Translator: imperfectluck Editor: vb24

  Chiaki came over, Mika came over, and even the landlord came over.

  There were so many people over at Seiji's place, and things were quite lively. As the master of the house, Seiji forced Shika to rest and took a spot in the kitchen.

  Nozomi also used her status as a master of the house to take a second spot in the kitchen.

  Mika wanted to take the third spot in the kitchen, but Chiaki forcefully usurped the position.

  "I shall allow you all to witness the cooking skills of a level-less cook!" She made a pose as if she was the main character of a certain cooking manga.

  "What's a level-less cook supposed to be?"

  "A cook without a level."

  "Isn't that just an ordinary person!"

  The two of them kept joking around and retorting at each other as they worked in the kitchen. Nozomi smiled upon seeing them, as if she were watching children that liked to mess around.

  In the living room, Shika and Reo played a video game together, while Mika watched them.

  After one round finished, Shika handed the game controller to Mika.

  Mika took the controller and began battling against Reo.

  She used a white-haired girl wearing a sailor uniform, and was continuously attacked by Reo's character who was a muscular man wearing a triangular thong. Finally, she was KO'd by the muscular character who clutched the schoolgirl in a bear hug and spun around, finishing her off by throwing her over his head in an extravagant KO!

  "Uehara nee-san is so weak," Reo cackled.

  Mika was rendered speechless.

  Now, what could the pigtailed girl possibly be feeling after being beaten so badly by an elementary school girl using a muscular man character wearing a triangular thong?

  What do you think!

  'Why is it that a little girl would use a half-naked muscular man character, and is even so good at it? This is too strange!' Mika commented to herself, and then asked Reo directly about it.

  "Because he looks quite interesting," Reo answered.

  'Quite interesting…' Mika was unable to understand.

  As a high school girl, she was now feeling the generation gap between her and the elementary school girl.

  Shika quietly sipped on some tea.

  She didn't dislike the fact that her home had gotten so lively. However, the most important to her was still… her brother, Seiji.

  She felt relaxed whenever she saw his figure around. Right now, she was really looking forward to the Winter Snow Festival present that he had promised to give to her.

  She really wanted to see the drawing that her brother did when he was serious.

  There was an abundant feast for dinner, with delicious dishes spread all over the table.

  Everyone sat around the table and enjoyed the meal. They seemed just like a big family.

  There was constant chatter in this lively atmosphere.

  Only after the meal was over did things quiet down a little.

  Mika and Shika washed the dishes, while Reo also volunteered to help.

  Cook Seiji, Nozomi, and Chiaki sat in the living room by the kotatsu , and lazily relaxed without talking for a while.

  "A kotatsu is so comfortable… this type of comfort and warmth far surpasses that of air conditioning," Chiaki lazily spoke up while laying her head on the table.

  "Yep… it's really amazing." Seiji also laid his head on the table.

  "I'm going to sleep right here tonight, just give me a pillow."

  "Eh? You're going to sleep here?" Nozomi was surprised by this.

  Chiaki nodded.

  "That's not good is it, come over to my place, and sleep together with Mika."

  "That won't be necessary, Auntie, here is fine. I want to experience what it's like to sleep next to a kotatsu for an entire night." Chiaki grinned widely.

  "You'll catch a cold."

  "I won't, this kotatsu is so warm."

  Seiji listened to them converse and felt as if they were like mother and daughter.

  'Perhaps the landlord views Chiaki who's her daughter's good friend and is also from a single-parent family just like another daughter.' Seiji thought that to himself.

  Nozomi tried convincing Chiaki otherwise, and was unable to make Chiaki change her mind, so she turned to look at Seiji.

  Seiji shrugged and used an expression of "let's allow her to do as she wishes."

  "I'll give her a blanket, so she probably won't get a chill."

  Seeing his carefree attitude, Nozomi decided to not say anything more.

  Seiji poured some tea for her, as well as himself and Chiaki.

  They drank tea and watched some TV. There was a special program on for the Winter Snow Festival.

  On this program, there was a national idol, a black-haired beautiful girl wearing a white lace one-piece dress who was singing a classical song passionately on stage.

  Her singing was beautiful to behold. It made people feel as if they were walking in the snow, giving them a sense of full immersion. People said that she had a heavenly voice.

  Seiji wasn't very interested in idols, but he also knew her name—Miyuki Sakuraku. He felt that her singing was indeed excellent, as expected of a top-level idol.

  "I suddenly feel like… Miyuki Sakuraku kind of resembles Mika," Chiaki suddenly said.

  "Eh?" Seiji and Nozomi both looked towards her.

  "I suddenly just got this impression… take a closer look at her, don't you think so as well?"

  Seiji and Nozomi blinked at this, and both focused on the television.

  Taking a closer look at the national idol's face on TV, Seiji compared her face to Mika's face, and felt that…


  "You're right, they do resemble each other."

  The position of their eyes, noses, mouths… there were indeed many subtle similarities.

  But they were only at the degree of being subtly similar. Without comparing closely, normally nobody would notice.

  "This degree of similarity is probably only normal."

  For an ordinary person to bear some resemblance to a star, this wasn't rare at all, and didn't mean much by itself.

  "Normally speaking, yes, but what if they're really related?" Chiaki half-joked. "Perhaps they're distant relatives, or they could even surprisingly be close relatives."

  "If they're distant relatives, then that's basically no different from having no relation at all, and as for being close relatives… I think that you're thinking too much into it," Seiji said.

  "Do you really think so?" Chiaki revealed a deep seeming expression. "Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction."

  Seiji knew what she meant by this.

  Until the mystery about Mika's father was resolved, there was plenty of room left to the imagination about her family history. It was theoretically possible for her to be related to the national idol.

  "If you must, of course it's possible, but it's still reading too much into things to imagine such a possibility."

  "Just imagine it; don't you think that it would be quite interesting if it was really the case?"

  "Interesting… well, perhaps. But it's not much anyways, it's just having a national idol as your relative, not like Mika would be transforming into a national idol."

  "Perhaps she'll enter the entertainment circle with a national idol as her relative helping her out!"

  "I don't think that will happen. Mika isn't suitable to be an idol."

  "That's a little mean."

  "I'm just saying what I think. Do you think that Mika's suitable to become an idol?"

  "She just has to level up twice!"

  "What do you even mean by levels? By saying this, isn't that the same as you agreeing that she's not the type to become an idol?"

  The two of them struck up a casual conversation.

  Meanwhile, Nozomi remained silent, but her eyes glimmered faintly.

  On the TV screen, Miyuki Sakuraku finished her song, and flashed a beautiful smile as she bowed towards the audience.

  Seiji gave Shika, Reo, Mika, and the landlord their Winter Snow Festival presents.

  Mika was delighted, and Nozomi was happy as well. Both mother and daughter thanked him for the presents.

  Reo thanked Seiji before opening up her present to find the new and popular video game system that she had really wanted! She instantly widened her eyes in surprise before jumping up and down in delight, wanting to play it immediately.

  Shika opened up her gift and first saw the drawing that Seiji had done for her.

  With a romantic and mystical seeming atmosphere, the beautiful and handsome main adopted siblings from "Brother Monogatari" were reaching out to each other, about to take each other's hand.

  The two characters seemed so realistic in their depictions and expressions in this wonderfully exquisite drawing, as if they were living.

  Shika was instantly charmed by this picture. She stared at the drawing for a long while, without even blinking, being lost in the drawing.

  She felt so much, that she even felt as if this was a real scene from another dimension!