Ayaka: “Big Sis, what are you making?”
Manaka: “Fufu. What do you think I’m making?”
Ayaka: “I think it’s cake. Because it’s smells nice.”
Manaka: “Oh, so close. But well, I guess you are half-right……”
As she says it, her smiling figure is verrry pretty.
Big Sis Manaka.
It’s the same her that I saw on that morning, a few days ago, with her princess in a castle apron-like figure, see, she’s dancing and spinning around again for today too.
‘It’s just like that anime film that my Mum liked and got to show to Papa. a long time ago. Of a princess who dances as she sings.’
‘A beautiful person. It’s just like, I’m in that film.’
'My eyes are not my eyes, surely, they’re some sort of a camera that projects film.'
'They’re projecting my big sister.'
As I think along those lines, I totally space out.
Manaka: “What’s wrong, your eyes are so wide open? Your mouth is also open, Ayaka.”
Ayaka: “Eh?”
Her white fingertips, they were at a distance where I could and couldn’t touch her. But, I couldn’t touch them.
I’m just on verge though.
Ayaka: “It’s because you’re so pretty, Big Sis. You’re like a princess.”
Manaka: “That so?’
Ayaka: “Yeah.”
I really…...
…...think so.
Manaka: “Do I appear like a British princess to you?”
Ayaka: “British?”
Manak a: “Fufu. Yeah, but if I really did appear that way to you, then that makes me happy.”
Big Sis smiles, the same as she did on that morning a few days ago.
‘She’s sparkling. Like, she’s dazzling and glittering. It’s already evening, there’s no sunrise, and even though the setting sun is about to fall……. She’s twirling around the kitchen, while cooking meals so joyfully in her aproned figure.’
‘She’s sparkling.’
‘But, she’s perfectly moving her hands, so quickly, so adeptly…….’
‘She’s very skilful.’
‘She’s not holding a kitchen knife today, instead, she’s carrying various scales in her hands.’
‘I wonder what she’s making?’
‘If the cake part is half-correct, then what’s the remaining half?’
As I was about to ask that, I noticed my appearance. Again, I was carrying my Randsell backpack on my back, in addition, I hadn’t washed my hands yet. So, after I rush over to the washroom and place down my personal stand, I wash my hands with cold water, and rinse out my mouth too.
I place my backpack in the hallway.
Again, I head to the kitchen――――
Ayaka: “Big Sis, umm….”
I’m a little uncertain about whether I should ask her, “Can I help out too?” I stop at the entrance of the kitchen which I had entered just now, without hesitation.
Unlike my Big Sis who can do anything, I know that regardless of whether it’s magic, studies, being a housemaid――――or anything else at all, I normally rank further beneath her than that, so, it might be better for Big Sis Manaka to do it herself rather than to have me help her.
I believe it to be true.
Chew Chew.
As I did so, Big Sis kept turning towards my hands, and utters a single word.
Manaka: “Help. Will you help me?”
It was a soft voice. Though I had no way of knowing what kind of face Big Sis was making, because I couldn’t see her from over here. Surely, I think ‘She’s keeping a smile for me.’ Surely, she’ll give me that same face as before.
I had often imagined Big Sis’s smiling face which I hadn’t seen for a long time, like this, but I had no idea until the morning of that moment what it’d looked like.
I give a huge nod and utter a “Yep!”
Manaka: “Okay then, perhaps you can grab me that jar on the shelf over there for me?”
Ayaka: “U, umm”
Manaka: “The baking powder, ‘kay.”
Ayaka: “Ahh, oh. Got it, Big Sis.”
Manaka: “And now, please remove the eggs out of the refrigerator for me, okay. Oh, and please choose the two biggest ones for me.”
Ayaka: “O, okay.”
Manaka: “Hihii. Seems they’re not broken. Now, if can you straighten up the top of the table over there, we…….”
‘Could it be?
‘Yeah, even if it’s not it, maybe it is.’
‘It’s not just taking out the plates, this is the first time, today, that I’ve helped out with Big Sis’s cooking.’
Although Papa tells me, “Don’t touch the oven by yourself,” it’s a different story if I’m together with Big Sis, but, there’s not much of a chance of that happening yet.
