Chapter 4: Kawaii~

"He he he, hehe he..."

Click click, tap...

A few struggling lances of sunlight managed to barely crawl their way out from under the shades which denied them, only to be swallowed up by the night within the room, in direct contrast to the light of day outside. The air contained within the room's four walls felt constricted, heated, damp; as if the door had remained closed for much to long, and the dorm's resident inside for even longer. A worn shirt was discarded somewhere in the general direction of the desk chair, and a sock lay not too far from it, its identical companion still yet to be located. The only sounds to be heard were the slight clickings and tappings coming from one corner of the room, a spot on the floor between the bed and the dresser, where one would find a certain first-year enjoying something he really should not be.

"Haha, hehe...oh..."

An almost sickly whit glow gently bathed Iori Himemiya's face as his eyes remained committed to the screen before them, irises darting about to absorb every last detail, every last parameter. Doing his best to absently repress yet another round of perverted snickers, Iori kept his voice as low as possible and giggled,

"Kawaii-na..."

As if in response to his compliments, the girl standing inside the PSP screen chuckled lightly and replied, marked subtitles jogging their way across the screen,

"I love spending time together with you, Iori-kun!"

"Kawaii..." Himemiya almost shouted, though he managed to repress himself at the very last moment. Slithering down from his propped-up position against the side of the bed, the first-year watched more text flit across the screen, grinning stupidly at the images presented to him.

Meanwhile, outside the kouhai's room, life as usual was makings its way through the day among the residents of Sakura Hall.

"Neh neh, Shiina-san, tell me about England! Is it true that there's lots and lots of coal there?"

"Coal?"

"I heard that almost everything there is made out of coal."

"We have lots of coal."

"But isn't it hard, living in a country where there's just coal everywhere?"

"We get by."

"Mashiro," Sorata said over the lip of his mug, "I would prefer it if you didn't sully my sister's common sense any further."

The blonde mangaka brushed her hair out of her eyes to look back at him, almost instantly drawing his attention to the blood red irises. "It's English knowledge, Sorata. How could you understand?"

"I know enough to be sure that England isn't entirely composed of coal."

At the other end of the table, Nanami frowned at the sight of Ryūnosuke, who had come out of his recluse to join them for a rare breakfast outside, munching on his usual batch on tomatoes. He wasn't very discreet about it either, sinking his teeth into the flesh of every last one with as much relish, apparently lacking the ability to grow tired of them. Sighing and shaking her head, the voice actress reached over and picked up one of the fruits, asking, "What's so great about these, anyway?"

"They're trustworthy," Ryūnosuke snapped back simply, one quick hand darting out to snatch back the tomato sitting in Aoyama's hand.

"Trustworthy?"

"Tomatoes would never betray me."

"I'm sure other kinds of food are as capable of fidelity, Ryūnosuke..."

"No. Only tomatoes can be trusted. Anything has the potential to stab me in the back. Like bread. Especially bread. Have you any idea how dangerous bread is?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Ignorance is indeed bliss..."

Rolling her eyes at the hacker's sage-like attitude, Nanami turned towards the kitchen and said, "Kanna, could you please go ask Himemiya-kun to come to lunch? I haven't seen him come out of his room yet, today."

The relatively new resident of the Hall blinked, then frowned. "Do I have to go fetch that pervert?"

"Come now, he's a nice guy. Why are you so hostile to him?"

"He's a peeping tom!"

"You can't blame a man for following his instincts," Sorata said knowledgeably, feigning interest in a gaming magazine when the women's gaze shifted towards him.

Finally Kanna sighed in defeat and threw her hands up in the air. "Fine, fine, I'll go fetch him," The girl relented as she padded down the hall towards her peer's dorm.

It took exactly two hundred seconds for chaos to ensue.

"IORI HIMEMIYA!" Roared Kanna's voice from around the bend in the hall, the shout ringing throughout the wooden walls of the entire building and making the residents sitting around the lunch table start badly. Standing out of her chair, Nanami said, "What the hell is going on?"

The girl's question was promptly answered as two sets of footsteps rapidly approached their location, and not three seconds later Iori skidded into the eating room and darted behind the voice actress, clutching at the older girl's shoulders as if she were some sort of meat shield. He was quickly followed by Kanna, whose eyes were livid as her hands clutched something small and metallic that was emitting odd noises.

There was a moment of tense silence as the steamed girl gritted her teeth and ground out, "Himemiya..." All the while advancing with the intent to kill clearly written across her face. This also gave the rest of the residents an opportunity to clearly identify the kinds of sounds coming from the small portable game device held within Kanna's grasp.

That was, everyone was able to identify them as the sounds of a guy and a girl who were having a really good time.

Iori cowered beneath the menace of her glare and shrunk further behind Nanami's protection, pleading, "Please, Aoyama-senpai, she'd going to murder me!"

"You deserver worse than death, you pervert!" Kanna screamed, advancing towards him regardless of the fact that Nanami was in the way. Instead of physically attacking, however, she thrust the gaming device in Iori's face and demanded, "Explain this!"

