Chapter 285: Onii-chan, Imouto Can’t Find It!

“Sorry, Akiko.”

Himekoji didn’t know what to say. His mouth opened and closed, but this was the most meaningless, useless phrase he managed.

When he stayed quiet, it was alright. But the moment he spoke, it seemed to spark something in Akiko, who instantly burst into loud, wailing sobs. What had been quiet sniffles moments ago now became a torrent of tears.

No longer perched above him, Akiko threw herself into Himekoji’s arms, burying her face against his chest. Her hands clutched tightly at his clothes.

Tears poured like a waterfall, quickly soaking through the fabric. Chilling wetness spread across his chest.

He wanted to reach out, to hold her, but then remembered – his wrists were cuffed to the bedpost. He couldn’t even embrace her.

So words failed him.

Inside the damp, heavy air of the Hospital Room, words suddenly vanished between them. And Akiko, like a hatchling soaked in rain, huddled shivering in his arms.

…

When someone cries helplessly in your arms, it should make you feel like the most accomplished person alive.

At least, that’s what Himekoji used to think.

Wasn’t it proof that this person trusted and depended on you utterly?

But when the moment really came… he suddenly realized this feeling wasn’t good at all.

No. It wasn’t just not good. It was outright terrible!

He could do nothing except hate his own powerlessness.

His sister’s smile was beautiful, and he had made her cry.

What a failure of an older brother, utterly useless.

Ten minutes. Maybe that’s how they’d get through this, drowned in that crushing, suffocating atmosphere.

…

Ten minutes!

As if their thoughts connected, Akiko realized this at that exact moment.

No! There was important business unfinished!

The moment this thought struck her, she finally wiped her tears away and rallied her spirits.

They say girls are changeable, and sure enough, faced with serious business, Akiko immediately tossed her earlier hurt and upset aside.

“Onii-chan… Onii-chan has to make it up to me.”

She was still a little breathless from crying so hard.

“Alright.”

Guilt-stricken, Himekoji agreed instantly.

Right now, if she asked him to pull down the moon, he’d try without hesitation.

“Then we’ll finish what we started just now.”

Akiko spoke, pushing herself up with her hands braced against the hospital bed. Resettling herself back into a convenient riding position.

The knight had returned!

“Huh? Wha… What?! Wait! Not that! Anything but that!”

See? How’d it switch so fast?!

Himekoji just couldn’t keep up with his little sister’s leaps in logic.

One moment ago, wasn’t this a tear-jerking family drama? How had it mutated within mere seconds into this mess, full of awkward moments and suggestive undertones?

“Hmph! Today, whether Onii-chan is able or not, we’re doing it!”

Tear tracks still wet on her lovely face, Akiko looked heartbreakingly forlorn, like rain-drenched flowers. Yet her words were stubborn, playful, and demanding.

“Stop! Don’t! Anything else! I’ll agree to anything else! Just not this! Please! Really, not this!”

Every damn round, why did he feel like he was begging?

This had to be an illusion, right?

Himekoji felt so very, very helpless.

But Akiko, her mind made up, paid no heed to his pleas.

She intended to get this done today.

Every temptress waiting outside her door was a worthy rival. Claiming she wasn’t anxious would be fooling herself.

Attacking first was the only way to win!

No more hesitation now that she’d decided. Akiko hummed softly, raised her hips, found the spot, and —

Swung herself down!

“Huh?”

It was flat.

The expected bulge wasn’t there.

Wrong spot?

A tiny sound of surprise. Akiko lifted her fruitlessly positioned bottom. Tried again.

“Eh?”

Failed again!

Third try.

“Ha?”

Fourth failure.

“Ah-re?”

Fifth try.

“Where is it?!”

Akiko stared, stunned.

She’d looked it up beforehand! According to everything, this was the place!

She couldn’t help pulling out her phone again to search frantically.

“Between the thighs, under the lower abdomen. At the same position as where girls pee.”

Akiko looked down at where she was sitting. She grew even more confused.

“That’s exactly right!”

Muttering this, her little face scrunched up in utter puzzlement.

Eh, might as well ask Onii-chan directly.

Akiko turned to look at Himekoji. His face was flushed scarlet, a mix of embarrassment, annoyance, and humiliation.

Akiko felt a little awkward:

“Onii-chan… about that… I… I… I just can’t find it!”

Every single day, she boasted about eating her brother up, about having her way with him. Yet when it came to the most basic move, she tripped on the first step.

Even fearless, shameless Akiko felt mortified. That she’d lost face badly in front of her big brother.

Of course, she couldn’t know that the truly embarrassed one, the one whose face was truly burning in this moment… was actually him, Himekoji!

Himekoji felt like freaking dying!

For the love of—!

‘Can’t find it’?!

Can’t find what?!

She sat perfectly straight! Exactly on center! Perfectly aligned! Like ninety-degree right angles!

But…

Thanks to the lingering side effects of the previous System enhancement… it was just too severe. This led to Akiko feeling nothing beneath her even now.

‘Three days dysfunction’… the System wasn’t bluffing, after all.

Relieved on one hand that his innocence was still (temporarily) safe, Himekoji also burned with shame and impotent rage.

To think his once famously ‘twenty-centimeter terror’… had reached such an abject state…

At this thought, an unwelcome poem arose involuntarily —

“Himekoji Fool, her teasing hand…”

Pah! What time for poetry?!

He felt like crying, man!

“Onii-chan, why are you crying?”

Alright, so tears were indeed streaming down.

He simply couldn’t hold back. Hot, miserable tears of shame and anger spilled from the corners of Himekoji’s eyes.

“Eh?! Wait! Onii-chan… could it be… you’re… incapable?!?!”

Quick-witted Akiko instantly grasped the awful possibility.

She had just said, “whether Onii-chan is able or not, we’re doing it!” But the ‘unable’ she referred to hadn’t meant this type of incapability!

“Onii-chan! I’ll find a good old Chinese doctor! We’ll fix you! I promise!”

Eyes reddening again, fresh tears threatening, Akiko had just finished her own bout of crying moments earlier.

To think… oh, to think!

In that terrible accident… what Onii-chan lost… it wasn’t just his sight…

It was… it was… it was also…

His manhood!!

Hearing “old Chinese doctor,” Himekoji immediately knew exactly what Akiko was thinking.

He scrambled to speak, desperate to salvage even a shred of his tattered dignity:

“Akiko! It’s not like that! You misunderstand!”

“Onii-chan, don’t say another word! I know it’s hard to talk about! But… it’s alright! Don’t hide it from Akiko! Carrying this burden alone must be exhausting and humiliating! But Akiko will stay with you! Stay by your side until you… until you get better!”

Oh, fantastic!

His little sister now thought he was… broken.

Why? Why was this his life?!

Himekoji felt unbelievably, utterly drained in his very soul.