'I――――It’s the first time I’m helping Big Sis. If I understand myself right, I feel a little bit too nervous. After all, Big Sis definitely doesn’t really need my help, so……'
Ayaka: “U, umm, eggs, wha, how many was it……”
Manaka: “Two. Don’t worry, we still have a few eggs left, so if by any chance, they break then they break, so everything’s a-okay!”
Ayaka: “O, okay.”
Manaka: “Besides, I’ve already prepared plenty of spares for them and all the other stuff too.”
Ayaka: “Kay….”
Manaka: “Hihii. Your voice, is shaking. Do you perhaps hate carrying eggs, Ayaka?”
Ayaka: “N, nah uh.”
I’m so slow.
I’m doing it, so, incredibly slow.
But, just by quickly looking at her, Big Sis Manaka isn’t particularly mad with me.
I knew I couldn’t see her face, but I still could hear her laugh.
Ayaka: “Here you go, here’s the eggs.”
Manaka: “Thanks. You made sure to carry them properly, you’re remarkable.”
Ayaka: “N, no, I’m not.”
To get something like this for just carrying some eggs, somehow, I seem a little pathetic.
Naturally I look down.
Ayaka: “Now the rest was……”
Manaka: “Speaking of eggs, hmm let’s see, Ayaka. Do you like, Sunny-Side Up eggs?”
Ayaka: “Um, y, yeah”
Manaka: “Sunny-Side Up? Or Turnover?”
Ayaka: “I prefer Sunny……
Suddenly, it came out of my mouth.
‘A lie――――’
‘No.’
‘It's not really, a lie.’
‘It’s not something to lie about.’
‘The ones I really like are Turnover eggs, but, I prefer the Sunny-Side Up eggs that my Papa and Big Sis, Manaka, make for me and since I haven’t thought that I’ve particularly hated them, it’s not a lie.’
‘I don’t hate them.’
‘I like them both.’
‘But, it’s now just a talk, about me unreasonably saying whether I like them or not.’
Manaka: “This time, I’ll make Turnover eggs too. It seems like a lot of people like Turnover eggs in England. I’ve made them before, but I’ll do a test run of it first, because they haven’t come out nicely yet.”
Ayaka: “O, okay.”
Manaka: “You’ll give it a try too, right.”
Ayaka: “Yeah.”
Manaka: “Hihii. It’s so tasty.”
As she said that. Big Sis showed me her smiling face again.
‘It’s such a pretty smile.’
‘It’s so glittering, like a flower that’s more beautiful than any of the other kinds of flowers that bloom in Garden.’
‘She’s not a phantasmal fairy, but more like a cute and noble fairy like the ones that appear in picture books.’
‘Besides, I knew it, she’s like a princess in a castle.’
Manaka: “Hihii.”
‘Huh?’
‘Big Sister, she’s the same as that morning, but she feels slightly off.’
‘But it’s not, a seemingly happy kind of feeling――――’
‘I wonder, if something good happened to her?’
I think so.
Tilting my neck, I slowly try to look up at Big Sis’s face from underneath her.
Straightaway, Big Sis returns my gaze with a “huh?”
Manaka: “Whaat?
Ayaka: “Ah, u, umm, you se….”
I've been totally hasty. So hasty, that she noticed me. I’m spacing out, I’m in a rush, and now I’ve becoming careless about my helping out. “Did something good happen to you,” just how many seconds did it take for me to come up with something like that?
Manaka: “Oh my, does it appear that way to you?
Ayaka: “Yep.”
Manak a: “It was nothing that special, not a good thing really, although…….”
As she touches her index finger to her lips, with a “hmm.” Even that one gesture is so pretty, and, wonderful.
Manaka: “You see, there’s this funny animal, who’s gotten quite attached to me.”
Ayaka: “An animal?”
Manaka: “Yes. An animal.”
Saying it, Big Sis smiles.
Without looking towards me.
She stares off to somewhere else, while I …...
For some reason――――Feel this, indescribable, terribly cold shiver run up my spine at this treasured possession.
I, utterly drop the items that I was holding in my hands.
Some of the eggs, broke.