Squinting briefly at the screen, Aoyama did her best to make out what the graphics were showing her before her entire face went beet red.

"I..." The girl stuttered as her flush proceeded to dominate her ears, as well. "I'm sorry, Himemiya, but I can't shield you from this one."

Kanna nodded in approval before roughly handing the gaming device to Nanami, who caught it gingerly, as if it were radioactive. Almost shoving her senpai out of the way, the first-year seized Iori by the ears and literally dragged him out of the room kicking and yelling, and Sorata had to sympathize for him. Women truly were terrifying.

Meanwhile, the obscene noises had seized to emit from the device, which Nanami still had embarrassed possession of. Standing, Sorata walked over to her and leaned in to get a good look at what had been the source of all this commotion.

Only one look was good enough.

"Ah..." The boy said, reaching out to take the gaming device from Nanami. "So he was playing one of these, huh? No wonder Kanna was so mad."

"What is it?" His sister asked, taking a brief hiatus from her incessant inquiry of Mashiro's personal life.

Shaking his head and suppressing a chuckle, Sorata showed them all the screen. "He was playing a galge," The boy laughed as he shut off the system and handed in back to the Nanami. "And it doesn't look like it was meant for very young audiences, either. There's some naughty stuff in there; the kinds of things that would tick Kanna off. Iori made a big mistake in being caught by her."

Sighing in apparently justified exasperation, Sensei finished her water and said, "Kids these days, having to resort to games in order to find love because they can't do it for themselves in reality..."

"Speak for yourself, Sensei."

"You have three seconds to run, Kanda."

"Could you make it an hour?"

"Sorata, shut up," Nanami sighed.

"Sorry."

"Galge?" Mashiro asked in her usual drone, picking apart a sandwich in her own unorthodox manner. "Are those the games where you conquer a bunch of girls through interactions?"

Sorata nodded. "Yeah. Most of them are pretty tame, but there are always exceptions."

"In any case," Nanami said as she slowly examined the PSP in her hands with offhanded interest, "I'll just keep this until Kanna decides it isn't so wise to kill Himemiya after all. It wouldn't be so great if she caught him playing this again."

There was a general murmur of consent from the rest of the residents, and Aoyama left to stow the PSP somewhere in her room, where it would be safe.

Meanwhile, Mashiro finished the rest of her sandwich and stood to leave the plate in the sink, her skirt fluttering in the afternoon's winds. After doing so, she turned and walked over to Sorata, bluntly reaching out to tug at his belt and say, "Sorata, come to my room."

This, understandably, led to some minor commotion.

Some hours later, Nanami was busy filling out an inventory form at her desk. She and a couple other employees had been tasked with taking inventory of the products at the store she worked part-time in, but several unexpected developments had kept everybody but herself from being able to take the actual inventory. Which meant she'd have to do it all herself. Well, she had been given extra pay for the month...

Sighing, she scrawled her pencil across another few lines, making sure to take careful notice of the numbers written in her notes. At least she wouldn't have to spend the night at the store counting banana milk cartons.

After reaching the end of the page, she used her fingers to reach between the pages and was about to continue her toiling when her eye caught on the PSP sitting on her desk.

She hadn't exactly decided where to put it just yet, not knowing whether it was appropriate for her to keep someone else's belongings inside a private chamber, so she had settled with leaving it in plain sight so she could quickly get to work. Now, as she sat staring at the small device, Aoyama briefly wondered what would drive a person to want to play the kinds of games Iori apparently enjoyed so immensely. While she did harbor some small understanding that guys were wired differently when it came to things like pornographic content, she still couldn't wrap her mind around the concept of playing a game with the intention of witnessing such a thing. Was it a primal drive? Or some sort of innate self-hypnotism?

Setting her pencil down, Nanami reached over and picked up the PSP, turning the sleek casing over in her fingers. Of course, she was also aware that galge were sometimes praised for their ability to present story lines which were both interesting and rewarding. She had also, however, been notified of the many crimes tied into inspiration which had originated from games like this. But how did pictures of schoolgirls and text flitting across a screen promote misconduct, or at the very least, absolute obsession? As these thoughts raced sluggishly through Nanami's mind, a slow curiosity began to blossom inside of her.

"Ki ni narimasu..." She murmured, voicing her curiosity. Taking a moment to clear away the inventory forms, she brought her knees up to her chest before holding the PSP in front of her and hitting the power button.

The screen flashed to life.

"Welcome back, Onii-chan!"

The very next morning, Sorata found himself in a position that was both flattering and downright nerve wracking.

Mashiro had cornered him just before breakfast asking him to pose for a new painting. Sorata had been surprised at the suggestion, having been under the impression that she should be working on her manga, but the blonde had insisted that she still felt the urge to paint occasionally, though not as often. He had accepted the girl's request, feeling rather honored to be the subject of such a renowned artist's work, though he was sure the painting wouldn't appear in any global conventions. So some minutes later, he'd sat smartly on a modest stool, waiting for Mashiro to begin.

