“Big bro, let’s play a game!”
“Huh?”
Rachel suddenly proposed to Kent.
“What kind of game are we playing?”
“Fufufu. I just thought of something interesting. Am I a genius?”
Rachel said with full confidence.
“Here are the rules. We’ll take turns pinching this once each. Whoever makes a sound wins.”
Saying that, Rachel pinched Marie’s nipple that was in front of her.
“Mmmph.”
Marie was still sleeping, but her eyebrows turned into an inverted V-shape and her breath turned into a troubled sigh.
“Hmm, what a shame. It’s your turn next, big bro. Pinch the other open one, okay?”
Rachel half-forcibly involved Kent in this game that made no sense.
“I guess I have no choice. Sorry, Marie. Here goes!”
“Mmmph.”
Marie’s reaction was bigger than Rachel’s, but unfortunately, no sound came out from Marie.
“That was close. Okay, my turn. How about this one?”
“Ngh, mmmph.”
Marie’s breathing seemed to be getting faster and faster, but unfortunately, Marie did not make a sound.
“Not working? It’s your turn again, big bro.”
“Is this about the right amount of force?”
“Mmmph, huff, huff.”
It was Kent’s turn, so he tried pinching with a soft touch this time. Marie’s breathing became rougher, and she opened her mouth to breathe, but no sound came out.
“Close call, close call. I almost lost. Now it’s my turn!”
It was Rachel’s turn next, and she mimicked Kent’s movements with a soft touch. However, no sound came out, and the sibling’s contest continued for a while as they alternated offense and defense.
“We’re not reaching the goal, huh? How about this?”
“Mmmph. Huff, huff, mmmph, huff, huff.”
“You’re quite stubborn. It’s your turn next, big bro. Hey, big bro, are you feeling unwell? Your face is pale.”
Rachel noticed something was wrong with Kent and said.
“What? What are you pointing at so suddenly… Huh!”
Rachel’s face turned as pale as Kent’s. Kent was pointing at Marie’s face.
“What are you two doing on my chest while I was sleeping?”
Marie’s eyes were wide open, and she was looking at Kent and Rachel. A vein was throbbing on her temple, and she looked completely angry.
“W-w-we’re sorry~!”
Kent and Rachel prostrated themselves before Marie and apologized.
“Honestly, my chest is not a toy. If you do it again, I’ll do the same to you, Rachel.”
“Eh? So, big bro will pinch my nipples too? Imagining it makes me so excited.”
“Hey, hey.”
Even though they were supposed to be lectured by Marie, Rachel suddenly blushed and started fidgeting. Kent thought it was a joke and lightly patted Rachel’s head.
“This time, I was angry because you played with my chest without permission, but please tell me in advance if you want to play.”
” Huh?”
Marie seemed to be angry that they had left her out. Kent and Rachel thought they were being scolded for playing with Marie’s body, so they let out an involuntary cry at the unexpected outcome.
“Hmm. I think I drank a little too much. Are you two, Kent and Rachel, alright?”
Marie asked Kent and Rachel after tucking her exposed chest back into her clothes and tidying herself up.
“I might have a slight headache.”
“Me too.”
“I see. I see. In that case, I’ll prepare a light breakfast. It’s later than usual that we woke up, but could you two call Al and Hanako?”
“Understood.”
Kent had a slight headache, but he stood up and opened the door to the Japanese-style room to call Al and Hanako.
“Huh? They’re not here.”
Kent checked inside the room, but the two of them were nowhere to be found.
“Marie, it seems they’re not in the house?”
Rachel and I searched separately, but since it’s a small house, we quickly came to a conclusion.
“Oh, I wonder if they went out somewhere. That can’t be helped. Then I’ll prepare breakfast for the three of you. You two can relax.”
Saying that, Marie entered the kitchen.
“Big bro, let me see your terminal.”
“Huh? What are you planning to do?”
“I’m bored, so I thought I’d get a few digital video discs.”
“I see. By the way, it’s not digital video disc, it’s digital versatile disc.”
“Boo, big bro, you’re being so pedantic again! Anyway, I’ll borrow your terminal and fingers.”
Saying that, Rachel, who was sitting on Kent’s lap, placed the terminal on the kotatsu table and took Kent’s hand to operate it.
“As expected, there’s only old movies and anime. Most movies are in black and white.”
Kent’s terminal, like the music discs, mainly offers discs that were not officially sold but were manufactured and sold cheaply because their copyright protection period had expired. Therefore, many of them are in black and white rather than color. Fortunately, with anime, while there are black and white ones, many works were colorized at a very early stage, so the variety is relatively rich.
“I’m not interested in movies, so I’ll go with anime. For now, I think I’ll put in this whole series. Ah, this is a work that has been remade several times, right? Wow, it looked like this back then. Then I’ll add this one too!”
Using Kent’s fingers, Rachel ordered video discs one after another from the terminal, and a pile of acquired discs was created on the kotatsu.
“Can you watch all of them if you order this many?”
“We have three days, so I think it’s fine. If I can’t watch them, I’ll take them home and watch them by myself.”
Rachel replied without seeming to care about Kent’s worry.
“Then, let’s start with the first one right away.”
Rachel put a video disc into the player she had set up yesterday and pressed the play button. Then, old anime footage appeared on the monitor.
“It’s amazing how all the anime back then were hand-drawn. Ahaha, it’s surprisingly interesting!”
What Rachel was watching was anime made overseas a long time ago, which was amusing with its unique tempo. Rachel laughed while watching the screen.
“Thank you for waiting. I made zenzai for breakfast.”
“Marie, that’s an unusual choice. Oh, it has mochi too. It’s New Year’s, so I’d expect ozoni, but it looks similar, so it’s almost there.”
Marie placed the zenzai she had made on the kotatsu. Rachel said, looking surprised at the contents of the soup bowl.
“Not really. In some regions, zenzai is called azuki zoni and there’s a custom to eat it on New Year’s.”
“Is that so? So it’s a New Year’s related dish then?”
“That’s right.”
Kent said to Rachel.
“By the way, there are several theories about the origin of the name zenzai, but two theories are considered strong. One is that it comes from a famous monk who first ate it and said ‘Zen-zai’ to praise its taste, meaning wonderful. The other is that there is a time in a certain region when 8 million gods gather, and the ‘Jinzai Mochi’ served at that time became zenzai after the ‘Jinzai’ part was slurred.”
“Ah, here we go again with big bro’s useless trivia.”
When Kent started talking, Rachel looked exasperated and said, “Here we go again.”
“Kent, are there 8 million gods, not just one?”
“I think it depends on the religion and way of thinking, but according to the ideas of a certain religion, gods reside in each thing, and they are collectively called Yaoyorozu no Kami (eight million gods).”
“Gods for each thing? That’s an interesting way of thinking.”
Marie said, seemingly convinced, after listening to Kent answer her question.
“Anyway, big bro. Marie went to the trouble of making it, so let’s eat.”
“S-sorry.”
Told off by Rachel, Kent reflected and the three of them began to eat the zenzai.
