"I feel weird."

"You're not exactly considered normal by most people's standards, big brother."

"Thank you Shiro, that's just the kind of response that's going to give me that push to be more social with outside people."

"You've got me, why do you need other people?"

Shiro, his genius eleven year old sister, had given him a perfectly normal response, considering how things had worked in their weird little world up until now. But today, things felt different. No, that's not quite right. Things had been feeling odd for a while now, yet he had only really begun to pay attention. And this… feeling, or emotion, whatever it was, made its presence louder whenever she said things like that.

The genius girl in question looked up at him from their game. They were going through their millionth play through of one of their Pers*na games, having outplayed everything else they owned to death.

"You. Have. Me. You don't need anyone else Sora."

There it was again. That weird feeling. What in the name of Imanity was it?

"Hello? Earth-... no wait, Disboard calling to space cadet Sora!"

It seemed to appear most frequently around Shiro. Her voice, her touch as she sat on his lap, her slightly pouting yet totally adorable face. Like a strange yet warm tightness around his chest. It couldn't be…

"Listen, I know I'm lacking the Princess's boobs, but you can't just space out mid-conversation Sora, what the hell…" She pinched his thigh, bringing him out of his trance.

"Owowowow, okay okay, I'm back." Sora rubbed the painful spot where she'd pinched him. It was really sore. Just how mad was she?

"I swear, if all it takes is boobs, it's no wonder it's impossible to attract your attention…"

"That's not true!" Sora defended. "I like a good ass too!"

Her response was a deadpan, slightly terrifying expression from the younger sibling.

"Well you're going to have to wait a few more years before I grow those out. Until then, I'll buy you a chastity belt."

"Oh come on! I wasn't even distracted by that for once. Just… I've been having this weird feeling every time I've thought of you lately…" As soon as he said those last syllables, he slammed his mouth shut. But it was far too late. Shiro never normally had much range of emotion on her face, but now there was a shocked look tinged with a fiery-red blush.

"W-what… kind of… feeling?" Her voice sounded a cat just had its tail stepped on, but it was tinged with curiosity and…happiness?

"That's what I've been trying to figure out!" Her big, round eyes stared at him as he got his words out. Christ, now he was all kinds of flustered. What was going on? He'd had a million perverted chats with his sister before. Hell, he'd even played eroge together with her and this was getting him worked up?!

"...yeah, you're definitely getting a chastity belt."

"Nooo! I don't need a goddamn chastity belt! Gah…" He rubbed his head fervently. "Maybe I just need some water…"

For as long as he could remember, it had always been the two of them.

「Blank」

The combination of their names created the legendary name that gamers across the world spoke in hushed voices, some even worshipping the siblings as a deity. They were inseparable, together forever.

Their harsh realities had left one ostracised from society, and the other unable to accept that same cruel society. Their need for each other had been born from an evil that lived in that world. The world they despised for its ridiculous, hypocritical rules and heartless penalties.

But they had said their happy farewells to that world a long time ago. And through the trials they had faced thus far in this world, their bond had been tempered to become something even stronger. Something that he was beginning to realise he didn't completely understand, something he hadn't yet experienced before.

How would be deal with this? How do you learn to understand something?

Thankfully, his brain was good at dealing with logical puzzles, and the most logical answer to him seemed to be; to ask someone who might know something about his particular problem. It would be hard to explain, but he needed to ask the question. Hopefully without revealing anything embarrassing, or something that could be used against him in the future. But, he felt as though this issue wouldn't be resolved unless he faced it head-on. That problem being..

Was he in love?

"No way…"

Stephanie Dola, the Princess of Elkia, couldn't quite believe her ears. Sora, the man who laughed in the face of adversity, who had pretty much saved Elkia and seemed well on his way to world domination had come to her, without his usual sibling entourage and had asked her about the one emotion she was sure he viewed as a mere extension of sexual arousal.

What is love?

His words still ringing in his ears, she pinched herself to make sure this wasn't some sort of strange dream. After confirming her cheek hurt like hell, she had to reluctantly accept this was reality.

But if the topic was love, then the next question was… who?

Kurami? They basically shared all of their memories up to a certain point, it could be argued that she was the second-closest person to Sora beyond his intellectual sibling. But that seemed doubtful to her, they still hadn't known each other long as individuals.

