“How is it? What does it feel like to be a girl so formally at home?”
Yi Shiyue looked her up and down, the girl beside her wearing a hoodie and shorts, and teased with a half-smile.
“Xiaoyue!”
Ye Xingyao looked at her with a resentful gaze. Unfortunately, her threatening look had no effect at all. Instead, her pitiful little eyes, combined with her wet, somewhat disheveled hair, made one want to cherish this adorable girl.
Ye Xingling saw this familiar yet unfamiliar scene at home and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. At least her sister was still her brother—though that sentence sounded strange, that was really what she thought.
“Hehe~ Did anything interesting happen when Sister Xingling was being a Magical Girl?”
Yi Shiyue finished teasing Miss Star Elf, ignored her huff, turned her bright purple eyes with a hint of smile toward Ye Xingling, propped her hands on the table, cupped her face, looking very interested.
“No, n-not really. The seniors have been very nice to me, and I haven’t experienced any danger yet…”
Ye Xingling subconsciously, imitating her old self, only told her two sisters the good news and not the bad. But as soon as she finished speaking, she realized something was wrong. On the surface, she was bowing her head and drinking porridge, but in reality, she was observing her sisters’ expressions out of the corner of her eye. This little act of pretending to be calm was naturally seen through by the sharp-eyed two.
Then, Ye Xingling saw them exchange a glance, let out a snort, and then burst into laughter, shaking like blooming flowers.
“Hahaha… Little sister, you didn’t think you could fool your big… sister, did you?”
“Hehehe~ Xiaoyao, Sister Xingling is exactly like you back then~”
“Hey! Why am I involved in this? Can’t you be on my side, Xiaoyue?”
Ye Xingyao patted the thigh of the girl beside her twice in dissatisfaction. ‘Really, just now they had successfully used the advantage of Xingling’s concern about “their identities and past” and her questioning, transforming it into a scene of a good sister caring for her tsundere little sister, completely controlling the rhythm of the conversation…’
“Xiaoyue, how could you defect all of a sudden!”
Yi Shiyue stood up gracefully, placed her hands on the girl’s shoulders in a flattering manner, and began to massage rhythmically.
“Hmph.”
Ye Xingyao turned her head away, crossed her arms, pursed her lips, and deliberately looked elsewhere, making a standard tsundere expression, causing Yi Shiyue’s massaging hands to tremble a little.
This scene instead made Ye Xingling feel a bit novel. In the past, although her “brother” liked to talk sweetly, she had never shown such interesting facial expressions. In other words, in Ye Xingling’s heart, perhaps now the lively and cute “sister” was much more likable than the aloof and independent “brother” before. Thinking of this, a smile involuntarily curled at the corner of Ye Xingling’s mouth.
“Alright, do you think I don’t know about Magical Girl matters? I’ve had quite a bit of contact with your seniors, you know?”
Seeing Ye Xingling’s small expression, Ye Xingyao turned her head back, squinted one eye, and wagged her index finger in front of her.
“Besides, in your relatively short career as a Magical Girl, you’ve already met us many times. We know better than you whether it’s dangerous or not, you know?”
With her sister’s words, Ye Xingling couldn’t help lowering her head, trying to avoid her sister’s gaze.
“Don’t make such a disappointed face, my dear little sister…”
“It’s because Xiaoyao’s words just now were too serious.”
Yi Shiyue helped Xingling with a little dig.
“Well, anyway, my dear little sister, in my eyes, you daring to face that elf alone and fight to protect your classmates is already a very responsible act, you know? No matter what, you’re much more remarkable than a sister who only cares about those close to her.”
But her sister’s next words were not as embarrassing or harsh as she imagined; instead, they were somewhat gentle, comforting her? Ye Xingling raised her head in disbelief, looking at her “sister” who was crossing her hands, propping up her face, smiling at her, and looking seventy to eighty percent similar to her.
“So, no matter what you want to do, as long as you’ve seriously thought it through and it’s truly what you wish to do, your sisters will support you from behind. Hey, Xiaoyue, don’t you agree?”
Ye Xingyao finished speaking very frankly, then leaned back comfortably onto Yi Shiyue’s body, looked up at her face, and winked at her.
“Of course, Sister Xingling has become a big girl now.”
Yi Shiyue subconsciously pinched Ye Xingyao’s soft, small cheek, but Ye Xingyao grabbed her hand, resulting in a scene where it looked like her hand and Yi Shiyue’s were stacked on her face… A blush of shyness flew across the white-haired girl’s pretty face.
“No, that’s not it…”
But in front of them, the little sister’s denial with a sobbing tone caught their attention.
Ye Xingling wiped her tears with her hand and choked up, opening her heart to her sisters intermittently.
“I… didn’t even want to protect them. Those people… even after being so obviously provoked by that guy, they still wanted me to be a hostage…”
“I had no choice but to fight that elf with all my might… I am not as noble as my sister says. Even now, when I think of those people who are clearly my classmates, their eyes… I…”
Ye Xingling wiped her tears again and again, trying hard to stop crying, but in expressing it, she recalled the vivid experiences and gradually became choked with tears. The strange, familiar, fearful or expelling gazes of her classmates and teachers surged from all directions like cold black tides, as if wanting to engulf her.
Then, she felt a warm little hand cover her head, gently stroking, making her feel very comfortable.
“Sister… am I a disqualified Magical Girl? Why did I get promoted to First Night Grade, but still…”
Then her head was patted.
“What nonsense are you talking? If you give up like this, I won’t allow you to be a Magical Girl, okay?”
Ye Xingyao stood with her hands on her hips in front of her little sister, saying angrily.
“Eh?”
“How others see you or think of you, does that matter? To them, it’s just an instinctive thought. What’s important is how you see yourself. As long as you have a clear conscience, that’s enough.”
With that, Ye Xingyao tapped her red-eyed sister’s head twice more.
Indeed, she still wasn’t used to being a gentle sister.