2.14: Selective Senses“Aika… Shinohara?” I blinked. “Who is she?”

  Rui didn’t answer.She only glowered.

  Full oni mode, full tension, her jaw clenched so tight I heard something creak.

  She looked like a chibi trying very hard to cospy a yakuza boss without the suit.

  Aika raised an eyebrow.“So you started making friends? I’m surprised, twerp.” Her arms remained crossed under her breasts. Breasts so magnificent that they seemed specifically engineered by Kami to torment Rui.

  “Friends?” Rui hissed as if Aika had just accused her of being a tax-paying adult. “You think I need friends?”

  I gaped. What does Rui think we are?!

  “Judging by how socially and physically stunted you were at age fifteen, I honestly didn’t expect it.” Aika smirked. “But congratutions, I guess. It’s kind of impressive. Like watching a goldfish learn mathematics.”

  Rui trembled with rage. Her expression sharpened further and she almost projected a dark aura.

  Natalia-sama leaned closer to Ume, whispering softly, “Oh my… they’re so hostile towards each other. Could it be…?”

  Ume nodded sagely. “Rui’s ‘useless’ sister.”

  Akuchi crossed her arms, puffing out her cheeks. “They hiss at each other more than cats fighting over a restaurant dumpster.”

  Rui exploded. “They’re not my friends,” she snapped, lifting her chin high. “They’re all my LOVERS, you pathetic virgin!”

  I blushed incandescently. So that’s her angle…

  She ughed behind her hand with all the smugness of a st boss viliness.

  Ume, delighted, leaned in and kissed Rui, a soft, lingering little kiss that left a glossy print behind on her lips. Then she winked directly at Aika. Rui’s eyeshes batted and she lost herself in the kiss before she caught herself drifting.

  Aika didn’t blink.She didn’t flinch.She didn’t react at all.

  “Hmm?” Aika tilted her head. “Why are you making derpy faces at me, twerp? When are you pnning to introduce your pathetic imaginary harem?”

  Natalia-sama’s one showing tail slowly rose, confusion tingling through it. “Sumire-chan… I think that perhaps, against understanding she’s unable to see us. This is truly… unusual.”

  Akuchi walked backward, eyes wide. “Is she broken? Like she’s maybe completely spiritually unplugged?”

  Aika looked at Rui with an annoyed expression, tapping her fingers on her elbowpit.

  Ume pressed her palms to her cheeks. “How sad… My sexy gesture went totally to waste. And she can’t even see my warm grin… and what we do…~”

  Rui’s pride took the hit directly.

  “Derpy faces?! You’re derpy, baka! I’ll have you know,” Rui snapped, “that my harem is EXTREMELY real! And extremely gorgeous, every one of them!” She reached over and snatched my arm possessively. “And the one that matters most is right here! Don’t pretend that you can’t see her!”

  My face caught fire.Her death grip on my arm kind of hurt.“Ow—ow—Rui—my arm—!”

  But Aika only slow-cpped.

  “Good job, Rui. An imaginary ‘gorgeous’ harem. But one very hot girlfriend… Proud of you.” She squinted at me. “But seriously. Who are you, exactly?”

  Rui squeezed my arm tighter, giving me a very loud silent command.

  Say NOTHING.

  Rui muttered under her breath. “I forgot just how blind you are, Aika!”

  Aika scoffed. “Blind? Me? I’m better at everything than you. You know full well that my eyesight is 20/20.”

  “Really?” Rui snapped. “I can see a totally hot yōkai harem and YOU can’t! Who’s blind here?”

  I choked. “Rui… you’re just escating—”

  “I DON’T CARE!” Rui cut over me, standing on her toes to raise my arm higher, which still only reached my shoulder height. “As I said, THIS girl is the most important member of my harem!”

  “She’s a…?” Aika blinked at me. “Seriously?”

  Rui nodded, crossing her arms in victory, smirking. “You finally get it.”

  Aika’s eyes widened with sparkly triumph. “Then that means—HA! I’ve done it! I can finally see yōkai !” She crossed the floor to us and peered into my face curiously. “So tell me—what kind of yōkai are you?”

