The Pet Girl of Sakurasou

Chapter 1: Part 4

"Sleeepy. I seriously might fall asleep right now."

As he thought pointless thoughts about how annoyed he was that spring break was already over, Sorata tried to pull his heavy body out of bed.

His sleep deprivation was Misaki's fault. In fact, everything was Misaki's fault. Global warming, the global stock market crisis, the rising prices for the yen , the retiring of all the Concorde jets and Blue Trains  ... Sorata believed that Misaki was behind it all. She definitely was.

Sorata hadn't gotten to bed until very late because of Mashiro's welcome party. Chihiro was still recovering from the shock of the mixer and locked herself in her room, and Akasaka Ryuunosuke also was holed in his room, so Sorata and Misaki, along with Jin, entertained Mashiro by themselves.

Surrounding the nabe that Jin had prepared, they listened as Misaki just talked on and on by herself, while Sorata tried to act as Mashiro's shield to protect her from harm. Mashiro didn't seem to mind Misaki's banter, but she also showed absolutely no reaction to Jin's tasteful attempts to make jokes, so Sorata honestly couldn't tell what she was really thinking.

There was certainly something strange about her, but at the base of it she was a pure and tranquil character. She would disappear the minute Sorata took his eyes off her... that impression of her was reinforced in Sorata's mind through these interactions. If he didn't protect her, then she wouldn't be able to survive here at Sakurasou. So Sorata vowed to himself that he would protect her.

Finishing off the nabe pot with some zosui , Sorata then watched as Misaki entertained Mashiro with a flipbook she had made of a gymnast swinging on a high bar and dismounting with a moonsault, all drawn in her otherwise completely unused copy of the third-year English textbook. The drawing quality was incredibly high, to the point where it could have been mistaken for genuine anime production artwork.

In response, Mashiro took a sketchbook out from her luggage, and drew the seven cats who were munching on the meal leftovers.

The minute he saw the finished product, Sorata felt goosebumps on his skin, and was left speechless. The cats drawn on the sketchbook seemed like they could jump right out of the page; they looked more real than the real thing.

Sorata ended up taping that sketch to the wall in his room.

The party broke up at around eleven, but after that Sorata was dragged along by Misaki to play games, and had stayed up until late in the night.

He couldn't remember when exactly he had fallen asleep. In fact, it was a miracle that he had managed to wake up in the first place. Misaki was nowhere to be seen. Sorata vaguely recalled that Jin had forced Misaki to sleep in her own room and had taken her with him, but he couldn't tell whether that had actually happened or whether he had already been dreaming.

When he left his room, he heard sounds coming from the entranceway.

Sorata peeked his head in.

Perhaps she was just really happy that the new semester was starting, but Misaki was shouting out raucously while she flew out the door. How the hell could she be so chipper? While brooding over the injustice of it all, Sorata remembered how she had run him ragged the day before, and in revenge allowed himself a good look at the light blue striped panties peeking through her skirt. But then, Jin came up behind him and gave Sorata a strong poke on the head.

While Sorata dealt with the pain, Misaki's figure disappeared off into the distance.

"Don't get your head into the gutter so early in the morning."