4. Yellow is a Sister, Green is Family?
“The only ones left are Green and Yellow. What are they like?”
“Hmm. They’re both…nice girls.”
His ambiguous way of speaking bothers me. But just then, we reached our destination.
The room halfway down the corridor has ‘Yellow’ written on it.
“Finance Yellow doesn’t have any family, so she lives here at the base.”
“…Huh.”
For some reason, I get the feeling that Dr. Ryutanso is nervous, expectant, and restless all at the same time. It’s like the anxious and hopeful expression you might see on someone waiting for exam results or a confession reply, but with a strong undercurrent of positive anticipation.
“Yellow is already in her room. Knock on the door.”
“O-Okay.”
Still unable to decipher the true meaning behind Dr. Ryutanso’s expression, I knock on the door as instructed.
—Knock, knock—
“Yes?”
A cheerful, childish voice answers from inside. The door creaks open, revealing a small girl with shoulder-length, light brown hair that bounces outwards.
“Ah! It’s the Blue guy!”
She looks like a middle schooler…maybe even an elementary schooler. I imagined someone a little older since she lives at the base, but maybe she’s a special case.
“Um, I’m Finance Blue as of today. My name is Asagi Sora.”
Her round, brown eyes stare intently at my face. I don’t know if she’s sizing me up, but every time she sways from side to side, her side hair bounces like dog ears.
“Asagi, Sora…”
“Yes.”
“Hey, do you have any siblings?”
“N-No, I don’t.”
“…My birthday is coming up soon. Can I have something?”
“Huh?”
I’m surprised by her sudden request. What should I do? I don’t have anything with me. Even though she’s a child, she’s still a girl. If I do something stupid, she might not like me. If I were handsome , I could do a wall slam or pat her on the head…but no, even a handsome guy would make a bad impression if he did that to a girl he just met.
“Um…”
I reconsider what’s in my bag again, but unfortunately, there’s nothing that she would be happy with.
“How about we go get some parfaits then…?”
I racked my empty brain and finally came up with a suggestion. This shouldn’t make her feel sick, right? We’re going to be coworkers after all, so having a meal together should be normal.
“…”
Maybe cake would have been better since it’s her birthday?
“Hey, are you serious?”
She looks at me with innocent eyes. Even I can tell that they’re filled with anticipation. That’s good. It seems like she likes it.
“Of course, if you want to.”
“Yay! Thank you, big brother!”
“Big brother!?”
She suddenly hugs me tightly, and I stagger. I somehow manage to support her small body with my weak arms, and the girl looks up at me with a happy smile.
“You’re my big brother, right? I’m Kuwaba Himawari. Nice to meet you! Big brother Sora!”
What the heck? I don’t really get it, but she’s cute. Is this what they call a little sister character? She’s so energetic and innocent, and she’s so happy over just a parfait. What a wholesome and good girl.
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“Nice to meet you too, Himawari.”
I guess the “big brother” thing is just a game. There’s no reason to refuse, and there are times when people call someone older than them “big brother.” More importantly, I don’t want to be a killjoy when I see Himawari’s happy smile, so I decide to accept it without thinking too much about it.
“Is Himawari Philanthrope Yellow?”
When it comes to the energetic member of a superhero team, it has to be Yellow. Her hair also has a primrose inner color, so that’s the vibe I get.
“That’s right! You got it! As expected of my big brother!”
I got it right. I got praised for something so trivial.
“I’m in my first year of junior high school, and I’ve been a hero for about a year.”
Does that mean she’s been doing hero work since she was in elementary school?
“But I’m not very strong…”
They say that a hero’s strength comes from the amount of love they have. Considering that she’s an orphan living alone in a place like this, who on earth does Himawari have such strong feelings of love for?
“I’m not very strong, but I feel like I can become stronger and stronger from now on!”
From now on? What does she mean? Is she just talking about her ambition?
“…Because I found my big brother.”
“Huh?”
I don’t understand what she’s saying.
