Haru-Naru ♪♪♪ Love is a Comedy

Feeling refreshed after realizing that my troubles with Erza were a complete misunderstanding, I returned home, and went to return the laptop I had been always borrowing from my sister back to her. It was because I was facing the end-of-term exams soon, and I knew I had to focus. And laptops… Especially the internet… Would probably lead me to wasting way too much time and not studying. So, because I was aware how bad it would be for me to have this computer, I thought it would be wise to get rid of it before the sun rose. At least, I wanted to get rid of it for this period when time was precious. I'm being pretty responsible, aren't I? Furthermore, talking with Naruko also helped me out a lot with the Erza situation. So it was only reasonable that I would want to go and properly thank her for that.

Knock knock. I knocked on the door to Naruko's room. After waiting for a little while, the door opened a smidgen and Naruko peeked out, looking annoyed. "What?"

"Well… I finished the game so I thought I would give this back to you. And also… I have something I wanted to say… uhh… umm… Thank you." I gave my thanks for her advice the other day. "Because of you, I was able to make up with Erza. She also seemed to really like my present."

These were words I finally managed to spurt out through my blushing face after getting over my own terrible nervousness, but…

"Hmph. I see."

With those curt words, Naruko shut the door with a "bang."

What the hell?! I had given her my thanks sincerely, shouldn't she give me a bit longer of a response than that?! And of all things, she chose to slam the door. I can't believe this. My mood darkening, I began to harshly beat on the door.

"Hey, Naruko… didn't you hear me? I came to give you back these games!"

The door opened once again, and my sister's annoyed face appeared.

"Tch… you're so annoying. So… what? Did you clear the campaign?"

"Yeah I guess. Here, I'm giving you back the laptop."

"So that means that you can battle with me now."

Taking the notebook from me, Naruko's expression seemed to lighten. I had no idea what she was thinking.

"Yeah, eventually, we'll play each other but I have to study for tests, so let's just play after they're over."

"Studying for tests? What? You're still cramming this late for the tests?"

"Shut up. You might say that I'm still cramming, but the reality is that I haven't studied for them at all."

For some reason, it felt like someone was laughing at me, saying something like "Well isn't it nice that you've been playing eroge all this time even though you should have been studying for your exams!" But no. That's not it. Seriously, there's just been a lot on my mind recently, so I haven't been in the mood to study… Erza also hasn't been offering to study with me… and so I haven't been playing anything other than eroge. Ugh, even I knew that this way of thinking was pretty disgusting. It really wasn't a good excuse. Well… anyways! At the very least, I would start studying for the tests from today, so I would return the laptop and all the eroge back to Naruko! Naruko was also giving me just as much of a scornful look as she always did, but because I had progressed a good day ended without incident.

But the next day…

After I returned home from school, Naruko appeared at me, looking ferocious. She looked absolutely furious. Her face was bright red right up to her ears. But for some reason there were tears in her eyes.

"N-Naruko? W-what's wrong…? "

With intense anger, Naruko began to stutter. "D-D-Don't ask me… w-what's wrong! Y-Y-You… y-you…"

"Me? Huh…? What did I do to make you so angry…?"

Naruko began to yell with an even more terrifying voice. While teardrops flew from her eyes. "You used my laptop to look at porn, didn't you?!"

"Wha—" For a second, my face went completely white, but… "N-N-No I didn't! W-What the hell are you saying so suddenly?! Don't accuse me of weird things!"

Waving both my hands in front of me, I denied her accusation with all my might. But Naruko showed no signs of calming down. Rather, the minute I denied the charges, she got even more violently fired up. "Don't lie to me! I have proof!"

"Huh? What…? " I was sure I had erased all the sample images from the computer. There wasn't any reason any evidence should be left, right? I had definitely cleared out the recycle bin on the computer. Even though I'm a complete beginner when it comes to PCs, I at least knew how to do that much. But if I thought about it, if I had really gotten rid of all the evidence, there really wasn't any reason Naruko would be this mad.

"Y-You didn't clear the cache…! Don't try to play dumb!"

"…what's a cache?"

Upon hearing a word I wasn't familiar with, Naruko stared right at me, and began to explain while veins throbbed in her forehead. "In the browser… it's a place that records what sites you go to… what words you search for… That kind of information!"