  I blushed. “But I’m not—”

  “OUCH!”

  Rui stomped directly on my foot.

  I yelped, hopping in one pce. “ONIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!”

  Aika gasped. “You’re an oni?! Like—an actual oni?! The horned, muscur demons with loincloths and giant clubs?!”

  My foot throbbed painfully. I gred at Rui wanting to throw her into the nearest wall facefirst for a moment. No… I’m not Reiko or an oni like Rui.

  I scowled down at the small gremlin responsible for half of all my trauma.

  Rui bristled. “She’s—”

  “Where’s your tiger-skin underwear?” Aika demanded, ignoring Rui. “Are you shapeshifted to look totally human? You must be! It’s oni love deception, right?”

  My soul left my body.

  Oni love? What is she thinking about?

  “A-A-A-Anyway as I was saying—”

  Rui stomped on my other foot.

  “OWWW! ONIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!”

  Aika csped her hands, totally enchanted. “Do oni usually have a speech tick? Ending every sentence with ‘oni’? That’s SO adorable!”

  Hearts literally sparkled in her eyes.

  Natalia-sama whispered, “Ah… she genuinely thinks that Sumire-chan is an oni now.”

  Ume csped her hands. “That’s… actually kind of cute too! I wonder what she’d do to Sumire-chan.~”

  I kind of wondered too. Those eyes weren’t normal. It was like how Rui looked when she buried her face in my breasts on the toilet.

  Akuchi twitched, finally snapping.

  She turned into a floating bucket of water.

  “I’ll fix these delusions of hers RIGHT now! Time to cool off, girlie! Stay away from my mistress! MINE!”

  She flipped herself upside-down and water gushed out—

  —And all the water passed straight through Aika.

  Aika didn’t even blink.

  She was untouched, not even her clothes got wet.

  But the floor was soaked. It didn’t have any problems with accepting Akuchi’s existence.

  Akuchi stared at the puddle that she’d created under Aika’s feet, horrified. “Why didn’t it WORK!? Is she some kind of a ghost?! A MASS DELUSION?!”

  Ume leaned down. “She’s… actually really really dry. Her hair didn’t even dampen. Fascinating…~”

  Natalia-sama narrowed her eyes. “This isn’t normal. Even spiritually dormant humans react physically to us. We’re fully solid… or should be.”

  Aika, completely oblivious, stepped lightly through the puddle without creating a single ripple.

  “Anyway!” Aika tched onto my arm with a startling strength, pulling my arm between her magnificent breasts. “Let’s be partners! Spiritual detectives are supposed to have a yōkai sidekick… and I’ve FINALLY FOUND YOU!”

  I gasped and turned beet red.

  It was half because she was holding my arm between her breasts… SQUISH and half because both of my feet were pulsing like twin supernovas thanks to Rui.

  A wicked little part of me wanted to say yes purely out of spite.

  Her breasts were that impressive.

  Rui released a horrified shriek. “She’s my partner and MY girlfriend! You can’t have her! Back off, demon!” She ran forward and tackled Aika and while Aika shifted her bance, she kept ignoring Rui.

  “Who’s a demon? Let go of me you goblin.” Aika blinked down at her sister. “Why are you getting in my way, twerp? You have absolutely zero spiritual power, whereas I do. It’s obvious who gets to inherit SSDS. Your imaginary yōkai harems notwithstanding. I never believed that you could see them like Dad.”

  She ughed in full viliness mode… her breasts bouncing with every gesture as she kicked Rui off, finally letting go of my arm.

  Now that I’ve finally found my yōkai partner, nothing will stop me! I found something I needed to pass the detective exam next week.”

  “You’re taking the exam too?” Rui sputtered, shocked as she got up. “How did you even find out about that when you can’t see them?”

  “Why do you think?” Aika sniffed proudly. “Dad told me. I’m his successor. He expined everything… All about how the exam happens every year on Seven-Five-Three, November fifteenth. A day of great spiritual purity. The yōkai supposedly celebrate it differently than we do. That’s why the exam is held on that day.”

  Rui stared at her with a bnk, frozen expression.

