23 Chapter 23: Landslide

"That's our classmate, Kazama." Uryou begrudgingly explained to us. "I heard they went out a few times already. Tsunagi told me yesterday that she was going out with him again today."

"So you followed them here?" I asked my brother. "While wearing that?" He had the same disguise.

"Yup… Well, it seems that we all had the same idea." He seems kind of down. I may be a bad brother, but I still feel sorry for him. "By the way, is this your girlfriend?" Hiroisora was surprised when Uryou pointed at her.

"Um, yes. I'm Hiroisora Kari. Pleasure to meet you, Uryou-kun." She smiled at him after her rushed introduction. I just can't believe she admitted to being my girlfriend and to my brother no less. I'll make it true someday, so I guess there's no harm done.

"Aren't you being forced or anything?" He bluntly asked her. She was shocked.

"Well…" She couldn't answer him. Or so I thought. "He's so hopeless without me around. You could say I'm forced to be with him, since I can't leave him alone." She smiled at Uryou. That's an actress for you. But what she said was kind of insulting, though. I don't know if I should be happy or not.

"Oh. Then do please take care of him." I guess my brother does care for me. "He really is hopeless most of the time." Why, this piece of…

"I'm going home. Since I've confirmed you're not on a date with Tsunagi, I have no more reason to be here." I grabbed Hiroisora's hand and started to walk away.

"Is that what you do when a friend needs you?" Jirai started to talk while still looking at the window of the café. I almost forgot about him. "When the life of his precious little sister is on the line?" He's being over dramatic again.

"Also, is it really ok to hold Hiroisora-san's hand like that? It seems like you're not used to holding each other's hands even though you're a couple." Uryou's really observant when it comes to these things. It's such a useless skill.

I let go of Hiroisora's hand out of embarrassment. He just had to make me realize I grabbed her hand.

"Fine. We're staying." I gave in.

"I was really staying, anyway." Hiroisora told me casually.

"Why?" I was confused.

"I haven't met Tsunagi-chan." Did being an only child made her want to have younger siblings this much? "Besides, Uryou-kun likes Tsunagi-chan. I kind of want to see what happens." Her expression turned slightly more serious.

"They're moving." Jirai alerted us of the situation. "Let's follow them."

---

We all silently and stealthily followed Tsunagi and Kazama. The two of them went to different clothing and other accessories stores. They seemed to be having a typically normal date.

"What is it now? It's the fourth store now without them actually buying something. All they do is talk and laugh." Jirai complained. The four of us were hiding near the entrance of the said store. His eyes were dead focused on his sister and his eyebrows were wrinkled in frustration.

"All he's doing is buttering her up, so he could take Tsunagi somewhere… more private." Uryou's comments didn't help quell Jirai's irritation. Instead, it seemed to aggravate it further. But Uryou is equally agitated, though his calm analysis of the situation may lead us to think otherwise.

"Over my dead body. But he's body will be dead before mine." Jirai wasn't making any sense. As usual.

"I have a plan." Uryou's eyes were serious.

"What is it, Uryou-kun?" Hiroisora looked more interested in this stalking mission by the minute.

"If there is anything I know about Tsunagi, she'll most likely want to go to the arcade. And when they do, we'll separate them. There is bound to be a big crowd there. Getting separated inside isn't uncommon." Sounds like a good start. "This is what everyone will be doing. Hiroisora-san will distract Kazama with her undeniable and alluring beauty."

"Ok." Hiroisora blushed with that comment. I didn't know Uryou's such a sweet talker. I have to take pointers from him.

"Then, when Kazama looks away, Onii-san will grab Tsunagi."

"Ok." Both Jirai and I answered at the same time.

"Hey, Jirai. He said 'Onii-san'. Why are you answering?" I was confused.

"Well, he was clearly talking to me. I mean, no one else is allowed to touch my precious little sister. And though he may think we will be connected in some way in the future to call me 'Onii-san', he's gravely mistaken."

