The bright rays of the sun illuminate the inside of a certain young lady's room in a condo in Tokyo. The sunshine seeping through one of the room's windows fell gently upon the face of a beautiful black-haired young woman, creating a picturesque scene. Any artist would suddenly find themselves struck by inspiration the moment their eyes fell on it, even though said beauty was only wearing an extremely baggy shirt and panties at the moment.

Nevertheless, as time passed, the sun's rays grew in intensity. Eventually, they managed to rouse the beauty awake.

"Ugh..."

'Fuck, why is the sun so bright...?' Kyouka complained inwardly as her face twisted into a grimace.

She had been researching something all day yesterday; she had even turned off all communication so she could focus. Before she knew it, it was almost midnight and she was dead tired, so she decided to take a short nap after getting something to eat. From experience, she knew that she wouldn't be as productive if she forced herself to work in that state.

After she ate some light snacks, she set an alarm for 12:30 am, then promptly fell asleep. The sun shining on her face was certainly quite an annoyance, interrupting her short rest.

'Hm... the sun?' While still battling with her drowsiness, Kyouka noticed an abnormality in the situation. Then she bolted upright in realization.

"The sun!?" Kyouka exclaimed. She hastily looked for her phone and checked the time on it. It was 10:51 am. "Huh!? But I just closed my eyes for a bit! Why is it almost 11 am already!?"

Kyouka had every intention to take a short nap. And by short, she definitely did not mean a nap that lasted for eleven hours.

"Why didn't my alarm go off!?" She checked her phone's alarm settings to find that instead of 12:30 am, she had set an alarm for 12:30 pm instead.

Kyouka slapped her forehead. She must have set it wrong due to extreme fatigue.

"Fuuuuck!" Kyouka swore loudly. Since she had an image to maintain, she normally didn't throw profanities around in public. After all, she couldn't seduce girls if they thought she was crass, but since the room was soundproofed well and nobody was around, she didn't care.

She could freely swear like the sailor that she was.

After opening her laptop and checking something on it, she threw her hands up in the air... only to start furiously typing on the laptop while shouting angrily, "It's a mess! Everybody's raging in the comments... ugh. People are even asking if I died... Like hell I did! It's just a few hours delayed, why are you idiots already preparing funeral rites!?"

After a while, she calmed down. She then remembered that she had shut off communication with her subordinates — the ones that kept an eye on her big brother's condition.

That wasn't good. What if something happened to her big brother? She wouldn't be informed!

Kyouka hastily turned off airplane mode on her phone and called someone, it didn't even get the chance to ring since the call was answered right away, as if the person on the other side had been waiting for the call all day.

"Young miss, you finally answered!" The other person on the phone shouted. It was Seito, one of the Kagami Family's butlers, the person who was in charge of managing the personnel under her payroll.

'My ears...'

Kyouka momentarily wanted to berate Seito for wailing on the phone like that, but she noticed the urgency in his voice. She feared for the worst.

Did something really happen to her big brother!?

"What is it!?" Kyouka hysterically screamed at the phone.

"The young master! He woke up!…also young miss, you shouldn't talk on the phone so loudly. My ears..."

Kyouka ignored the latter half of what Seito was saying. Her big brother really woke up!?

"I-is it really true? Who told you he woke up?"

"I saw him myself, young miss," Seito answered.

"Oh, okay. I didn't know you visited him. Did you always do that?" Kyouka sighed, relieved that nothing bad happened and even happy that her big brother had awakened. After she freshened up a bit, she would go to him immediately.

Those bastards online, who kept pestering her, could wait for a bit more.

"Hm?... No? I don't really visit the young master often. The last time I visited was a few years ago, during his eighteenth birthday. And that was because you dragged me along with you to carry all those presents..." Seito replied, taking the opportunity to complain.

"Huh? then what do you mean you saw him yourself? Did you video-call him or something? Also, stop complaining, aren't you paid quite well?" Kyouka said impatiently. She didn't like how this insolent butler was delaying things by being like this. If it wasn't because she had grown somewhat attached to him after so long, she would have fired him already.

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"Well, I do indeed get paid quite well. Oh, I didn't see him in a video call or anything, rather I saw him in person. He came over here to the manor yesterday." Seito replied casually.

"...W-w-what. Huh?" She stammered, stunned.

'If he just woke up from a coma, shouldn't he be suffering from a bunch of side effects right now?'

"What did he do there?" Kyouka asked after she snapped out of it.

"Hmm. I believe he talked to Master Koutarou about something. Oh! He also walked around the Manor's grounds and chatted with a few of the servants he was close to," Seito answered.

"H-h-he walked...?" Her eyes widened as she covered her mouth in shock.

"Yes. He walked around," The butler confirmed.

"But what do you mean he walked around...?" Kyouka managed to ask, despite how utterly confused she was at the moment.

"Uh?... Uhm, I mean he put one foot in front of the other continuously..." Seito explained hesitantly. Why was the young miss asking what walking meant?

"I know what walking means! What I meant was, why was my big brother, who's supposed to be bedridden, able to walk around the manor's grounds!" Kyouka explained in a huff.

"Oh, that? Why wouldn't he be able to? The young master seems to have been cured of his illness after all," Seito said matter-of-factly.

"C-cured...? Eh?" Kyouka's brain was scrambled at this point. Her brother was cured?

"Yes, young miss, cured. It means that his illne—" Seito tried to explain, but was interrupted by Kyouka's angry bellow.

"I know what 'cured' means! You moron!"

