Anime Girl's gun rose from on top the food court, aimed straight at Yukko's face, she fired. Squirt squirt. Twin trails of water arced and sparkled in the air, placing their landing delicately between Yukko's eyes.

Yukko reeled back. Her shut eyes and distressed face cramped up. Then, released. Her face wiped of amorous intent.

"Huh." Yukko yawned, her hand shielding her mouth. "For a moment there, it was like I was a character in a romance novel. Mote mote da~ Aw, oh well. Too tiring, way too tiring." Yukko trailed off, shifted towards the wall of the pool, sluggishly laying her body against it. Her eyelids lowered.

And so, my beating heart, which still won't stop, is frustrated. Does Yukko like me? I thought as much, despite charging out of the pool towards Anime Girl. Thoughts of a confession of love aside, this is more important. Anime Girl spoke english.

I ran up the food court wall, somersaulting onto the top of the building to confront the shooter. A water gun. Merely a spritz of water could halt Yukko's advance? How was that possible?

Anime Girl turned the gun to face me. Squirt. I dodged. There's no telling what's in that water.

"The question that's bothering you now, it must be... 'how could water change Yuyuko', right, Nee-san?"

"Sure, sure, sure." I lied. Nodding, I wanted to hear the answer.

"Sou nan da. That wasn't what you were thinking at all." Anime Girl pulled the gun to her chest, her long silver hair trailing out behind her as she approached. "Since our link severed, I can't read your thoughts at all. You are always so unpredictable, Nee-san. At first, I thought it might be because of Oto-san..." She trailed off. The gun disappeared into streams of light as she spread out her arms.

Her face is softened. Her arms are spread. This is a hug. I should... not avoid this. Normally, I should not avoid this. Anyone would want to be hugged by a pretty girl like this in a bikini. Except me. Except now. I dodged back.

"There's something off." It's not just my fear of affection! There's also, like, she downed Yukko's romantic capability. She flew in from the ceiling. The window above is broken, so there's glass shards around and I can't see them! And, I'm currently on a quest to unveil her secrets, it's, it's, those reasons.

So, yeah, the real, real reason why I didn't let her hug me had nothing to do with being uncomfortable with intimacy.

Anime Girl stopped. Tilting her head and crossing her arms, she supported her chin with a finger. "Could it be you didn't want to hug a girl?"

"But I am a girl!" Like that matters, I retorted myself before Anime Girl did.

"You say that, but, you've been holding onto your 100% manly soul this whole time. Despite dying as a human so long ago, your soul still has the information from your past life etched onto it's mana. You know, I figured out it's easy to 'edit' a soul?"

Anime Girl's stance changed to an open one, her dull silver eyes looking near my shoulder. She's doing this on purpose. A person who knew my every thought until recently. An existence with power and ability far beyond mine. That I created her only worried me more. And, how does she feel about me being here, where her seals are? She has to know why I'm here... right?

"Even though you've been with me from the beginning. I never learned to trust you."

"I told you about how I can edit souls and you're more interested in a conversation like this? There's a lot more I wanted to inform you about, the language barrier was too dangerous to break back then. I would have destroyed myself if I spoke in a forbidden way."

Anime Girl's steering the conversation towards magic. I want to know, and she's telling me useful information, so why am I worried? Oh. Because, trust. I pointed at Anime Girl.

"You came down here to stop me, didn't you. And so you squirted Yukko in the face to stop me from enjoying myself!"

"Stop you? Nee-san, you can't fool around with girls. Isn't that your common sense? Wouldn't you lose something precious, your ability to protect yourself from others becoming too important to you?"

"You're avoiding the real question, Anime Girl. The first seal of your spell is here. You're here to stop me from learning your secrets."

Anime Girl blanked. She has a blank face already, and the 'err' that escaped from her mouth made it even emptier. She's processing.

"Hai?"

"Yes, yes, hai. The first seal, of the seven seals of the [Anime Girl] spell."

"Yeah. I see now, as expected of your curiosity. You wanted to learn more about me, right? It's not like you could ask so... isn't it natural to want to go check for yourself? If you had come and told me, I would have guided you down to the bottom here myself."

She didn't understand why I'm bothered by it?

"But if I know about your seals, I can do... something."

Anime Girl's face became red. "You're planning on doing something to me? Impossible. My Nee-san would never do anything to me, even when I attacked her in her sleep... nevermind."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"You attacked me in my sleep?"

Anime Girl blushed. Looking down, she fiddled with her bikini bottom. See, this is bashfulness, innocence, this is what I was looking for, as expected of an anime girl. Wait, why would she attack me in my sleep? Lewdness. I narrowed my eyes.

"You are... your feelings toward me are that of 'love', yes?"

"So bold..."

I blanked. I expected, treachery. Betrayal. It sounds stupid to think to myself that Anime Girl would betray me, but my feelings have always been telling me otherwise. And there was Niji, too, so, I have reason to be afraid of 'them'. Then, Yukko?

"Why'd you shoot Yukko then? How'd you even know we were down here?"

"Ah, well, there are security cameras in the pool and I got a call from the guard stationed down here..."

What a boring reason.

"I hurried here because I saw you and Yuyuko in bathing suits which worried me, since I never thought you'd wear a girl's bathing suit or go to a pool with a girl— And, then, when I made my dynamic entry, Yukko was about to take your first kiss, and it really looked like

you weren't going to stop her..."

I wasn't going to. Too flustered at the time. Being honest, I wanted her to proceed. My armor got bypassed. But, it's strange. A water gun squirt?

"Then, why'd she go back to normal with a water gun squirt?"

