Life In The Reverse World

Trying hard doesn’t guarantee success, but not trying guarantees failure.

Back then, when their father and mother went overseas for work and entrusted her with the responsibility of looking after her siblings, Ayaka couldn’t help but feel a surge of fear and unease when she thought about the life awaiting her.

And yet, years had passed.

She, who had never really expected anything from herself, somehow made it through by burying her head down and persevering.

The youngest sister, Fuyuno, who would start tearing the house apart if she went three days without discipline; the introverted and stubborn second sister, Chiaki; and her disgusting, useless older brother, Harutaki…

Even now, when she looked back on everything she’d been through, it felt a little unreal. That she had actually managed to keep the three of them alive and well all this time, wasn’t that incredible?

But the fact was right there, plain as day—

She, Hoshikawa Ayaka, had achieved something that had seemed utterly impossible, through her own effort.

After finishing the mille-crepe cake her brother Harutaki had shared with her, she washed the dishes in the kitchen, quietly feeling grateful for his change.

She had held on, but truthfully, she didn’t know how much longer she could keep going.

The pressure weighing on her heart, the loneliness buried deep inside, and the road ahead with no light in sight… If her life had continued in that same monotonous, exhausting pattern, she felt she would have completely collapsed before long.

What sustained her was nothing more than her sense of responsibility toward her family, her desire to live up to her parents’ expectations and hopes, and effort that had long since become second nature.

Clatter.

She slid the dried plates into the cupboard and thought to herself: wanting to monopolize her brother, to have Harutaki love and pamper only her, was obviously unrealistic.

That kind of terrifying wish, or rather selfish delusion, had nothing to do with effort anymore. It was a shameless twisting of another person’s will, a pathological act of forcing her brother Harutaki to satisfy her own desires.

She could, if she wanted, use the excuse of how much she had sacrificed and given, to coerce or pressure him into taking care of her. A gentle, considerate idiot like her brother would surely sacrifice himself just as she imagined, fulfilling his little sister’s wish.

But…

But how could she do something so shameless to a brother who cared about her so deeply?!

Right now, she had only two choices,

One: be a selfish little sister, using despicable means to bind Harutaki’s heart and make him love only her.

Two: be a perfectly selfless little sister, help and bless her brother Harutaki and senior Shihou until they became a happy couple, and maybe, in the not-too-distant future, get to hear an adorable niece or nephew call her “Auntie”…

No matter how she thought about it, it was utterly depressing!

She irritably raked her fingers through her hair, leaving it a mess like a cat with its fur standing on end, cherry-pink strands sticking out in every direction.

No, wait…

Suddenly, a third option came to mind. One that seemed unrealistic, yet would bring no harm to either her or her brother Harutaki,

She just had to turn her idiot brother into a womanizer, didn’t she?!

As long as her idiot brother liked more than one girl, and she, Ayaka, was among them, then everything would be fine, right?

She vaguely remembered how, back when she tried to fix Chiaki’s picky eating habits, she’d made special dishes for a while.

By mixing vegetables and meat until they were impossible to tell apart, she’d forced Chiaki to eat vegetables along with the meat.

Stuffed dumplings with assorted fillings. Ayaka’s special hamburg steaks. Curry rice with onions, potatoes, and carrots all stewed down into the sauce…

Thinking about it that way, if she treated her brother Harutaki like picky-eater Chiaki, then in order to get a share of his affection and gentleness, she could simply turn him into a “womanizer” who liked multiple girls and was liked by multiple girls. Like curry rice, she’d make him happily accept reality whether he liked it or not, and achieve her own goal in the process.

Perhaps, in some sense, this was still forcing Harutaki to change against his will, but… wasn’t that filthy, perverted idiot already in love with more than one girl?

Before senior Shihou ever came to their house, there had already been senior Nogami!

Including Shihou, the way her brother Harutaki exchanged glances with those two beautiful girls clearly showed mutual interest, didn’t it?

What’s more, she thought with growing excitement, given Harutaki’s kindness and consideration, he would surely hesitate at the entrance to the “womanizer” path, paralyzed by indecision. And at times like that, she would have to give him a push from behind and help him step onto the correct “womanizer” road.

And besides, instead of worrying about how becoming a “womanizer” might hurt one or several girls, why not look at it from another angle?

For someone as well-liked as her idiot brother, if he chose only one person to love, wouldn’t the girls who received no answer end up hurt even more?

If that was the case, then you’d better work a bit harder, baka aniki.

She clenched her fists tightly, psyching herself up as she entrusted her expectations and hopes to her brother, Harutaki.

If her idiot brother had enough love and gentleness to go around, then everyone would get a bigger share, right?! She had to spur him on, make him run forward on the path of loving everyone and being loved by everyone, a proper “womanizer.”