The artist took a seat behind her canvas and pulled a pencil to initiate the skeleton sketches, eyes darting back and forth between himself and the paper. It made his heart race a bit to have the girl's eyes roving over his entire being so naturally, but he put up with it. It wouldn't do to break position now.

"Say, Mashiro," Sorata said, trying to move nothing other than his lips.

"Hm?"

"Have you seen Nanami yet this morning? I haven't, and she's usually up before anybody else."

"No," The blonde replied absently as she continued her sketching. Sorata deemed it useless to try and converse with her while she was absorbed in her work and chose to remain still in silence.

Forty minutes passed, and he was beginning to feel tired of being locked into one position for so long. Mashiro had since switched to her paint, one slight arm raised to the canvas to sweep a brush across the smooth material. He watched her work for a while, somewhat entranced by the serene look of concentration on her face, before the artist sighed and set her brushes down before rising from her seat.

"Mashiro?" He asked uncertainly as she padded over to him. "Are you going to take a break or something?"

"No," She said back simply. Walking up to stand between his slightly parted legs, the girl reached up and slid a single finger along the length of his collarbone without warning, causing a wave of goosebumps to rise on his neck. Barely resisting the urge to flinch, Sorata asked, "What...what are you doing?"

"I need to feel your skin and clothes to know what the texture should look like," Mashiro explained as three more fingers joined the probing. After she'd finished exploring his collarbone, she proceeded to tickle at his ears and ghost her way over his nose, using almost a featherlight touch. Sorata almost lost it when the tip of a nail just barely nicked his lower lip, and the girl's proximity to his self and the feeling of her warmth breath ruffling his hair only worked to undo him further. Closing his eyes to stave off the feeling, he waited as patiently as possible until Mashiro was finished with her investigation. Finally, the artist allowed a very rare smile to come to her lips before she leaned over and tugged at his collar, whispering, "Don't get too excited, okay?" Before turning away to return to her painting.

Sorata stared at her for several minutes after that, trying to figure out if Mashiro had actually brought herself to come and tease him. When did Mashiro ever tease anybody? Never. Everything was always frank with her.

She's even more dangerous now...

A half hour later, Sorata was a third of the way through his breakfast when he noticed Nanami still wasn't up and about. When he asked Sensei about it, the older woman answered nonchalantly, "Why don't you go and wake her up, then?"

Finishing the rest of his meal, he left the eating room and climbed the steps to the girls' dorms, hoping that Nanami hadn't caught a cold, or something like it. Knowing the girl's obsession with working and virtually unstoppable determination, she was more likely to hurt herself getting something done instead of conserving her energy.

Reaching Nanami's room, Sorata reached up and knocked, saying softly, "Nanami, are you awake?"

He had to strain his ears to hear it, but he could detect a strange clicking sound coming from just beyond the door. Frowning at the odd audio, he knocked a second time and called out, a bit more loudly this time, "Are you alright? Are you feel fine?"

His inquiry was answered by a hysterical-sounding giggle from inside, spawning the rather irrational fear that Nanami had finally lost it. Frowning more deeply now, he grasped the door handle and said, "I'm coming in..." Before pushing the door open.

Click click tap.

Nanami Aoyama sat, curled up into a fetal position on the floor, holding the PSP in her hands. A while glow bathed the girl's face, whose eyes were glued to the screen before her, giggling crazily as she murmured sweet nothings at whoever it was she was conversing within inside the game. Sorata's jaw went slack as he witnessed this, but he gathered himself quickly and cleared his throat loudly, saying, "Nanami, what are you doing?"

The girl glanced up at him from the floor, eyes glazed over from a whole night of gaming.

"Kawaii-na..." She murmured.

He felt his jaw going slack again. "Did you stay up all night playing that? The game Kanna took from Himemiya?"

Nanami nodded proudly back at him, her movements sluggish from lack of sleep. "Kawaii..." She sighed again.

Sorata sighed at how unbelievable the situation was. At least she wouldn't have trouble covering this whole thing up later. "Come on, let's go eat. It's just a virtual girl-"

"Don't talk about Taneshima-chan like that!" Nanami snapped, making him start badly.

"Taneshima...?"

"The cutest girl on the planet," The girl said back to him, as if this were supposed to be common knowledge. Clutching the PSP to her chest, she squealed and rolled around the floor, chanting, "Kawaii, kawaii, kawaii..."

Sorata watched her for a moment before turning and leaving the room, making sure to close the door behind him.

"What's wrong with Aoyama-senpai?" Kanna asked when he returned to the table.

Sorata shook his head.

"Should I go check on her too?" The first-year asked, worry in her voice.

"No. You'll kill her too."

"Huh?"

I'm assuming 99% of you already know this, but "kawaii" means "cute" or "adorable."

And "Ki ni narimasu" denotes curiosity.