"Fine." Jirai's bloodlust was obvious that I didn't plan on arguing. "So, what are we doing then, Uryou?"

"We'll play that game we have played since we were young. We'll attract a large crowd so that even if Kazama notices Tsunagi is missing he won't be able to look for her easily."

"Sounds easy enough."

"Sure, if you don't lose to me instantly."

"You've never won even once before." I smirked with confidence.

---

When Uryou's prediction came true and Tsunagi did want to go to the arcade, we set our plan into motion. There were a lot of people in the arcade. It looked like our plan could work. We went into position. Hiroisora removed her disguise. She went and stood in front of a shooting game. When I thought she was going for the clumsy yet cute persona while playing a first person zombie shooting game, I was wrong. She was blasting through that game like a pro. I'll make sure to remember never to hand a gun to her. Tsunagi and Kazama were walking inside the arcade when Kazama noticed Hiroisora and started to go over to her and watch. Tsunagi didn't notice.

I sat in front of the fighting game Tekkon where Uryou and I would play. Uryou should be sitting opposite me. The game started as I inserted the coin. The screen said that an opponent has challenged me. Good. It meant Uryou was in position as well. The fight started. I don't remember Uryou being this good. I'm being driven to the corner. After 5 rounds of intense fights, I barely won.

"Ha! Take that Uryou!" I was so pumped up from that match. But then I noticed something wrong. No one was watching us. "Where is everyone?" I looked around and saw a crowd from where Hiroisora started playing. She was still playing and everyone was cheering her on. "Uryou, your plan failed but Hiroisora covered for us." I was talking to Uryou on the opposite side of the game console.

"Damn it! You're good, Takaiyama!"

"Why are you calling me 'Takaiyama'? Show a little respe—" Wait, that's not Uryou. "Jirai?! What the hell are you doing there? Where's Uryou?"

"I couldn't help but play this game. Tsunagi and I used to play this a lot when we were younger." Jirai had such a contented look in his face.

"Where is Tsunagi? You were supposed to grab her!" His face turned to dread.

"Where's Tsunagi?!" Jirai shouted in panic.

---

When people were gathering around Hiroisora while she was playing the shooting game, Tsunagi lost track of where Kazama was. She tried looking around but didn't find him. As Takaiyama and Jirai sat down to play the fighting game, Tsunagi passed by them without her noticing it was them. Suddenly, someone grabbed her hand and led her towards outside the arcade.

"Uryou-kun?" Tsunagi was surprised to see who dragged her. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to save you." Uryou was embarrassed and then he let go of Tsunagi's hand.

"Save me? From what?" She was confused about the situation.

"From Kazama. Don't you know his reputation? He's just being nice to you, all he wants is—"

"Why do you care?" Tsunagi interrupted him.

"I, um, I don't—"

"You don't what? You don't care, right?" Her voice has a bit of anger and sadness in it. "When I told you the times Kazama-kun asked me to go out with him, you didn't care. So I went out with him. Yesterday when I told you we're going out again today, you also didn't care. So why are you here now?" She looked at him in the eyes and had an expression that demanded an answer from him.

"I do care! I always have!" Uryou mustered all his courage to answer Tsunagi. "We've been friends for a long time now. We've hanged out a lot. I've always thought it would be like that for a long time. But when you told me about Kazama asking you out, I wanted to stop you. I didn't want him to take you away from me… I've heard things about him. But who am I to stop you if you liked him? So, I didn't." Tears went down Tsunagi's face.

"Why didn't you just tell me?" She rested her face on Uryou's chest to hide her tears.

"Because you'd think that I like you. And that you'd ignore me afterwards." He answered her honestly.

"You really are stupid. Just like my brother." A slight laughter could be heard between her crying.