But before that, she, Hoshikawa Ayaka, deserved to reward herself just a little…

…

May 5th, the final day of Golden Week.

As usual, after finishing his morning workout outside, he returned home, took a shower with comfortably warm water, and prepared to eat breakfast before heading back to his room to study according to plan.

English was the only subject he didn’t need to worry about, Harutaki was confident he could easily get full marks. Physics, chemistry, and biology required reviewing formulas and theorems; math and Japanese were tackled with brute-force problem drills for “rehabilitation”; as for history and geography, he needed to combine them with the memories he’d integrated into his mind, becoming familiar with areas he hadn’t fully understood before.

With his current rank, fourth in his grade, simply maintaining his performance would be enough to get him into Tokyo University, but…

For him, effort was daily fare, and excellence a habit.

Slack off for a moment, regret it for a lifetime.

Of course he wanted to enjoy the youth and beauty of high school life, but creating trouble for his future self through poor balance wasn’t the outcome he desired.

So he decided to start with the most troublesome part: memorization.

He sat down at his computer desk-slash-study desk, picked up the history textbook he’d stacked aside last night, and flipped it open—

Knock knock knock.

The sudden knock on the door interrupted him mid-page.

“H-Harutaki… can I come in now?”

“Relax, I’m not doing anything weird.”

Recognizing his sister Ayaka’s familiar voice, he replied without even turning around.

But the moment his words left his mouth, bang!, the rather solid wooden door was kicked straight into the wall’s shock stopper.

“That’s enough already, you yellow-minded trash-brain of a brother!”

Ayaka stormed into the room, walked up behind him, and pummeled his head twice with her fists.

For once, Harutaki experienced the exclusive treatment usually reserved for their youngest sister Fuyuno, after all, Ayaka normally couldn’t reach his head when he was standing.

“A sister who resorts to violence isn’t exactly great either, being this rough will make it hard to get marri— ”

Kicking off the floor, he spun his chair around 180 degrees, ready to tease her out of habit, only for his words to cut off the instant he saw her.

She was wearing a dress with a translucent quality to it, its design philosophy eerily similar to the outfit Shihou had tried on when they went shopping with Nogami and the others a few days ago.

Was this the current fashion trend?

He wasn’t entirely sure.

The pure white dress paired perfectly with Ayaka’s cherry-pink long hair.

The sheer fabric and off-the-shoulder cut added a hint of sensuality, yet at the same time, the symbolism of white purity, and the fact that only the chest area was opaque, softened the overly mature allure. The result was a dress that perfectly matched the girlish aura Ayaka radiated at her age.

And the contrast, transparent sleeves, opaque chest, only served to emphasize her F-cup figure, impressive even by adult standards.

Below the knee-length skirt, layered like nearly a hundred sheets of white gauze, were black thigh-high stockings. The elastic composite fabric beautifully sculpted Ayaka’s full, firm legs, while adding a hazy texture to her feet, releasing an irresistible allure in an instant.

“W-What are you staring at…?!”

“At the most beautiful girl in Japan.”

He noticed the tips of her stockinged feet slightly arching, no doubt, the girl was nervous and shy under his appreciative gaze, her toes unconsciously curling against the floor.

This style, completely different from Ayaka’s usual plain clothing, made it hard for Harutaki to look away.

It wasn’t just the outfit. She had let down her usual high twin-tails, and her already rosy lips gleamed moistly with what looked like lip gloss or light-colored lipstick.

“Baka aniki… what do you think?”

Her slender fingers fidgeted together nervously in front of her chest, letting him catch a glimpse of the carefully applied pale pink nail polish, small and delicate, like cherry blossom petals in full bloom outside.

“…”

“S-Say something?”

“Is today my birthday? After seeing such a beautiful Ayaka, I feel like I owe you several hundred million yen.”

He joked lightly, while secretly wondering what she’d come to see him dressed like this for.

The sense of ceremony, and abruptness, was overwhelming, to the point that it gave him the illusion of preparing for a first date with his girlfriend.

“S-So that… so that you can take down Shihou-senpai sooner, Harutaki, I decided to help you practice how to go on dates in advance…”

Harutaki: ?

“That really isn’t neces— ”

“Baka aniki, are you going or not?!”

“I may be lacking, but I humbly ask for your guidance today.”

He jumped up from his chair at once, dashed to the coat rack in the corner to grab his clothes, and jogged into the bathroom to get changed.

Studying?

Don’t be ridiculous.

Even if Ayaka’s intentions weren’t entirely clear, with a girl going to such lengths to prepare, if he, Harutaki, dared to say no,

He might as well jump straight off the Tokyo Tower from a kilometer away.

…