.ds tried to make my brother’s wishes come true.

They tried to fulfill his every desire.

Sensing this, I mistook it for the power of the Supreme G.o.d having moved to my brother.

And without knowing the truth, my brother took my report as fact (that sarcoma is also a part of me, so it probably was also under the same mistaken impression as I was) and went back to our clan… but in reality, my brother really had no power within him.

Without being able to accomplish anything, he then returned, listened to me explain the situation, and finally understood what was going on.

After that, things were simple.

Because I had believed that the power of the Supreme G.o.d had moved to my brother, I couldn’t use the full extent of my powers, but now I could control them well.

The pain and nausea I would feel whenever I tried to leave my room was the result of evil G.o.ds and ent.i.ties like that trying to take advantage of me while I thought I had lost my powers.

Once I recovered and was able to control my powers, I easily kicked those evil G.o.ds away from me.

Now, I could walk outside with no problem.

I could live in a world bathed in glittering sunlight.

“Ah, Paparin Mamarin! Good morning!”

Tama gave us an energetic greeting as she walked along with her friends and her elementary schooler backpack.

Ever since we explained the truth to her, she had been calling me Mamarin… I’d really prefer it if she stopped that. It almost made it sound like I was married to my brother…

“Ehehe… riding together like that, that looks pretty nice. Let Tama ride with you next time too~~.”

She waved at us vigorously.

I waved back as we rode away from this innocent elementary schooler with a nice body.

“Funyaa…”

Kagami was walking along the same path we were on and seemed half asleep.

It seemed like she had gone a bit overboard in that chaos the other day, and after that she had fallen into a dead tired state, to the point where it was hard to tell if she was awake or asleep. She walked forwards unsteadily, almost as if she was sleepwalking.

“Good morning, Kagami-san.”

Hearing my brother’s greeting, Kagami raised her head up slightly.

“Please don’t call out to me so casually. If people saw I was friendly with a teacher they might get the wrong idea.”

What an uncute thing to say. Well, it was certainly a Kagami-like thing to say.

When we caught up to her, Konohana Sakuya Academy came into view.

Almost as if trying to please me, the barren, wire-like trees lining the road suddenly burst into sakura in full bloom, scattering pretty flower petals everywhere. Ugh, what a meaningless alteration… Looking up, I saw fireworks shoot up into the sky, and the other people on the road started applauding and pointlessly shouting “Congratulations! Congratulations!”

I wondered if I should scold all these G.o.ds who were doing stupid things and get them to stop… but whatever. I don’t care. If I worried about every little thing I’d just get tired.

This was a world in which countless G.o.ds made merry.

It was a chaotic world, filled with only strange, incomprehensible things.

But it was a world also filled with freedom and happiness.

“Oh, so you finally came to school.”

Tsurugi was standing in front of the school gate greeting the students, and gave me a full smile.

“Welcome to Konohana Sakuya Academy.”

She gave me a few kind words of welcome for my first day at school.

“And also… welcome home.”

Yes. I had returned home.

I had returned to the peaceful days that I had always wished and yearned for.

I returned the greeting as I walked past Tsurugi, and went to the bike racks alone with my brother.

“Oniichan.”

“What is it, Sasami-san?”

There were a lot of things I wanted to say.

Words of thanks, of apology… things I wanted to declare, things I wanted to confess… there was just so much.

“Nah, it’s nothing.”

But well… I could also say those things tomorrow.

“Well then, let’s try our best today too.”

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) There is a potential double meaning here – “a sakura blossoms” can be used idiomatically to mean that someone did well academically on an exam.