Fiel? No, they barely knew each other. The same went for Jibril, more or less. Close friends maybe, but she couldn't see the romance there.

Izuna? If that was true, she was going to strangle him here and now. That foxy Miko woman maybe, but she somehow doubted it.

Herself?! There might be a slim chance. One of his first wishes in Elkia had been for her to fall in love with him, and maybe he was finally taking responsibility for his actions!

Shaking her head, she forced herself to think rationally. She was a maybe at best, and she had all the time in the world to draw out a conclusion from him.

No. What really worried her was the final girl. The one who had been there since day one, and knew Sora better than he probably did himself. But… There was no way he was in love with his own sister. Was there…?

But the fact that he had come to ask whilst Shiro was asleep, himself visibly freaking out from the weird, distance thing they had going on, wasn't proving the opposite was true either.

"Can I ask what brought this on all of a sudden?"

Sora looked up at her, as he sat on the floor in front of her, clutching his knees. This was apparently the closest she was going to get as a separation coping mechanism from him, so she put up with oddities as usual.

"I feel strange, especially when a certain person is around. And it's distracting, I can't seem to organise my thoughts whenever I'm in the same room as her."

"Are you sure it's not just another perverted fantasy thing?"

"For once it's got nothing to do with boobs, so I'm leaning towards no…"

Biting her lip, Stephanie was really beginning to worry. She would almost rather this was a trivial thing about breasts, the answer to this mess would be so much simpler.

He really was experiencing love. She was about eighty percent sure. As it was Sora, she didn't think she could be a hundred percent sure about anything with him, so this was as close as she was determined to convince herself.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, the idea isn't completely unthinkable. But it's way too early for anything like that."

Her percentage of certainty dropped to about fifty, and her certainty that this culprit girl was indeed Shiro had just shot up to seventy. Going by what he just said, his first real romantic love had a tinge of incest with the extremely limited morality that waiting until she had graduated out of her 'loli-imouto' status was being considered.

And if she was right, which again, she wasn't anywhere near a hundred percent sure she was, then she would have to do something. Partly because she was sure Shiro would accept those feelings quicker than a Werebeast on speed-enhancing magic after the initial shock, partly because she herself had her own feelings for the crazy yet somewhat heroic hermit, and mostly because, well… they were siblings!

Incest is on very shaky grounds in Elkia and whilst she was sure she'd probably accept the idea after a long, long time and lots of therapy, the rest of Elkia might not be so accepting of their King and Queen as sibling lovers.

Which meant one thing. She would have to distract his love attention to something else other than Shiro. Something that the general public would accept. And the only person who came to mind brought her situation scarily close to home.

She would have to seduce him.

"...hello? Steph? We still there?"

"Y-yes! I'm here!" She would have to put her plans of seduction into action after this conversation was over. For now…

"It does sound like you're experiencing something like love. Like, it's hard to think about anything else other than that person, and it's a strange, but not altogether unpleasant feeling, right?"

"Oh god… Is this how you felt when I wished for you to fall in love with me, back when we first met? Jeez, it's horrible!"

"It's about time you faced the consequences for that! It's was so confusing!"

"Wait, so you don't love me anymore?"

His question caught her off-guard. She had a shocked expression, and could only gape at him, making strange noises.

"U-uh… I'm… that is…"

"I can't really tell if that's a yes or a no, y'know?"

"Forget about me! This is about you!" A wild flush creeped over her face, her heart was desperately thumping in her chest. She knew perfectly well how she felt, she needed to figure out his feelings! For her sake too…

"But…" He began talking again, albeit a little nervously. "I wouldn't call it an altogether… horrible feeling. I guess, it's just something I'm not used to…"

Sighing, she could bring some sort of relief knowing that if he didn't quite understand his current emotions, then the wiggle-room to divert those emotions onto her did exist. As slim as it may be. But her biggest problem wasn't even Sora to begin with. He was a hot mess in love and at the moment, not a threat. The biggest threat was going to be Shiro, especially if she clocked on to her brother's feelings. Stephanie got the feeling that the morals of incest weren't really an issue with her, she was just barely toeing the morality of her age as it was. Or so Stephanie hoped.

But looking at it from a perspective of a pure and innocent feeling of love, seducing Sora meant turning the smartest girl in all Elkia into her rival in love, officially.

And the thought of having Shiro as a love rival, quite frankly…

...terrified her!