  “What?” Aika grinned behind her fingers. “He didn’t tell you? Hahahaha! He knew you couldn’t follow in his footsteps… but I can. I have everything that you don’t.” Her breasts bounced.

  “Shut up. And keep your hands off my partner,” Rui grated, her voice cracking like ice.

  Aika leaned toward me conspiratorially, dropping her voice to a whisper she clearly thought was subtle. “Are you actually attached to her? She’s abusive and there’s absolutely nothing sexy about Rui. My sister’s a total midget, ft as a brick wall. If you keep letting her stomp all over you, you’ll be her sve for life. Let’s ditch the twerp.”

  “She’s mine!” Rui barked. “You’re not listening! She’s not a yōkai , idiot! You’re still blind to yōkai . There are three in this room as we speak. The rest of my harem. Your stupid block keeps them from showing themselves to you.”

  “That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Aika said ftly. “I have everything figured out.”

  Rui looked at me then… really looked… her expression shifting into a weirdly soft and vulnerable face, almost kittenish in its silent plea. It screamed, ‘please help me Sumire. Don’t just stand there and let her humiliate me.’

  I took a deep breath and rolled my eyes.

  …Ugh. Fine.

  She won. It was weirdly hard to say no to her, even if my toes were still numb from her attacks.

  I sighed. “As amusing as this is… I’m not a yōkai , Aika. And if Rui hadn’t just crushed both of my feet into paste, I would’ve told you myself that sooner. I’m Sumire. Sumire Shinohara.”

  I gred at them both… mostly from pain, partly from irritation… and it was hard not to take some of it out on Rui’s sister. From Aika’s superiority complex to Rui’s stamping on my feet and still expecting perfect loyalty…

  And what galled me most was that I was loyal to her.

  I was in love with her, no matter how much of an oni she acted.

  …

  …

  Aika backed off, standing in Akuchi’s puddle as Akuchi reformed and tried to tackle her and she passed cleanly through her, hitting the floor as though someone was insubstantial.

  “Shinohara? What’s going on here? Are you…”

  Aika squinted at me, then flicked her gaze to Rui for a moment, frowning.

  Rui smirked and gave the tiniest, most self-satisfied nod imaginable.

  “…one of our long-lost cousins?” Aika finished.

  …

  Ume burst into loud, delighted ughter.

  Natalia-sama giggled politely behind her fingers.

  Akuchi didn’t even try to hide it—she let out an explosive PFT that echoed off the office walls. “What a scatter brain!”

  Rui’s smirk shattered.

  Her whole face defted like a balloon losing its air pressure.

  Aika hesitated. “In that case,” Aika decred gravely, “you’re a pervert.” She was looking right at Rui.

  “EX–CUSE me?!” Rui screeched.

  “You’re so desperate,” Aika continued with the serene confidence of someone who had never been incorrect in her life, “that you would marry an unknown cousin because you can’t find a girlfriend. No! I refuse to permit such degeneracy! I must intervene! It can’t be allowed!”

  I nearly fell over.

  “Um… look… it’s not like we’re married or anything… and NO, I’m not your cousin. We… um…”My voice trailed off helplessly.My fingers fidgeted together of their own accord, twisting anxiously. Heat flooded my cheeks so fast I thought I might pass out on the spot.

  Ume immediately unched herself at me, snuggling her breasts up against my arm like a kitten ciming her territory. She nuzzled at my upper arm.That… did not help crify anything, but at least my morale skyrocketed. I had no idea what to do now.

  Rui exploded.

  “We ARE married, idiot!” she screamed, her voice ricocheting around the office like a tantrum grenade going off. “And she’s not my cousin! She took our surname! She’s Sumire Shinohara! Get a damn clue airhead!”

  Aika blinked, unimpressed.

  Rui stomped once, twice and the floorboards trembled.

  “She’s the TRUE successor to Dad’s legacy now! She has WAY more talent than either of us! She has actual spiritual power AND she can see yōkai ! On the 15th, Sumire will compete… AND she’ll beat your sorry ass so hard your head will spin—!!!”

  Relwing