“If you become my big brother, I’ll be able to work really hard… Please be my big brother from now on, forever and ever.”
“Umm, Himawari?”
“Oh! Sorry, I’m still in the middle of greeting you, aren’t I? Sorry for holding you up.”
“Oh, I’ll invite you to get parfaits next time, so wait for me.”
“Okay! I’ll be looking forward to it!”
I felt something ominous for a moment, but was I just imagining it?
“Well then, see you later.”
I left Philanthrope Yellow’s room, still feeling a little uneasy.
“It seems like he’s well-liked, Sora-kun.”
When I left the room, Gentian, who had been waiting outside, was grinning.
“Hah, I guess she doesn’t hate me.”
“Did Himawari say anything?”
“She said it’s almost my birthday and she wants to call me ‘brother’.”
The doctor looked even happier when he heard my reply.
“As I thought, you have a great talent, Sora-kun.”
“Eh? Thank you?”
I don’t feel like I’ve done anything.
“Now, let’s go meet Green. Well, there’s no problem. She’ll definitely like you and accept you.”
Accept me? What does that mean?
“Green is a year older than you, and she’s a gentle and wonderful woman.”
I see, so she’s the healing type. That suits Green perfectly. Both Peach and Sunflower are very energetic, and for better or worse, they seem to have strong egos, so I’m sure Green-san is like the older sister figure of the team.
As I thought about it and walked down the corridor,
――――Clang――――
“S, sorry!”
A loud noise and an apology could be heard from the other side of the door.
“Wh, what was that!?”
I hurriedly opened the door.
“Are you okay?”
Inside, it looked like a training room with equipment like you’d see in a sports gym. At the end of it, a woman with deep green hair was sitting on the floor, and Akane-san was standing tall in front of her.
“Sora!”
Akane-san noticed me and turned around.
“Um, I heard a loud noise, so I came in without permission. Did something happen?”
“Sora, don’t worry about it.”
“Even if you say don’t worry about it… that, the person in the back is crying.”
“Eh?”
Akane-san also looked back in surprise. She didn’t notice? I can’t imagine it, but surely a hero of justice wouldn’t be bullying someone.
“…”
The woman crying in the back wiped away her tears with the sleeve of her jersey and stood up, putting on her glasses.
“S, sorry. It’s my fault. I made Suoh-san angry.”
As the woman with glasses bowed her head deeply, her long, deep green hair, which had been neatly tied up, fell down. Her voice clearly showed that she was still holding back tears.
“I don’t know what happened, but she’s apologizing like this. Akane-san, why don’t you forgive her?”
“…If Sora says so, then I will.”
Akane-san didn’t look at the woman with glasses and put the dumbbell that had fallen on the floor back on the shelf.
“Green. Next time, if you say something that insults my past, I won’t forgive you.”
“I didn’t mean to…”
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Akane-san left the room without another word.
“…”
“…”
An awkward silence flowed between the woman with glasses and me. Or rather, wasn’t Dr. Gentian supposed to come with me? If the team members are fighting, shouldn’t the commander be the one to step in, not me?
“You’re Green-san, right? I’m Asagi Sora, appointed as Blue today.”
I decided to introduce myself since staying silent wouldn’t do any good.
“Ah, yes. I’m Tokiwa Uguisu. I’m playing Philance Green.”
He seems like a timid person. He looks older than me, but he’s a little unreliable.
“Erm…thank you for helping me.”
“Oh, no, I didn’t do anything.”
“Mr. Red…you’re close with Suoh-san, aren’t you?”
“Not really.”
I don’t understand why Akane-san likes me either.
“I always end up making Suoh-san angry. It’s amazing that you can talk to her normally like that.”
She’s amazing just for having a normal conversation? Akane-san really doesn’t get along with the other members.
“That, Asagi-san.”
“Yes.”
“If Suoh-san scolds me again, could you help me like you did today?”
“Well, if it’s something I can do.”
She’s asking me, someone she just met, to do something like this. She must be really scared of Akane-san.
“…Ufufu, thank you. I’ll be happy.”