"A-Ahh… that's the first time I've heard of that…"

What?! Dammit, was that really true? This must be how thieves feel like when they're cornered by the police with their high tech gadgets. As I desperately tried to avoid my sister's gaze, Naruko's voice became ominously quiet. "Eheh, ehehehe… ah, I was surprised. You know, I was trying to save some images of kitty nabe-pots, and I saw that there was still some image data in there… 'What could it be?' I wondered… so I took a look…"

Crap, this is the end for me… I could hear my sister's fury thundering in the background, and along with the most furious thunderclap, she yelled the following. "What. The. Hell. Are you showing me?! Aaaaaaghhhhhhhh you're the worst! I can't believe you! Hurry up and go die!"

"D-Don't cry! I'm sorry!"

"I'm not crying!" Swish . Naruko wiped her tears away with the back of her hand.

She really seemed shocked by all of this… I don't think she was this distressed even back when she was being ignored during the offline meeting… even though she dresses so suggestively, maybe she's just weak with this kind of stuff. What the hell. Isn't this weird at all? She plays so much eroge… was she angry because the images were of real people? Or maybe, that she could only stand little sister ero stuff? No, this wasn't the time to be thinking about this stuff. W-What should I do… well, it wasn't like I could do anything.

I began sweating profusely. Regret and self-loathing churned in my chest. Ugh… why is it that of all things, I would be standing here being accused by my sister of looking at porn site? I knew I was getting what I deserved, but… dammit… what has become of my life? I really want to just die right here.

Without hesitating, I fell to my knees and begged for forgiveness. "I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Naruko-sama."

"Definitely not!"

"W-What do I have to do… for you to forgive me…? "

"I already said I wouldn't forgive you, didn't I? I already said something like that before too."

That's certainly true. Having no other option, I decided to make a stand. Clicking my tongue loudly, I raised my head. "I mean, I already apologized properly to you… so do whatever you want. Call me whatever you want. Honestly, I only took a quick look at that site…"

"Uh huh. But don't you know? When you double-click the search engine window, all the words you've searched for up until now are shown. So I know all the words you did a search for! So, what the hell is up with this 'girl, mending relationship, what to say' stuff? No matter how many times you search, there's no way Google would give you anything useful for that, you know?!"

"S-Shut up!" As I blushed, Naruko faced me with a blush of her own on her cheeks for some odd reason.

"A-Also! That stuff about doing things 'while our hands cuffs.'"

"Sooooooooooooorry! It was my baaaaaaaaaaaaad!" Changing my attitude on a dime, I threw myself before my sister.

N-Not good! Those were definitely not words that fifteen year old girls should be saying!

Taking ragged breaths, Naruko suddenly became expressionless and murmured absent-mindedly, "From now on, I'm going to call you Mazo Hentai!"

"T-That's not funny! And also, don't you seem just a bit too familiar with all this stuff?!"

"I-I don't know that much about it!" Flushing completely red, Naruko shouted and seemed completely serious. Her eyes never wavered from mine… like Mom, she was a woman who would never go back on her word.

"Hey, are you really into that S&M stuff?"

"Please don't tease me like that! Seriously! I'll do anything!"

But, you know? What do you think happens when you give a high school guy a computer, and let him search the internet? Within a few hours, he would definitely be able to find what he's looking for! The ero world! Even if he doesn't try to search for it, while he's going around normal sites he'll naturally just be sucked in! This was unavoidable! There was nothing that could be done about it! Even if nobody teaches him how to do it, if it's a guy, he would be able to find this stuff as if it were an inborn instinct! So it's not my fault! There was no reason Naruko could hear these thoughts as they were being shouted in my head, but after I had told her I would do anything, she seemed to begin hatching a plan.

"Anything? Really?"

"I-If it's something I can do…!"

"I see. Then…" Naruko looked down at me while I was still prostrating before her, and made a proud declaration. "You, take responsibility for making me unhappy."

"Yes, what do you want me to do?"

"Well… this summer vacation… I'll be really busy with club activities … so I won't be able to have much fun. So…"

In summary, it was like this. Because of Naruko's performance in some prefectural track-and-field meets, she was invited to participate in a track-and-field training camp. The upcoming summer vacation… especially from mid-August onwards, Naruko will be very busy. She would be up to her neck in training camp and practices, and wouldn't have time to have fun. She even would have to take a break from modeling. But before that, before she wouldn't have any free time anymore, she wanted to make some fond summer memories. It's not like she said any of this to me directly, but this is what I guessed she wanted to say. I'm not sure why she was telling me all of this, but if she told me to help her with this, then I really had no choice but to obey. I'm her brother, so I should help… pretty admirable of me, right? But she really still hasn't told me what exactly she wants me to do.

"So… what do you want from me?"

"Like I said, take responsibility." Naruko quickly turned the other way.

