11 - Bet

"Well, is he here?!" An urgent feminine voice pierced the tranquility as the door to the Morii household swung open.

"Ah, Kanoko. Hiroki's upstairs if you want to see him," Kaede responded, her voice calm and steady amid the sizzle and chop in the kitchen where she was preparing a meal.

"Geez, that kid has had me worried sick... And Nao-chan, too. I'll definitely have words with her for cheating on my adorable Hiroki... right after I apologize for what he did," Kanoko declared, irritation and concern lacing her voice as she stepped inside and slammed the door behind her.

"Apologize? What did Hiroki do?" Kaede's voice rose in surprise.

"Yeah, I heard from a friend whose sister was there. Apparently..." Kanoko hesitated, "he slapped her until she bled when he discovered she was cheating."

"Oh my!" Kaede gasped, dropping her utensils as she turned to face Kanoko.

"He didn't tell you?" Kanoko pressed.

"No, he... he hasn't said a word since he woke up... Are you sure your source isn't mistaken? For Hiroki to hit a girl, let alone his girlfriend..." Kaede's voice was thick with disbelief.

"I know, it doesn't add up. I'll try to get the truth out of him later. No way he'd just hit her... Even if her cheating was utterly wrong," Kanoko reasoned, scratching her head.

"He did love Nao-chan, so he must've been deeply hurt..." Kaede murmured, her hand over her heart.

"You think?" Kanoko replied, her skepticism apparent.

Internally, Kanoko weighed her thoughts: 'I mean, Hiroki's cute and everything, but he's still too immature to distinguish love from ego. Typical for boys his age. I bet he was more upset that someone else got to her first, rather than the fact she cheated. Nao-chan's quite the hottie, and every boy's fantasy... But even so, I just can't see that Hiroki beating her until she bled... That's not like him,'

"I do think he needs a serious talk with his big sister... Whenever you're ready," Kaede suggested gently.

"Sure, sure..." Kanoko responded nonchalantly, her attention drifting as the aroma of the meal filled the air, while Kaede resumed her bustling in the kitchen.

"Whoa, it smells incredible. What's cooking?" Kanoko exclaimed, her nose delighting in the rich aromas wafting through the house.

"I thought I'd make Hiroki's favorite to celebrate his return home from the hospital. And..." Kaede began, her warm smile fading into a look of concern as her words trailed off.

"And...?" Kanoko pressed, tilting her head, her curiosity stirred by Kaede's hesitance.

"Just... be gentle when you see him, okay? He hasn't been himself lately. He's probably still in shock," Kaede explained, her voice laden with worry.

Kanoko's hands clenched into fists as images of Yuuto, bloodied and beaten, flashed through her mind. "That fucking scumbag. I heard Hiroki castrated and crippled the guy who did this to him. Turns out he's the one Nao cheated with. Good," she muttered through gritted teeth.

"Kanoko, we don't use that kind of language here. Just be thankful Hiroki is safe," Kaede admonished firmly.

"I am," Kanoko replied, taking a deep breath. "But I'm also relieved that bastard won't be able to mess with Hiroki anymore. When I first heard about it, I wanted to beat that fucker up and make him grovel myself... Guess there's no need for that now, huh?" she added, a hint of satisfaction in her voice.

"Kanoko, that's enough. Go upstairs and cool off. I don't want you seeing Hiroki like this," Kaede admonished.

Kanoko clicked her tongue in annoyance. "What's wrong with wanting the guy who hurt Hiroki dead? You're being ridiculous!" she yelled, her anger boiling over as she stormed upstairs.

Kaede fell silent, left alone with her thoughts. 'I've seen enough violence... That's all,' she grimaced, the image of Hiroki's bloodied form haunting her.

Minutes later, as the water cascaded over her in the shower, Kanoko found herself brooding. "That woman's just too much sometimes..."

'Still,' She opened her eyes, looking at the ceiling as her golden hair cascaded down to her nape.

'To slap a girl is one thing, but for Hiroki to castrate and cripple someone? Both of those things... It just doesn't add up. Something else must have happened. Hiroki's just too sweet to do things like that,' she pondered, her mind replaying the image of the transfer student one of her friends had sent her.

'Yeah, there's no way Hiroki could have overpowered him. I bet that guy...' she thought, swallowing hard.

'Could bench press both me and Nao-chan at the same time,' she mused, a surge of adrenaline sparking through her.

'There's no chance the gentle Hiroki did that to him. I'm going to find out the real story as soon as I get out of this shower,' she resolved, determined to uncover the truth.

