Just why did she suddenly ask such a high-complexity question!?

A stream of forceful comments ran through Seiji's mind after he processed what he had heard.

What was a ‘trap?’ He could answer it in many different ways, but it was easy for it to be misconstrued as "a pervert who enjoyed wearing female clothes." This was a misunderstanding that Seiji didn’t want at all.

It definitely wasn’t because he had a junior that was a trap or anything! It was because as an otaku, he didn’t want anyone to have a cultural misunderstanding about a 2-D element!

So, how should he explain it?

Before that…

"Shuho-san, why did you think of this question? How did you learn about this word ‘trap’ which refers to boys?"

"It caught my attention on television."

Okay, now he knew the source. It was most likely from some sort of variety program.

Seiji rubbed his chin as he formulated a response.

"A ‘trap’ is a boy who’s very cute on the outside, to the point where he looks like a girl… that’s the simplest explanation. And in the 2-D world… light novels, mangas, animes, and so on, this word has a deeper meaning. It's not necessary for you to know all the deeper meanings; it’s fine if you just know the basic definition."

Yep, that was a good explanation.

It was simple yet left some parts unexplained.

Hitaka blinked in curiosity.

"A boy that’s cute enough to resemble a girl… then should I treat a ‘trap’ as a boy or as a girl?"

Excellent question!

It was such a good question that Seiji didn’t know how to answer!

Seiji’s cheek began twitching slightly.

Treat a trap as a boy? That didn’t seem quite right. As a girl? That didn’t seem correct either! As a transgender? That was even farther off the mark!!

Transgender and traps were two different things entirely! They shouldn’t have any relation to each other!!

Just how was he supposed to teach a female cla.s.smate about traps when she lacked knowledge about boys and girls in the first place!? He really wanted to go on the internet and ask for help regarding this question!!

Seiji never antic.i.p.ated such a difficult question.

It was impossible for the current Hitaka to truly understand the charisma of a trap, so he had to choose one of the three above answers.

"You should treat traps as boys!" Seiji answered decisively as an indescibable light flashed through his eyes.

Yep, traps were still boys in the end. Biologically speaking, it wasn’t possible for them to get pregnant or have children!

"Oh…" Hitaka nodded in apparent understanding.

So he managed to somehow get past the first question, phew.

Seiji felt as if he could now empathize with what a new teacher would feel on the first day of cla.s.s.

Teaching her didn’t seem quite as relaxing as he had hoped for.

"Shuho-san, if you don’t have any other questions to ask, let me teach you about the clothes you wear first…"

The special one-on-one cla.s.s for the red-haired girl began on this note.

Dinnertime.

Seiji brought a tray of food to s.h.i.+ka’s room.

She was already waiting for him.

After he placed the tray on the table, the two of them sat down and began eating.

Seiji started the conversation. "s.h.i.+ka-chan, did you write anything today?"

s.h.i.+ka nodded with a faint smile on her face.

Seiji's eyes shone brightly. "Show me in a bit… no, just tell me about it right now!" 

s.h.i.+ka’s face turned slightly red upon hearing this.

The literature-loving girl wasn’t all that adept at verbal communication.

"Just briefly explain the plot, the characters, and so on." Seiji was eager to hear what she'd wrote.

s.h.i.+ka blinked as she prepared herself. "What I thought of was…" She slowly began to describe her story.

Seiji continued eating as he listened. Naturally, the rate at which he ate at slowed down.

s.h.i.+ka had made use of his idea and was using the "younger adopted sister" as the narrator to talk about the "older adopted brother" as the main character.

Compared to his ideas which had been rather general, s.h.i.+ka added many details to the characters, such as specific physical appearances, personalities, commonly used battle equipment, weapons, favorite lines to say, actions, and so on…

Seiji was able to clearly envision the lively figure of this "older adopted brother" from these details and felt the urge to start writing immediately.

The story seemed nice as well.

The main plot point of the story were the "Wis.h.i.+ng Candy."

A mysterious candy known as "Wis.h.i.+ng Candy" appeared in the school that the main characters attended. As long as a person made a wish while eating the candy, that wish was likely to come true.