Hey, you know, I've realized something lately. My interactions with my sister would often end up like this. It was extremely annoying, but when it came to this point, I would have to piece together what she wanted from me, make a guess, and then on top of that grant her wishes, or else she would get angry with me. But what made the situation more bothersome was that I wasn't in any position to tell her "How the hell should I know what I'm supposed to do, dumbass?!"

Looking up at Naruko from my position on the floor, I knit my eyebrows. What in the world does she want to make me do? Even if she tells me to "take responsibility for making her unhappy," it's not that easy… does she mean I should try to make her happy or something? I decided to somehow guess what my sister wanted, and my brain began turning.

"The mountains… or the beach… or the movies… do you want me to take you somewhere like that?"

"Huh? Why do I have to go on a date with you? That would be torture, it would embarrass me to death… if you think about it just a bit more, you should know, right? If I wanted to go to places like that, I would go with my best friend Juvia."

Well that was pretty harsh. Dammit, does she really think being with me is torture?

"Juvia?"

"Yes, the blue-haired, stylish girl who came over recently. That's Juvia. We've been in the same class since we entered high school, and we also often work together, so she's the one I talk to the most out of my friends at class."

When I mentioned her friend's name, Naruko began to sing her praises even though I had never asked. She had the same proud expression on her face as when she would talk about eroge… so that's how it was.

"You said you worked with her… so she's a model too?" Now that I think about it, Juvia had said something like that before.

"Unlike me though, Juvia is attached to a modeling agency. I helped her out a lot when she was doing her first job, and from there we got pretty close. And now, well, we're best friends… fufu."

Ahh… until now, I really haven't seen Naruko talk about any of her friends so candidly. I was certainly surprised, but at the same time it was quite a pleasant sight.

"I see. Best friends, huh?"

"Yeah. So you would never be able to take her place. It's ridiculous to even compare you two. Understand?"

"Yeah yeah… so what exactly do you want me to do then?"

"Why don't you think a bit harder? After all, there isn't exactly a long list of things you would be able to do for me." Leaving off with that statement, Naruko slammed the door shut, leaving me alone in the hallway.

This girl… she was never planning to actually tell me what she wants, was she? But given how she was acting, there was probably something she wanted to do this summer. However, she just didn't want to say it out loud… hm, I wonder what it could be.

For a little while, I stood in that place and thought about it… and then suddenly I hit my palm with my fist. I remembered that I had the phone number for someone that I could depend on in a situation like this. Taking out my cell phone, I stared at the two phone numbers I had recently entered into my phone. First, Naruko's classmate and best friend, the one we had just been talking about now, Amesaka Juvia. Next, Naruko's otaku friend, Mio. Well, which one should I call? Both of them were good-natured people, so whichever one I chose to call, I'm sure that they would help me think about what Naruko wanted. But, Naruko had already said it. The list of things that I could do for her wasn't very long. Well, that was true. It's not like I can really do anything important for her. So then…

"Hahaha. If that's the case, I'm glad. I really wanted to invite Orange-chan and Haruto-chan to the Summer Comiket."

"Summer Comiket? What's that?"

After a bit of thought, the one I chose to call was Mio. Mio was the leader of the otaku community, and might have some good ideas as to how to get Naruko to make some good memories for the summer… at least, that's what I thought. And I mean, when it came to what I could do for Naruko, this really was the only option, right? So, I don't think I was mistaken in giving Mio a call. And then, Mio listened to my question cheerfully and with an "I'm glad," told me about Summer Comiket.

"Ah, Comiket is…" According to Mio, Summer Comiket was a three-day international exhibition that happened in the middle of August. It was held in the Tokyo Big Sight convention center, and was a large-scale otaku event. It was a bit hard to imagine what it was like without actually seeing it though.

"I also hope that Orange-chan and Haruto-chan can create some fond memories this summer, so please come!"

If she puts it like that, there's no reason for me to say no. Well, she really is a pretty dependable person, isn't she? Even though I was asking only about Naruko, she just naturally tacked my name onto the list of "people to give fond memories to." Being able to meet Mio could have been a godsend, for me and for Naruko. In any case, I was thankful. I smiled wryly. "Well, can I ask you to take us there, then? I'll tell Naruko about this. Thanks a lot for your help, Mio-chan. Umm… can I ask you a few more questions? If we want to go to this event, can we go at any time during the three days? Our family has to go visit my father's grave during Obon festival, and so I don't think we'll be free on any day except Sunday…"

"Ahh, I see. If you can only go on the third day, that's perfectly fine. Well, I'll also go invite Ruby-chan now, so we'll settle on the particulars at a later day."