The Pet Girl of Sakurasou

Chapter 3: Part 3

Sunday was the first sunny day after a week of bad weather.

Sorata had been blissfully sleeping in until noon, but was given a rude awakening when someone kicked in his door and he found himself pinned under it.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

He crawled out from a gap in the door and rubbed his stinging forehead while turning all his anger to the cute alien who had barged in.

"Not good! Not good! This is nooooooot gooooood~~!!"

Sorata knew that there was only one reason why Misaki, why this being who had been born into this world just to cause trouble for others, could be so panicked.

Up until today, from the time he came to Sakurasou, Sorata had seen the same thing happen thrice.

"Hurry! Kouhai-kun, get changed! The battle's starting, starting right now!"

Misaki was already completely ready to head out. She was wearing a fluttering set of checkered-patterned skirt overalls over a long-sleeved T-shirt.

"Did Jin get another girlfriend?"

"He has a date! A date date date! So stealth mission, initiate!"

"I do believe you're confusing 'stealth' for 'stalking.'"

Stifling a yawn, Sorata picked the fallen door back up and screwed it back into the door sockets with a screwdriver. Considering how many times he had done this, it was no surprise that the screws were already pretty messed up.

"We'll really have to get a professional over here to fix this..."

In the meantime, Misaki started trying to strip off Sorata's T-shirt, and tear off his trousers.

"Time out! You're grabbing my underwear! Senpai, you're going to make it fall off!"

"I don't caaaare~~."

"I do!!!"

Somehow or other, Sorata managed to get Misaki off of him, and retreated to the dining room.

Ever since the sun had risen, Chihiro had been in the dining room drinking. There were already six empty beer cans scattered about on the table. And right now, six became seven.

"Kouhai-kun is also worried, right~?! You are, right~?! There's no way you aren't, right~~?! So get ready and let's go!! Go!! Go go!! Let's goooooooo~~!!"

"Kamiigusa, a girl as old as you shouldn't be shouting stuff like that out while the sun is up. Out of context it sounds like something really dirty is happening, you know." (1)

"You know, that's really not convincing coming from someone who's been drinking since the sun's been up."

"You saying there's a law against that or something?"

Chihiro's eyes were completely glassed over. Lately, Chihiro hadn't been able to go to any mixers, so she seemed to be in a pretty foul mood.

"No, not at all."

In an attempt to escape from this drunken interrogation, Sorata fetched some milk from the refrigerator and voiced his agreement.

"If kouhai-kun won't go, then I'll go by myself? I'm going out right now!"

"Go for it. It's not like I care who Jin-san goes out with."

When Jin started going out with the nurse Noriko, Sorata had gone with Misaki out of pure curiosity, but, well... it was incredibly annoying, to say the least. Tailing them was difficult, restraining Misaki from lashing out was obnoxious, and it was hard to sit there and watch Misaki get more and more depressed when it became obvious that nothing unusual was happening.