“Morning already, huh…”
Light filtering through the curtains hit my face and I sat up. The alarm hadn’t gone off yet — apparently I’d woken up earlier than usual. While I was thinking that, my bedroom door opened.
“Oh — already awake?”
“Morning, Ryouya.”
”…As ever, Reona and Riona enter my room like it’s their birthright.”
I’d lost count, on both hands combined, of the number of mornings the two of them had shown up at my door, so I’d gotten used to it. If I’m still asleep, by the way, they will dive straight into the bed without a flicker of hesitation. Heads up.
“Once you’re ready, Ryouya-kun, let’s get going.”
“I can’t wait anymore.”
“Wait — did we have plans this morning?”
There’d been nothing about today on the agenda at the celebration yesterday. I’d assumed today was a free day.
“Riona suddenly decided she wanted to do something summer-vacation-y, so we’re going to the pool.”
“So, yeah. Hope you’re up for it.”
“That is very short notice.”
So this was a completely spontaneous decision. I had been planning to spend the first day of summer break rolling around on the floor — apparently not.
“And by the way, the days we didn’t fix specific plans for at last night’s celebration? Stuff will get added to them like today, so keep them open.”
“I trust that Ryouya won’t betray us.”
“You serious…”
The summer-plans-every-day declaration they’d made at the Tokyo Inclusion Square café — I had been treating that as a joke. Apparently it was completely earnest.
“Which pool are we going to?”
“Tokyo Aqualand.”
“Heard you can spend a whole day there, so I picked it.”
Tokyo Aqualand is a glass-domed indoor heated pool that opened a few years ago. Water slides, jacuzzis, a relaxation pool, sauna, restaurants — the works. Genuinely a day’s worth of stuff.
The idea that I, posterboy for indoor introvert, was about to spend the day at a giant pool complex like an actual normie would have been unthinkable to me a few weeks ago.
“Okay, I need to change out of my pajamas. Can you guys step out for a sec?”
“Oh, neither of us minds, you can just change.”
“I mind.”
“Looking won’t take anything off you anyway.”
“That may technically be true but—”
Hold on — that line normally goes the other way around. I tried various methods to evict them and failed. So I had to change in front of Reona and Riona, who watched me without subtlety. Needless to say, mortifying.
The three of us then sat down to the breakfast Mio had laid out on the dining table. Once Reona and Riona had effectively colonized my house, Mio had started prepping enough breakfast for them too without anyone asking.
“You guys are so integrated at this point you feel like additional residents.”
“Then Riona and I are the elder sisters, and Ryouya-kun and Mio-chan are the little brother and sister.”
“Yeah, Ryouya doesn’t read as ‘older brother.’”
“If Reona and Riona were my older sisters that’d be a nightmare.”
I’d be drowning in please pass this love letter to your sister requests forever. We riffed on that scenario all through breakfast, then headed out. We got to the station — and Reona and Riona walked right past the entrance.
“Aren’t we going in?”
“I want to grab a swimsuit at the shopping center first.”
“My two-year-old swimsuit got too tight.”
Right. That explained the pass on the entrance. We ducked into the station-front shopping center.
“I’ll just kill time around here while you guys take however long you need.”
“Aw — but I want Ryouya-kun’s input on me and Riona’s swimsuit choices.”
“Without Ryouya it doesn’t work.”
“No, no, that is — that’s terrible!?”
I tossed back the protest at their casually atrocious request. Reona’s face shifted into something distinctly malicious.
“If you don’t help with the swimsuit shopping, I might accidentally let it slip to everyone that you had a masturbator and lube hidden in your room.”
”…I’m suddenly very motivated to help with swimsuit shopping.”
“Ryouya, thanks.”
Threatened into a corner with no exit, I had no option but to nod. They marched me into the women’s swimwear floor. As predicted, all-female clientele, and I was a beacon.
The looks from other shoppers and the staff were already terrible; getting roped into a swimsuit-selection consultation in that environment was bordering on torture.
“What color do you think suits me and Riona, Ryouya-kun?”
“Hmm… red for Reona, blue for Riona.”
“What’s the reasoning, Ryouya?”
“You’re always bright and energetic, so red. Riona’s always cool and collected, so blue. Just my read.”
I answered on instinct, and both of them looked mildly surprised.
“Honestly I expected you to say something like anything would suit you — pleasant surprise.”
“Mm, you actually thought about it.”
“I know by now that bullshitting in front of you two does not work.”
“Hee. So you’re learning how Riona and I operate.”
“If you’d answered carelessly, Ryouya was going to get a punishment.”
The two of them looked impressed. Wait — if I’d half-assed it I was going to get punished?
”…What was the punishment, by the way?”
“Telling Ryouya now would ruin it.”
“Save it for next time.”
“Praying for next time to never arrive.”
I couldn’t even imagine the contents, but it was obviously going to be obnoxious. With the color decision out of the way I thought we’d wrap up fast — naive. Both Reona and Riona had even more opinions about cut and style than color. I got dragged along for hours, and by the time the swimsuit shopping was done and we got to Tokyo Aqualand it was nearly noon.