Kaiwa mo shinai tsurekko no imouto ga, naganen issho ni baka yatte-kita Netoge no friend datta

Three days have passed since then and in no time, it was Saturday. By the way, I have been met Philia san in the game, the previous day and the day before that too.

“Kraken’s squid ink pasta……Come to think of it, I have never eaten squid ink before, have you Kries?”

“Nope, never. It looks a little too black. That’s why.”

“Don’t you think that at times like this you should feel adventurous?”

“And what if it becomes a wrong idea in doing so? ……Moreover, it costs 1280 yen”

“Ugh!”

Similarly, the contents of our conversations were all about Karoake Celery, mostly like “when I go to the Karaoke Celery, I would want to order this, and I would want to order that, but my budget is limited” etc.

It seemed we were looking forward to going there, both of us were excited to go.

I felt kind of glad to have gone forth and invite him. (Philia san)

“Fu a aa a~ fu”

I walked down the stairs, my hair still untidy, killing a yawn at the same time. Just then, I heard the front door slamming shut. Apparently, Hiyori went somewhere.

I open the refrigerator, taking my time to decide whether to drink barley tea or milk. After a great contemplation, I decided to pour milk into my cup and swallowed the entire milk at once.

I looked at the clock from the corner of my eye, the time was 8:55. On a normal holiday, I would have slept until almost noon, but it seems that I’m looking forward to going there, more than I thought.

Nevertheless, it seems Hiyori has gone out somewhere quite early today. In these past five years, we almost haven’t exchanged any words other than greeting each other.

Even though, I have now become her family, I don’t have any idea on what kind of friends or relationships she has. At times, Whenever I find her at school, she had an image of a quiet girl reading some book or novel.

She does not look like the kind of person who would fool around with others, but don’t tell me, it’s not like she doesn’t have any friends right? Did she go out to have some fun with friends?

Then suddenly I started to imagine Hiyori smiling and playing with her friends and for some unknown reason my chest started feeling heavy and convulted/(unsettling).

Keeping my empty cup in the sink, I washed my face as if trying to extinguish this unsettling feeling in my chest.

“Fu~u”

With a somewhat refreshed head, I change the ongoing thought in my mind. Today, I meet Philia san. If I had a sulking look on my face in front of her, nothing might go well about that.

The town of Hatsuseya is a typical regional city. There is a big city nearby and it has a strong image as a “Bed town”.

Despite the image, it has a large population residing with various commercial facilities such as shopping malls are lined up in front of the train station. Naturally it was crowded on a holiday.

The meeting place was under the station clock. Even in that area, the place was already crowded with people, coming and going out of it.

“Hmm, it does seem no resembling persons have come yet?”

I look down at my phone. It was 11:47. There was still some time left before the appointed time of 12:00.

Actually, we didn’t exchange our contact details. All we did was decide on the time, location and the landmark which will help us identify each other.

We made the mark of identifier as the key-holder of “Kussatsu goblin”.

A gallant awe-inspiring, green-skinned child of an Ogre tied up thoughtlessly by its fat eyebrows, dancing at the hands of the perpetrator.

It is the mascot character of the game with its distinct line as “Damn it, kill EM!”

[TL: Uwaaaa]

Philia san also loves this character incredibly, and so, she would usually rush into a group of enemies who she is about to kill, imitating the lines of this character, “Kill EM! Kreis-kimi be for my back-up!” Or so she would often say.

And so, it is the perfect hallmark for our meeting. When we both decided on it, we both laughed in front of the monitor’s screen thinking it to be just like us.

I tried to forcibly attach it to the smartphone case, but it does stands out because of its size. Naturally, I was the only one around here who wore such a thing. It’s a little bad looking, but Philia san would probably laugh and find me out.

“……~A…… no”

“Un?”

I heard a cute voice resembling a tinkling bell.

As I face to look befuddled by the occurring events, I see a petite girl who doesn’t look familiar.

Due to being under the shadows, she appeared to be enveloped in a slightly blue sunlight, with a hair looking wet and lustrous and a face having some glimpses of innocence still hiding somewhere within it.

A cherry-coloured dress with a high waist and a white cardigan made her look prim and proper with an attribute of quiet demeanour attaching to her. She was such a beauty, that one would involuntarily take a second peek at her unconsciously.

With her big eyes shaking, she was pointing her finger towards that “kussatsu goblin” attached to my smartphone case.

[TL: Kussatsu probably is Indomitable, please say if you think otherwise: くっ殺ゴブリン]

“Um, is that …… Kreis …… you?”

“U! Ah, yeah, I am …… are you then Philia… san?”

It was supposed to be the first time I had ever met this girl.

But even so, why does it seem to feel like I have met her before too.

Even though I understand it to be a bad thing, I somehow couldn’t help but stare at her all the more.

Perhaps feeling embarrassed of how I was staring at her, Philia san somehow looks away.

Unlike her cute appearance, I could somehow feel the gap between her usual attitude and confidence, and then I again come to think that I have some recollection of her previously ― No wait, don’t tell me.. this girl is ……

“Hiyori, is it perhaps you……?”

*kokun

As usually, she inclines her face and looks down.

“……. It’s Philia.”

And unlike she usually would, she responds to my question with a voice so soft that it resembled a mosquito’s cry.