The Shiunji Family Children (紫雲寺家の子供たち)

The Shiunji Family Children

The Shiunji Family Children

The Shiunji Family Children

Lately, Seiha's been brooding every now and then.

What's the matter?

Nothing.

Actually, uh...

If there's anything bothering you, I can hear you out.

I am your brother and all.

But if there's nothing, then never mind.

You'd do that?

Now that's what you call a knight in shining armor.

For Vehicles

Huh?

You want to play Twister?

Correct.

Don't "Correct" me.

Where'd this come from?

Did you one-click-buy it on Amazon by mistake and want to get rid of the buyer's remorse?

Huh? Is that some kind of joke?

To be perfectly clear,

I self-identified signs of elevated emotion after I visited your room the other day.

With my college entrance exams coming up, leaving this hanging would pose a major risk.

Wha? What's wrong with you?!

Please keep your voice down.

H-How can you say all that with a straight face?!

Why not?

Sure, if this goes beyond sibling affection and crosses into attraction territory,

then yes, I will be quite worried myself.

But the scientific method cares not for one's personal feelings.

I just want to verify and clarify exactly what I felt.

I'm your big sis, you know?

You should be happy to help me in my exam prep.

You weirdo.

You're one to talk.

So what is she saying? That she might be in love with me?

That just makes playing Twister even more awkward.

Right hand on red to start with, is it?

Hey! I never said I'd play!

Not yet!

How'd you up your total score by 30 in last month's term finals, again?

My kind and generous elder sister tutored me.

Right foot blue.

Hey.

Do you think this is an English lesson?

If we don't get up close, it defeats the purpose.

I don't see that in the rules.

I never expected to be telling my own brother not to give me lip.

I'll accept it.

An entrepreneur does need to be brash at times.

Left hand blue, huh?

Huh? Wh-Whoa! Stay away!

Is that in the rules?

The rules of personal space, sure!

Those emotions are what intrigue me right now.

Is she for real? How far is she gonna take this?

Left hand on red.

Left hand green.

Left foot blue.

Left foot green.

Her eyes are locked on, though.

Right hand air.

I was freaking out at first, but there's less contact than I expected.

I can get out of this—

So you insist on being uncooperative to the very end.

Twister's so much fun!

Very well.

In that case, I'll just have to get closer myself.

Right foot red.

She blocked off my escape route!

Uh, that pose...

I give up! Game's over!

You can't hold such an easy pose?

Or is there another reason?

What the heck, man?

She'd take quitting at a strange time to be an admission that I got aroused?

You've gotta be kidding me!

But hold on...

Arata... Right foot blue.

Hold on... Blue?

The only blue circles left are over there!

Why does your face seem redder?

This sure is a good workout, huh?

I gotta do it.

I hit something!

Th-This is seriously crazy!

What is she thinking?

The pleasure human beings feel is regulated by three brain chemicals.

This has become common understanding in modern neuroscience circles.

Huh?

The pleasure of victory, dopamine.

The pleasure of love, oxytocin.

The pleasure of tranquility, serotonin.

Since the first three months of a relationship involve heavy secretion of dopamine,

it is said that this period is strongly associated with "victory" and "possession."

Meanwhile, it is also known that sex with a partner you love

results in a large amount of oxytocin secretion.

Wha? Se—

At what point, then, do things change?

When do we go from romance and dopamine to love and oxytocin?

The human psyche clearly undergoes a change, although it isn't clear what triggers it.

I believe that rather than the status of marriage or the element of sex,

it must be something borne from a feeling of trust—a highly unscientific concept in itself.

All humans live in pursuit of happiness and pleasure, and I am no exception.

However, it would appear that I lack critical understanding of the facet of romance.

Can any two people come to trust each other completely if they spend fifty years together?

Or does it take an instinctual spark at the point of first contact,

which would mean soulmates exist in reality?

Also, can a younger brother count as such?

What the heck is this idiot yapping about?!

I don't know how seriously to take her!

Spend fifty years together? Soulmates?

That can't be us! I mean...

She's my sister! My big sis!

We've been siblings for sixteen whole years!

All that aside, this is impossible not to rea—

Excuse me.

Huh?

My muscles simply reached their limit.

By the way, the brain secretes cortisol in defeat.

You could've just fallen to the side!

Not after my muscles had already given out.

That was just my sister's butt.

My big sis bumped me with her behind. That's all.

Anyway, the trial was a success.

Huh?

Putting your lack of cooperation aside,

I didn't notice anything in myself other than physical exertion.

I must simply have been mistaken last time.

I could've told you that from the get-go.

Jumping to conclusions is less than ideal.

There's an important difference between baseless skepticism and empirical disproval.

Now I can study for my exams without any further distractions.

In any case, I suppose the following words are most apt for this situation:

Thank you.

Yeesh. What was that all about?

She used all those big words, but she was clearly just jumping at shadows.

Either way, playing Twister to verify what she felt?

I already had a faint inkling after all these years,

but that girl's kind of a ditz, huh?

So it's certainly possible for us to have sexual relations.

...that sex with a partner you love...

Oh, damn it all!

Whatcha yelling for?

I thought I heard Seiha over here, too.

Were you two talking about something?

Nah, not really.

Now that I've got you...

Join me for a bit after this.

Huh?

So, have you gotten any better?

I'll have you know I've been grinding hard.

I put in over 30 hours' playtime just this week.

Yeah?

Gaming, huh?

We've all been getting together to game for many years now,

but just the two of us, on a weeknight?

Heck, she used to put me in submission holds

every time I beat her when we were younger.

You know, I'm still not over what she said back then.

I love you.

Wait, was she always this much of a gamer?

She's never been particularly good at it...

Dualies are pretty cool too, actually.

Is it just me, or has she been acting off ever since Dad told us the truth?

I guess she's always been unpredictable.

Hm? Hey, it's about to start.

Prepare to die!

You sound like an anime character.

Ack.

Yes! That's five kills!

Gah, not again.

You gotta learn to cut your losses.

She's having fun. I guess she just wanted to play this game with me?

She's actually gotten a lot better at it, too.

Must have practiced a lot, like she said.

And while she's never been the genius student type,

her grades at school are excellent.

She's low-key just a really hard worker.

I've heard a ton of people in our year are crushing on her.

I guess to them she looks like a gifted prodigy, blessed with beauty and brains.

I will turn every part of you into flimsy paper!