Meanwhile, in Hiroki's(Yuuto's) room...

'...Ahh, first-year high school stuff. It's so easy it's boring,' Yuuto mused, flipping through Hiroki's textbooks.

'These books are pristine. He didn't touch them once, did he?' He observed, scrutinizing the untouched pages as he refreshed his memory on first-year high school math, jotting notes in a nearby empty notebook.

As he wrote, his knuckles twitched.

'Tsk, did I overdo it with the knuckle training?' He wondered, eyeing his rough, reddened knuckles that he had been conditioning by striking his bed.

[Conditioning knuckles by hitting soft surfaces like sand or a bed while the knuckles are extended helps prevent them from bending during a strike, roughens the skin, and fine-tunes the muscles for better technique.]

'I suppose until this heals, I should focus on static wall pushes. I need to understand this body better and feel how it throws a punch. My strikes were too shallow before,' he concluded, returning to his notes.

[A static wall push is a form of isometric training where you press your fist against a wall and push without moving your arm. This exercise strengthens the muscles involved in punching, improves alignment and punch mechanics, and helps identify which muscles are engaged during a punch, providing form and technique feedback without dynamic movement.]

Engrossed in his writing, the enticing aroma of cooking began to waft into his room.

Just then, his stomach grumbled.

'...Feeding time it is, then. It smells... good,' he thought, his reluctance evident.

He then rose from the chair with a sigh and left his room.

As Yuuto stepped out of his room, Kanoko, Hiroki's older sister, emerged from the bath. She was clad only in a semi-transparent tank top without a bra, revealing more than intended, and her underwear.

She noticed him immediately.

"Oh, Hiroki, I just ran the bath so the water's nice and hot right now if you want to go in before dinner," she offered casually.

'There he is... The adorable little Hiroki... Just by looking at him I know he couldn't have done all those things, especially not to him... Maybe I'll tease him a bit~,' she thought with a mischievous smirk.

Yuuto glanced at Kanoko without looking away.

'And then there's this slut. Walking out like she's on stage at a strip club. She sees her brother covered in bruises and bandages, storms off to confront his bully, then not fucking twenty minutes later, she's bowing and apologizing to his bully, covered with his condom. What a piece of shit,' Yuuto thought, his expression one of sheer disgust.

"No. I'll go in after dinner, once any germs you left there have had a chance to die off," Yuuto replied coldly, his gaze steady.

"Ahh, haha, what's the matter, are you embarrass—" she began with a soft chuckle, wrapping her arms around him.

'Wait, what?' she thought, suddenly realizing he had replied in a SLIGHTLY different way from what she expected.

'Calm down, Yuuto... She's still family... Just calm down,' he reminded himself,

"I said, I don't feel like it. Later," he replied bluntly as she pressed her body against his.

'Too close for comfort... I want to punch her so badly...' Yuuto thought, a slight twitch visible in his eye.

'Hey, hey, what's going on here...? Hiroki would normally freak out with this kind of closeness, all embarrassed... Mom was right, he's seriously shocked,' she realized, her eyes widening as she noted his usual reactions—embarrassment, a blush, a hint of desire—were completely absent.

'So, I need to step up my game if I'm going to snap him out of this...' she thought mischievously.

She pressed her body even closer, her face just inches from his.

'This will definitely get a rise out of him... He'll be so embarrassed he'll push me away and revert back to his normal, cute self...' she reasoned.

"Say... I heard Nao cheated on you... Poor thing... How about your sister cheers you up with a big... wet... kiss?" she teased provocatively.

'This lunatic really knows no bounds, huh? Sexual harassment, threatening sexual assault on her own brother? Got it. Luckily, I know exactly how to handle this creep,' Yuuto thought, his strategy clear.

"Sure," Yuuto replied flatly, his gaze steady and unblinking.

"Ahaha, oooh, you sure you don't want me to—" She began, her eyes widening in surprise as she processed his response.

"W-what...?" She stammered, taken aback.

"I said SURE. Go ahead, plant that wet, luscious kiss. Drill that tongue of yours down my throat." Yuuto stated with a deadpan expression.

Yuuto had figured her out; she was the type to back down from things she threatened to do. With this response, he calculated that she would retreat and not dare to cross this line again. Inside, Kanoko's face flushed a deep red, her heart racing with embarrassment.

'WHAT!!??!?!?!?' She thought, her thoughts in disarray.

She would definitely back off from this...

Definitely...