At this moment, Seiji received a message from on his cell phone.
When Seiji took a look, his gaze sharpened.
"I apologize, Amami-san, there's something sudden that's come up…"
He hurriedly left after saying goodbye to the Amami Family grandfather as well as saying a few words to Rion and Kotomi.
That was because Hana was the one who sent him the message!
He returned home, turned on his computer, then downloaded and installed an application as she requested.
While doing so, Seiji recalled how the conversation between Mika and old man Zhao went similarly. Old man Zhao had also sent over an application for Mika to download in order to talk to him.
He figured that this was a secretive method of communication between Spiritual Ability users.
After installing it, his entire computer screen turned black just like what happened before with Mika. Several seconds later, he saw a figure wearing a dark blue jacket, along with a cat-eared hat and a cute cat mask.
"Happy New Year, Brother."
"Happy New Year, Younger Sister."
The two of them exchanged glances. Then, Seiji broke out into laughter.
"What are you laughing for?" The cat-eared hat girl tilted her head slightly.
"Nothing… you look quite cute like this."
"…You even praise a girl who's wearing a mask. How shameless."
"What does this have anything to do with shamelessness? Cute is cute."
"Shut up! You shameless perverted familiar."
"I apologize, my job as your familiar has ended already. If you wish to continue the contract, please charge additional money for magical crystals."
"I'll take 10,000… no, wait! Charge money, the h.e.l.l!"
"I'll even give you a 20% discount for the New Year's activity~"
"I said I won't give you any money!"
"You can even enter a special drawing with a 100% chance of winning. The big prize is a totally unique New Year's specialty~"
"What's in it… no, wait! I definitely won't be fooled. It's probably just some cheap loot box or merchandise."
"It's a life-sized intelligent humanoid figure that's capable of moving and taking care of itself."
"That seems pretty nice… wait, isn't that just a real person!?"
They joked around with each other for a while.
"Let's stop joking around now. You know what it is that I want." Hana changed to a serious tone.
"Yeah." Seiji looked at her. "Then I shall start by telling you about when I first arrived in this world…"
Apart from the existence of his dating sim system and a few other parts that involved others' private affairs, Seiji told everything about his experiences as a reincarnator plus transmigrator to Hana.
The cat-eared hat girl didn't say a single word during the entire story. She merely listened attentively.
After Seiji finally finished his story, there was silence for quite a long while.
"It really sounds like some main character's story."
"Hm?"
"I'm starting to believe that you're a hero from another world now. That's because your experience is completely like the setting of a harem manga or anime." Hana sighed.
Seiji was rendered speechless.
"Although I don't want to admit it, it does indeed seem similar." He awkwardly scratched his face.
"You must be having a lot of fun, pervert."
"I think that there's not a single man who wouldn't have fun as the main character in a harem story."
"Disgusting!"
*Schtick!* Seiji took an arrow to his heart.
It was indescribable how painful it was to be called "disgusting" by his blood-related sister in this world.
"I apologize… I shouldn't have gotten carried away." He lowered his head with sincerity.
"Hmph…" The cat-eared hat girl made a complaint that sounded like a cat's.
Another several seconds of silence fell between them.
"Do you have no feelings of hatred toward our older sister whatsoever?" Hana asked him a serious question.
"Not at all," Seiji responded honestly.
"What about the desire to conquer her as part of your harem adventure?"
Seiji's cheeks twitched upon hearing this. 'Wasn't this joke supposed to be over?'
"No to that as well." He decided to respond anyways.
"Tsk, how lacking in will." The cat-eared girl made a condescending sound.
"Hey! Just what is it that you want from me?" Seiji felt like flipping the table now.
"I want you to defeat our older sister."
"…Eh?"
What did he hear just now? Seiji's expression froze over.
"Did you just say… defeat…"
"That's right, defeat our older sister—defeat Yui Haruta," Hana said in a heavy voice. "I would like for you to do that, Brother."
Seiji was rendered absolutely speechless.
"Why do you have such a strange expression? Isn't this something perfectly ordinary?"
'No, no, this isn't ordinary at all, okay!'
"You… why…"
"No particular reason. I just want to see such a scenario happen," the cat-eared girl stated lightly. "The exiled brother has truly changed himself for the better and finally received his older sister's recognition after working hard and returned to the family—this type of story is far too boring. A story about revenge is far more interesting, although it's cliché as well."
"Hey!"
"If you're able to do this, I'll forget about everything in the past."
"What?"
"All those disgusting things you did to me before… if you defeat our older sister, I'll treat it all as having never happened. No matter if you've truly changed for the better, or if you're actually a hero from another world, I'll treat you as my real older brother in the future."
Seiji widened his eyes in surprise.
He completely didn't know what was going on here. Why was she saying something like that? Why was he hearing all this?
He suddenly really wanted to be able to see her face which was covered by the cat mask in their video call. He wanted to see what type of expression she had right now.
"Just why exactly…"
"I already said that there's no particular reason." Hana paused for a second. "I know that what I'm requesting is extremely difficult. I don't need you to do it immediately, but I need you to work hard at this as your goal. If you promise to do this for me, I won't only sit idly by, I'll a.s.sist you. Basically, I'll become your ally. In summary, I want you to ally with me to deal with our older sister! Brother… Seiji Haruta, what's your answer?"
Conversation options appeared in front of him -
[A: No, unless you tell me why exactly, I won't consider it.]
[B: Alright, then. Since you're the one requesting me, I'll do my best with this as my goal.]
[C: No, I definitely won't do this!]
Seiji fell silent for a moment.
He guessed that there must have been some sort of conflict between Hana and Yui which must have caused this.
An argument between sisters…?
Hana was unwilling to tell him, so there was no way for him to know.
Defeating Yui Haruta… this would definitely be a difficult task. Besides, what exactly did the word "defeat" entail exactly? Beating her one on one, or partic.i.p.ating in a formal Yin-Yang Master duel against her involving both side's Spirit-branded Retainers?
There were various questions involved. However, he had to come up with an answer first for now.
Seiji wanted to choose option A, but he felt Hana's resolution from across the computer screen through the mask she was wearing and was unable to bring himself to choose this option.
He faintly felt like if he made a mistake with this conversation option, that some things would be irrecoverable.
He decided to first save a file at this conversation option.
After saving a file, Seiji thought over it for a long time after that before finally coming to a decision.
"Alright, then, since it's your request… I think that you must have some important reason." He looked directly at Hana's mask. "I believe in you… so just as you wished for, I shall work my hardest with defeating Yui as my goal."
Hana took a deep glance at her older brother's face through the mask she was wearing.
"You can't just try, you have to be absolutely resolute in your conviction that you can win," she said lightly. "Anyone half-hearted will never defeat our older sister."
"Even if you say that, it's difficult for me to stack up so much confidence right away." Seiji smiled wryly.
Hana fell silent for a moment.
"Then I'll give you some information to back up your motivation with: actually, our sister has already had your name stricken from the family records."
"Eh?"
"Haven't you ever found it strange why n.o.body from the Haruta Family has ever come looking for you after all this time? Logically speaking, even if you're exiled, there's still uses for you to us."
"This… I wouldn't know…"
"As long as you're still considered to be a member of the Haruta Family, no matter how depraved you get, it shouldn't have gotten to the point where you would have to live in a low-cla.s.s apartment," Hana stated. "The reason why the Haruta Family has completely ignored you is because our older sister had your name formally erased from the family records so that you're no longer considered part of the family."