"My ears..." Seito cradled his ears in pain. He felt extremely wronged at the moment. Why was he getting shouted at when all he did was try to answer his young miss's questions? He really had to ask for a raise.

He couldn't stand the injustice otherwise.

"If he was cured, why didn't you tell me that immediately?!" Kyouka demanded angrily. Seito had just kept talking nonsense, without telling her the most important fact first. She really wanted to strangle him to death right now.

"Eh? But I did tell you though?" Seito answered.

"Huh? When!?"

"Just now? Did I not tell you just now?" Seito once more answered matter-of-factly. His young miss was really off her game today. He usually respected her a bit since she was capable in all sorts of aspects, but today she was asking about obvious things and even forgetting things he had said literally only a few seconds ago.

'Maybe her mental health is degrading because of worrying about the young master all the time?' Seito thought inwardly. He pitied his young miss a little. He had to continue to serve her well in the future, so that he could ease her of her worries a little. 'I'm such a good butler. They'll definitely raise my salary at this rate.'

"..." Kyouka was so angry, that she went right around and became calm instead. "You're fired, Seito."

"...Huh? I don't think I caught that well, young miss. Maybe the phone reception there is quite bad? I thought you said I was fired...haha." Seito chuckled.

"You heard correctly. You're fired." Kyouka said, in her best impression of the matter-of-fact way of talking Seito used earlier. Then she ended the call and quickly blocked Seito's number.

Of course, Kyouka didn't really mean to fire the butler. She just thought that he needed to be taught a bit of a lesson.

It wasn't because he managed to royally piss her off or anything. Definitely not.

She then called one of the people she stationed to keep an eye on her big brother, confirming that Ken was indeed, cured. She also confirmed that he was still in the hospital.

She quickly wore the nearest pieces of clothing she could get her hands on — which were a pair of black sweatpants and a white hoodie. Although she didn't bother putting on makeup of any kind, she did make sure to fix her hair into a ponytail. It was her favorite hairstyle, and she had been doing this for years. Fixing her hair like that was almost a reflex at this point.

After she made sure that she at least looked like a proper human being, she bolted out of the room.

----------------------------------------

Kyouka was royally pissed.

On her way to the hospital, she suffered from a series of bad luck.

The condominium complex's elevator broke down, so she was stuck inside for hours. Then the car she was riding in broke down too. And when she rode a taxi instead, the slow-moving traffic delayed her even more.

She'd left at 11 am, but arrived at her destination at 5:30 pm! She should have gotten to the hospital by noon on a good day.

Kyouka was royally, royally pissed, indeed.

But that didn't matter now, because finally, she'd arrived!

After throwing money at the taxi driver — which was most likely many times more than what she had to pay for — she ran like the wind. Eventually, she reached the door to her brother's room, threw it open, and rushed inside.

The guards had naturally recognized her from far away and didn't stop her, although they had to check twice since Kyouka — who was normally very clean and pretty — looked quite haggard at the moment.

"BIG BRO—" Kyouka was just about to shout for her big brother but froze up once she saw that the room was full of kids. She scanned the room and quickly came to a conclusion.

Her big brother was not there.

"He's not here!" Kyouka exclaimed. While ignoring the sense of déjà vu, she quickly went outside and asked the guards where her big brother was. "Where is he!?"

"Young miss, the young master just left. He's to have dinner with researchers from the lab." One of the guards replied.

"Dammit..."

'I just missed him...' As Kyouka was pondering over the futility of life, she felt someone tug at her clothes from behind.

"It's a pretty lady~!"

"Wow"

"What's a pretty lady doing here? Is she gonna give us some snacks too? Just like Big bro Ken!"

Before Kyouka knew it, kids were swarming all around her.

"Wh-what's happening...?" Kyouka was confused and troubled. On one hand, she wondered why there were so many kids here, and on the other hand, she really wanted to go to where Ken was, but she couldn't really cuss out these kids and tell them to fuck off.

"Ah, actually young miss..." One of the guards promptly explained what Ken had been up to this afternoon.

"So that's it..." Kyouka nodded in understanding.

'While I was suffering, trying to get here as fast as I could, you were out and about playing with these kids?!'

Kyouka felt extremely wronged.

"Are you Kyouka? Big bro Ken told us a lot about you!" One of the children said. "I'm Akihiko, by the way!"

The boy, Akihiko, then puffed his chest out proudly, as if he believed his name was the absolute best.

'What's with this guy? He's fucking adorable.' Kyouka found the little boy amusing, and couldn't help the smile that crept up on her face. She extended her hand and stroked the boy's hair.

"Yep, I'm Kyouka, Ken's younger sister!" Kyouka proudly said, she also puffed her chest out, imitating Akihiko. "By the way... What'd he tell you about me?"

"Super pretty~!"

"Annoying."

"He said you had a nice voice!"

Kyouka was barraged with compliments, although she chose to ignore one of them. Hearing that her big brother was telling people good stuff about her made her feel pretty good.

"Play with us~!"

"Stay."

"Could you please play with us? It'd just be for a bit!"

"Eh? Ah... but I have to go to big brother..." Kyouka wanted to refuse. However, unlike Ken, who was somewhat used to dealing with younger kids, Kyouka didn't have any experience.

She was quickly cajoled.

"W-well, if it's only for a bit... But just for a bit okay? I have somewhere to go." Kyouka tried to say firmly.

"Yay~!"

"Happiness."

"Thank you! It won't take long!"

Little did she know, that even after hours of playing with them, she would not be able to leave.