Anime Girl raised a finger, brightening up. She likes to explain. It must have been harsh not being able to explain in english to me.

"I wanted to tell you for a long time, but, do you remember your theory about Anime Girl Physics?"

My body is cold. Is this sweat? Have I been cornered?

"T-that was just..."

"It's true."

"No. No I made it up, don't believe my lies."

"Richard Feynman."

"...what." Why is my Anime Girl mentioning the great physicist, Richard Feynman? This isekai, I swear. Don't tell me, don't tell me what I'm absolutely sure you're about to say!

"Richard Feynman's life inspired a graphic novel, so he's in the 2D realm as well. We became acquainted, as he studies physics of the 2D realm. I asked him for some advice about anime girls, and if their physics are different from regular 2D existences..."

My palm and forehead are meeting. "This is getting far too complex. You shot Yukko in the face with water because—"

"Well, you can't rush understanding, Nee-san. But, to keep it as simple as possible, I switched her 'genre'."

Anime Girl approached, her hand guiding behind my back. Warily, I let her turn me towards Yukko. See, she can't hurt you, she's just a magic spell you created. Her body is warm.

"Yuyuko would normally, in her story, never engage in anything lewd. Any expression of romantic intent isn't present in the source work. There's implications of affection, but the [Ecchi Line] hasn't been crossed."

Yukko baked in the water of the pool, content to leave the two of us chatting on top of the food court, I guess.

"Why are you saying it like it's a magic spell?"

"When you touched Yuyuko's breasts, you initiated the crossing of the [Ecchi Line]. Since she's already in a girl's love friendly series, you flipped a genre switch. From a slice of life where girls are earnestly pursuing their dreams with affection towards each other, towards outright romance."

"All by touching her breast?"

"Of course. Don't you remember how you felt when Ouji touched your breasts? Even though it was an accident, you lost control. Ouji crossed your [Ecchi Line]. In that case, if you were an anime girl with source material from a porn comic, it would have ended in sex."

"From touching my breasts?"

Anime Girl nodded. "Because the [Ecchi Line] would active the genre conventions. It's like, have you ever read a porn comic where the characters don't have sex?"

"That's the point of the porn comic..."

"Exactly. As a reader, you know the genre and events by what happens, but an Anime Girl is a character with established rules. You shifted Yuyuko's rules with your actions."

I processed the information. This seems, a little scary. I looked towards Anime Girl.

"Are you saying all I need to do to have Yukko activate yuri mode again is touch her breast?"

Anime Girl grew silent. Her look, do I sense disapproval?

"You wouldn't do that. That's, you wouldn't do that."

"You're worried I will, aren't you?"

Anime Girl looked down. "I'm very worried."

"I could do it to you as well..."

"Nee-san, that's a little..."

Yeah, she knows I'm not going to do it. Even though, I'm starting to think, I really should.

"Are... are Anime Girls, 'easy'?"

"Don't say it like that." Anime Girl retorted.

The words I said half broke my mind. Why wouldn't anime girls be easy? There's nothing to conquer in the first place. In fact, the whole point of the dating sim is to setup a realistic progression to the part where you enter into a intimate relationship with a girl. Otherwise, it would be porn. The romance plot in necessary to grow the feelings over time for the girl, but, usually, an anime character's resistance level is... weak. I glanced over at the floating Yuyuko. So defenseless. 0 Defense stat.

"I didn't want to say it like that, but I did anyways... it sort of just happened."

Both of us understand! Both of us on top of that food court knew! There is absolutely nothing preventing me from a relationship with these two girls right now! However!

"There is a final barrier!" I raised my hand to the sky. Defiance.

"What are you saying." Anime Girl followed my fist with her eyes.

"If I get away with thinking this is visual novel type plot, then, I don't have to progress the relationship between us at all!"

"But... why..."

"Because I'm afraid of what comes after a relationship starts! This way, I can remain in the state of anticipation before a relationship even begins! Forever!"

Anime Girl is shocked. She should know me better than anyone, and yet, she is shocked.

"Sasuga Nee-san. Even when I thought I could predict your next thought, it never turns out that way. I am always wrong somehow, always off in telling what you will think, or how you are going to act next. Now, with the link severed... you're fearsome."

I lowered my fist from the sky.

"Fearsome is a strong word."

"It is."

"You really feel that way?"

"In translation, a lot is lost, so..."

"On a scale of one to ten?"

"I'm about a four."

"Fear's at a four."

That's a good number. Though, scaring Anime Girl isn't exactly what I was planning on doing today.

I've resolved myself. Before, I left it up to chance whether I was going to enter a relationship with these girls or not, I even declared I'd create a Yuri Harem. Those days, they are gone. From now on, I will forge a new path...

"Why do you look like you're thinking something noble?"

"Because I am. This is The Way. For so long, I have sought the Yuri Harem, but alas, it is not for me. I was foolish." Such wisdom. Staggering.

Anime Girl showed me her palm, offering her advice. "Aren't you just escaping reality?"

"You're an anime girl! Don't say that!"

"My standards of 'real' are at a different setting," Anime Girl shook her head. "So, it doesn't count."

"Then, me too! My standards of 'real' are now different!"

"You can't change it so simply like that. You have your 100% manly soul. Which is why, I mentioned earlier, souls can be 'edited'..."

"Yeah yeah, sounds cool," and dangerous, very dangerous with life altering consequences.Soul-altering? Either way, I know talking more about magic isn't what I want to be doing right now. "I'm going to relax in the pool." I held out my hand to Anime Girl. "It's the swimsuit episode."

"This isn't an anime..." She took my hand anyways.