---

Jirai, Hiroisora and I went outside the arcade together. We saw Uryou and Tsunagi standing there and talking somewhat loudly. We heard what they were talking about. I saw Hiroisora wiping tears from her eyes. Jirai wanted to get in between them, but I stopped him. I've never heard Uryou so sincere before, so I guess he really likes Tsunagi. We waited a little bit before approaching them.

"What's the meaning of this, Tsunagi?" Jirai could not wait any longer to confront his sister.

"I should be the one asking that! Why are you all here? You even dragged Takaiyama-san into your stupid ideas! I told you not to follow me around, didn't I?" Tsunagi was the one who ended up scolding his older brother.

"It wasn't entirely his fault. I'm sorry for ruining your date." Hiroisora tried to pacify her and save Jirai from her wrath. "By the way, I'm Hiroisora Kari. I'm Takaiyama-kun's girlfriend." She smiled at Tsunagi. "It's nice to finally meet you, Tsunagi-chan."

"The pleasure is mine, Hiroisora-san. I'm Tsunagi Jirai." She bowed at Hiroisora. "I should be the one saying sorry that you got dragged into this. But thank you for being a friend to my brother." She seemed very happy for her brother. "Also, I know my brother may have said something about saving me from Takaiyama-san. Please don't worry; he didn't do anything to me. He was just very nice to me when I visited their home." Hiroisora glared at me for a second, as a sign of disbelief towards me.

"Oh, don't worry Tsunagi-chan. I knew Jirai-kun was only joking." They both laughed.

Tsunagi said that she'd talk to Kazama first. Uryou waited for her. Hiroisora, Jirai and I decided to go on ahead of them. Though, Jirai was against leaving them alone.

---

The three of us wandered around the mall. It was much more comfortable not being stared at.

"I will get my dear little sister back. You can bet on that, Takaiyama." Jirai was confident.

"It's not like she's gone forever, you know." I countered him.

"She's all I got. My parents died while we were still kids." Jirai said it with a straight face.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Jirai-kun…" Hiroisora truly seemed sad for him.

"It's okay." Jirai seemed like he was used to talking about this topic. "But, when I saw Tsunagi's face earlier while talking with that punk, I realized she was really happy. Usually she's cheerful around everyone, but I could tell it was different earlier."

"When it's about her, you can get serious, huh." I was impressed.

"Of course!" Jirai was proud of himself. "Now, all I have to do is to get rid of that runt and everything will be back to normal."

"Don't!" Hiroisora and I yelled at him at the same time.

---

We were getting hungry and decided to eat. When we were about to enter a fast food restaurant, we bumped into Nariyuki.

"Oh, Nariyuki. What are you doing here?" I asked her.

"To eat, obviously. Why is Kari-chan with you and Jirai, anyway?"

"It's a long story, Kosui-san." Hiroisora said with a weak smile.

"You know, it's perfect timing. I'm with Koujou-san."

"Koujou-san?! Where is she?" Jirai became excited. Nariyuki pointed to the girl behind her wearing a cap, sunglasses and a facemask. I felt that I've seen that disguise too many times today.

"It worked, Nariyuki-san. They didn't even recognize me." Koujou felt proud.

"Well, compared to that other disguise you were wearing earlier, this was less conspicuous." Nariyuki answered with a deadpan expression.

"I'm guessing she was wearing a fedora hat and coat?"

"How did you know, Takaiyama-san?" Koujou was surprised.

"I told you before; it just makes you look more suspicious. I guess you didn't listen to me."

"Let's talk inside while eating. I want to hear both of your opinions about what Koujou-san's role will be in the play." Nariyuki led us inside.

I sat in between Jirai and Hiroisora, while on the other side of the table was Koujou and Nariyuki. Hiroisora has been silent for a while now. I guess when she knew Koujou was here she felt uncomfortable. While waiting for our food, we continued our conversation where we left off.

"So, what's the plan?" I asked Nariyuki.

"I've wanted to hear it since you said you had a good idea." Koujou was really excited.

"She'll be part of your love-triangle in the story! Just like real life." Nariyuki had this smirk in her face.