“Huh?”
I couldn’t hear the end because she was looking down as she spoke.
“No, it’s nothing. Sora-san.”
“Akane-san is terribly strong, even from the perspective of her teammates, right? Well, I can understand why you’d be a little scared, but for a hero who’s always working at major disaster sites, wouldn’t a where situation lives are at stake to be much scarier?”
“That’s true. And there are a lot of injuries.”
As she said that, Uguisu rolled up the pants of her jersey. There was a large scar on her exposed calf. The wound had healed, but it was easy to imagine how serious the injury had been from the scar.
“I got this wound when an underground building collapsed. The doctor has excellent skills, so I didn’t end up unable to walk, but I still have this scar, and at the time, the pain was so bad I couldn’t sleep .”
Seeing the actual scar made me realize once again that this is a dangerous job. Both the doctor and Akane-san have told me that I don’t need to put myself in danger, but once you’ve joined as a member of Fiancé Blue , you can’t completely ignore it.
“And this is a wound from a battle with a Shadow that had accumulated power and appeared in the real world.”
As she said that, Uguisu lifted up her jersey and undershirt, revealing her pale abdomen.
“Um, this…”
The woman’s skin suddenly appeared before my eyes. Uguisu tried to lift up her shirt to show me her chest.
“H-hey, wait.”
I saw a glimpse of navy blue lace and came to my senses, turning away.
“II understand. But you don’t have to show me the wound!”
“…Is that so?”
If I had left her alone, I would have seen her underwear and breasts. What wound was she trying to show me?
“Um, do Shadows that have accumulated power sometimes appear in the real world?”
I tried to change the subject and distract her.
“Yes. Shadows normally appear in the form of disasters. However, if that disaster causes a large number of deaths or injuries, they can manifest in the real world, not in their nests.”
“Is that so?”
“It doesn’t happen very often. I don’t think it’s ever been reported on the news.”
I’ve certainly never heard of anything like that.
“When Shadows appear in the real world, we always try to lure them to an enormous unpopulated area and defeat them. The enemy’s power is…”
I see, so they could potentially harm civilians directly. We didn’t know about it, but the heroes were fighting to protect civilians like this.
“When I got this wound, I couldn’t fight back on my own…”
“Did you fight alone? Where were the other members?”
Normally, everyone would be dispatched for such an unusual incident.
“It couldn’t be helped. The other members had their own circumstances.”
“Circumstances?”
“Yes. But… if you hadn’t disliked me, you might have come that time.”
Could it be that Akane-san refuses to cooperate with members she doesn’t get along with? Sure, there may be times when you don’t get along with your coworkers, but is it really heroic to let Uguisu-san, who is fighting for her life, go out alone?
“I’m sorry. It’s not your fault. It’s just that I’m slow, so you dislike me.”
Judging from the exchange between Akane-san and Uguisu-san earlier, it’s clear that they don’t get along. It’s also clear that Akane-san has more power.
“But from now on, I have Sora-san. I think I can do better than before.”
“I don’t know if I can be of any help, but let’s do our best together.”
“Yes.”
“By the way, what kind of power of love do you fight with?”
I really wanted to ask the other members too. How does such a powerful love emerge that it can be converted into an unknown energy? It was a personal question, so I hesitated to ask when we first met, but Uguisu-san is an adult and seems to be opening up to me, so it should be okay to ask this much.
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“My power?”
“It’s okay if you don’t want to say.”
“No, it’s just a little embarrassing… To put it simply, it’s familial love.”
Familial love, huh? She must care a lot about her parents and siblings.
“That’s wonderful.”
“Oh, stop it… I’m embarrassed.”
As we were talking like that, Dr. Gentana came in.
“Sora-kun, your paperwork is ready. Come over here when you’re done greeting everyone.”
“Ah, yes! Well then, Uguisu-san. I’ll be counting on you from now on.”
“Yes, Sora-san. Take care.”
And with that, I finished greeting all the members and left the room.
“Because… Sora-san and I are family.”