Tokyo: Oreimo

"Oh, that's alright."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the sound of a door opening echoed from the entryway.

Ryosuke walked into the entrance hall.

The blonde girl acted as if she hadn't seen him, placed the paper bag in the entryway, changed into slippers, walked straight through the living room, and went up the stairs.

Footsteps echoed on the stairs for a few seconds, followed by the sound of a second-floor door closing.

Mieko stood at the living room doorway, still holding a soup spoon in her hand, her gaze returning from the stairwell to Ryosuke's face.

"What's wrong with Ling Nai?" she asked, her voice filled with concern. "Did you two have a fight?"

Ryosuke put his backpack on the sofa and shook his head.

"No."

"Then what happened to her...?"

"I don't know either." Ryosuke said this with a sense of absurdity.

He really didn't know.

Chapter 183 The Cold War

When it was time for dinner, Ryosuke changed into his pajamas and went downstairs.

Takashiro Isao was sitting at the dining table watching TV, and his mother, Mieko, was adding rice to his bowl, but he couldn't see his younger sister.

Mieko winked at him.

Ryosuke turned around and went back upstairs.

"He's barely eaten anything since last night, hasn't he? What's he so angry about?"

The second-floor corridor was quiet. Ling Nai's room door was closed, but light shone through the crack in the door.

He walked to the door and knocked twice.

"Ling Nai, dinner is ready."

no respond.

He knocked twice more.

"Ling Nai?"

"Okay, okay, aren't you annoying?"

A muffled sound came from inside the door, nasal and spoken in a slightly impatient tone.

.....

He turned and went downstairs, his footsteps fading into the distance in the corridor.

In the room, Ling Nai sat on the edge of the bed, holding her phone in her hand, with Ryosuke's text message dialog box on the screen.

The last message was from last week, sent by Ryosuke about his trip to Ureshino.

She stared at the chat window for a while, then finally placed her phone face down on the sheet, leaned back, and lay down in the blankets.

"We have a great relationship now because we're a couple."

"What is that?"

Ling Nai turned over and buried her face in the pillow.

The pillow smelled of laundry detergent, the same kind used in Ryosuke's room.

She sat up abruptly and threw the pillow aside.

"So annoying."

......

Dinner consisted of curry rice and miso soup, served with pickled radish and cold spinach salad.

It was rare for Takashiro Isamu to leave work on time. He sat at the head of the table, having already eaten more than half of the curry rice in front of him.

He put down his spoon, picked up the miso soup, and took a sip. "Did you have a good time on this trip?"

“It was great.” Ryosuke sat across from him, having only taken a few bites of his curry rice. “I went to Ureshino Onsen, soaked in the hot springs, and had a lot of fun with my friends.”

“Sounds good.” Takashiro Yuu nodded, glancing at the bowl in front of Ling Nai.

The curry rice was barely touched. A few slits were made in the rice with a spoon, and the curry sauce seeped in, turning the white rice into an uneven brown color.

Ling Nai kept her head down, poking around in the bowl with her spoon, but she wouldn't eat.

"Ryou." Takashiro Isao called out.

"Ah."

"The food doesn't suit your taste?"

"No." Ling Nai finally scooped up a spoonful, put it in her mouth, chewed it twice, swallowed it, and then stopped moving.

Takashiro Yuu looked at her for two seconds, then glanced at Ryosuke.

Ryosuke caught that look and understood its meaning: "Did you offend her?"

He shook his head slightly, indicating "I didn't."

Takashiro Isamu raised an eyebrow. "So what's wrong with her?"

Ryosuke shrugged. "I don't know."

The father and son exchanged glances several times, and finally Takashiro Isao gave up, picked up his miso soup again, and decided not to get involved.

Mihoko sat next to Ryounai, occasionally putting food into her daughter's bowl. Ryounai would obediently eat it each time, but she wouldn't say a word.

The atmosphere at the dinner table was much more subdued than usual.

"I'm full." After a while, Ling Nai put down her chopsticks properly, as if she had completed a task. There was still more than half of the curry rice left in her bowl. "I'm going upstairs now."

"But you haven't eaten much yet..."

I'm not hungry.

Ling Nai stood up, the chair making a soft thud on the floor, and turned to go upstairs.

The footsteps disappeared on the second floor.

Because of Ryouna's departure, Ryosuke was subjected to a 'interrogating' gaze from Takashiro Isao.

When his daughter returned from a trip with her older brother and acted so strangely, the father naturally attributed the problem to Ryosuke, who was a year older than him.

"I'll handle it."

Ryosuke made a promise, but he still doesn't quite understand why the girl was angry.

So after dinner, I went back to my room first.

Instead of provoking Ling Nai now, it would be better to finish drawing the remaining NAME in "Death Note" as soon as possible, and try to coax her with sincerity.

With this in mind, he still prioritized devoting his time to creative work.

.....

A week has passed since Aniplex returned from its hot spring trip to Ureshino, and the company has resumed its high-intensity operations.

After a short rest, all the members were fully recharged, and the atmosphere in the office was as energetic as if they had been injected with adrenaline, throwing themselves into the creation of new works.

As for Ling Nai, she seems to be much better than when she first returned a week ago. She is now able to eat on time normally, but she still ignores Ryosuke completely.

Academic tutoring was also forced to stop because Ling Nai simply wouldn't open the door for Ryosuke. The relationship between the two was practically back to how it was when they first started their blended family.

Ryosuke was also a little uncomfortable with this, but because he was burdened with creative tasks, he couldn't find any time to improve the relationship.

Because "Is This a Zombie?" was about to begin serialization, there was absolutely no possibility of delaying the script any longer. He could only rush to finish the manuscript and complete NAME before the deadline, and hand it over to Arina Haruba.

The remaining time was used to simultaneously write the scripts for "White Album 2" and "Death Note".

Because he had promised Phoenix Inu Saori that he would be more present at the company, he would choose to work on his manuscript at the company on his days off and chat with her for a while.

On Saturday evening, Ryosuke returned home from the company.

Mieko was chopping vegetables in the kitchen when she heard the noise and noticed it was Ryosuke. She waved to him and said, "Ryosuke, come here for a second."

Ryosuke walked over and leaned against the kitchen counter. "What's wrong?"

“Ling Nai didn’t leave her room all day, and she didn’t even come down for lunch.”

"..."

Is it starting again?

Ryosuke thought that after a week, the girl would have calmed down a bit, but something seemed off today.

He just went to the company; he didn't do anything to offend them, did he?

Before leaving, he specifically knocked on her door, wanting to invite her to come along, but she ignored him, so he went alone.

Ryosuke simply cannot understand why someone would get angry over something like this.

There should be limits to throwing tantrums.

"If there is a rift between siblings, it's best not to let it drag on."

Mieko was quite worried. "As her older brother, shouldn't you take the initiative to comfort her?"

"I understand." Ryosuke nodded.

Despite living under the same roof, I've only seen that guy a handful of times lately, and he doesn't say a word, nor does he answer my knocks.

That day, after arriving home, he called out to the other person to come downstairs for dinner. This was the only time Ling Nai responded to him in the room. After that, she completely ignored him.

Ryosuke walked upstairs and arrived at Ryouno's room.

"Dong dong dong."

He knocked on the girl's door, but as always, there was no response.

"Dong dong dong."

"Dong dong dong."