The wishes made about love were significantly more likely to come true.

As a girl, the "younger sister" character had hopes and dreams about this candy, but her "older brother" suspected the veracity of this candy, causing the "younger sister" to become slightly angry at him.

In order to prove things to her "older brother," the "younger sister" attempted to obtain a "Wis.h.i.+ng Candy," but soon enough, she ran into a dead end. Not only that, she was also hara.s.sed by some hoodlums; however, they were all defeated by her "older brother" when he arrived just in the nick of time.

This was the first time her "older brother" had ever showed off his moves. From the viewpoint of the "younger sister" character, the "older brother" who was the real main character showed off his charismatic coolness and strength for the first time.

The two of them made up with each other regarding their silly verbal fight and began investigating together. They began to discover that the "Wis.h.i.+ng Candy" was rather strange, abnormal even.

During this time, the two adopted siblings’ backgrounds were slowly revealed as well and the readers were familiarized with their daily life, but there were a few details left unrevealed by s.h.i.+ka on purpose.

The "siblings" investigated the mysterious candy, but they themselves had many questions surrounding their heritage. And so, mysteries everywhere set the framework for the unique and fantastical atmosphere of the story.

Their interactions with each other were comical and interesting. The "older brother’s" interactions with other female characters also seemed like a romantic comedy.

And then, at the climax of the story, the two of them finally discovered the truth behind the "Wis.h.i.+ng Candy," while encountering a dangerous situation at the same time.

The main villain was one of the female characters in the story.

The clues that she was the villain had been sprinkled and hidden in tiny details throughout the story, and at the climax, the "older brother" a.n.a.lyzed all the evidence and unveiled her true ident.i.ty.

This was followed by an exciting battle between the "older brother" and the unmasked villainess!

The "younger sister" remained on the sidelines for the entire time, acting as a camerawoman… whoops, narrator for this heart-pounding and stimulating battle.

Finally, the "older brother" defeated the demon in human form at the cost of losing half of his body.

However, the "younger sister" didn’t hurry to give him medical treatment as she merely waited in silence.

Moments later, her "older brother" who had been so seriously injured suddenly regenerated under the moonlight, and he finally stood up again with not a scratch on his body.

It turned out that he had an incredibly powerful demon spirit within him that wouldn’t allow him to die even if he wanted to.

On their way home, the "younger sister" kept joking with him about his immortal body, while he responded that it was all thanks to her—the terrifying demon spirit that was attached to his body was actually being suppressed by her.

The story ended there.

*Clap clap clap!*

Seiji began applauding.

s.h.i.+ka’s fictional story was definitely an appealing one, and she even left a mystery for the readers at the end.

This was a perfect application of his suggestions!

This was exactly the type of story that he had imagined. s.h.i.+ka had really managed to create such a story.

Her story wasn’t overly complex. It was easy to understand yet contained deeper mysteries within it. The most important part was the aura of mystery pervading the entire story.

Not only was the main plot and the characters’ backgrounds mysterious, even the interactions that seemed like simple comical or romantic elements were subtly strange once the reader looked back on them. It was like each character had their own dark secrets.

s.h.i.+ka was wonderfully successful at creating this air of mystery.

Seiji even felt like this was similar to the "Monogatari" anime series in his previous life, but he enjoyed s.h.i.+ka’s ideas even more, because he felt like this "older brother" main character was tras.h.i.+er than… whoops, so much more interesting than Araragi!

"s.h.i.+ka-chan, I think your ideas are excellent, and I want to write it for you right away!" Seiji smiled widely at s.h.i.+ka. "So, let’s go with this story. This product… our first cooperative work shall be this one!"

"Yep…"

s.h.i.+ka was also smiling happily.

Her eyes were sparkling and her cheeks were slightly flushed red. Her smiling face seemed to be oozing happiness.

"So, are we going with ‘I am a Younger Sister’ for the t.i.tle?" Seiji asked.

s.h.i.+ka shook her head. "Not that one; I've come up with a new one…"

She slowly stated the name she wanted for her novel—

"Brother Monogatari."