Outsider Syndrome: Everlasting (Bonus Content)

Chapter 1 - "Sisterly Fights"

Mao Kisaragi's POV:

I used to follow after Shiina everywhere she went, copied her every move, wanted to be like her. We grew up receiving 'equal' attention from Mom and Dad, but at some point that gap widened. Although we were family, we lived different lives. She was perfect through it all. So irrevocably perfect I even started to dislike her.

Shortly after Shiina met Rin, Mom and Mrs. Mizotaro signed the both of them up for vocal and dance lessons. Mom tried signing me up, too, but as soon as I gave it a try and was ridiculed for my "frog-like voice," I cursed the arts altogether.

When Dad started teaching Shiina how to play the guitar, he offered to teach me too. But as soon as I gave it a try and accidentally tore all the chords, I never picked one up again.

Shiina did. Everything she put her mind to, she gave it one hundred percent. No matter how often she stumbled and fell, she got back up. Again and again.

Naturally, the gap widened.

Naturally, I was left completely in her dust.

Even now, it was tough to say anything had really changed between us.

"Shiina has a boyfriend, doesn't she?"

"H—h—huh? No! Huh? No!"

In a flustered panic, she shoved her cell she'd been sillily glued to behind her back. Regardless, on the living room couch we were seated on, there was little space to retreat to. Her blush was immensely revealing as well.

I narrowed my eyes into slits.

She avoided eye-contact.

Aside from the TV program playing in the background, a skin-crawling quiet engulfed us.

Slumping her shoulders in defeat, Shiina swallowed, hard.

"Don't. . . tell Dad or Chie yet. It was recent."

The string of my witch hat dug into the underside of my chin—proof that my jaw had plunged beyond belief. I'd said it spontaneously, and never expected a genuine answer.

I wasn't supposed to get an answer.

Not one like this.

Heartbeat stalling, I yanked her arm.

"Mao requires further details. Spill."

"Details deemed unnecessary!"

"Is it Rin? One of those boys who visited our dwelling that day? Another mortal?"

Tongue-tied, beet red, she shook free. "It doesn't matter! Let's keep watching this show, all right?"

A ding! went off.

We glanced at her phone.

I yanked it out of her hand when she least expected it. Then booked it.

"Mao!"

She was on my heels in an instant, fuming and desperate. Quick on my toes, I evaded her advances. Nonetheless, she chased me all across the house, bumping into and dropping items left and right. Up and down stairs, in and out of rooms.

"Mao has put up a barrier to keep she-devils at least two metres from me. If Shiina enters her range, she shall be obliterated by the powers that be."

"Drop your nonsense!" She swiped for my arm. "Give it back!"

"Shiina's password is. . . Mom's birthday!"

"I'm strangling you if you look!"

"Weaklings don't frighten Mao one bit." While she stumbled into the bathroom, I petulantly stuck out my tongue. "Hmm? It didn't work? Let's see. If I can at least read his name—"