Why Not Make Both Twins 'Girlfriends'? - Volume 3 Epilogue

Epilogue

Will You Stay by My Side…?

 

“Sorry for causing a commotion yesterday.”

 

In the afternoon of the third day of the trip, as soon as Chikage arrived at the seaside house “Karen” with her leg bandaged, she bowed her head to Matori and Yuzuki.

Yesterday’s turmoil had involved the local people, and the conscientious Chikage had been going around the town, apologizing to everyone involved.

Chikage wanted to visit a few more places afterward.

Sakuto and Hikari, of course, intended to accompany her, but they were inwardly anxious.

Even though it was only a minor injury, she was still hurt.

Despite this, Chikage felt the need to make these rounds diligently, not the type to just lie down and rest.

 

“It’s fine-it’s fine, as long as you’re safe.”

 

Matori said with a grin.

 

“Seriously, you’re lucky it was just a bump and a bit of bleeding, huh? If it had been a worse spot…”

 

Chikage grimaced with a wry smile.

 

“Yuzuki, about yesterday—”

 

Before Chikage could finish, Yuzuki, with tears in her eyes, hugged her.

 

“Chikage!”

“Ahaha, I’m fine now…”

“I’m sorry, it’s my fault…”

“You already said that yesterday, right? If you blame yourself, it hurts me too…”

 

In fact, Yuzuki had visited the hospital with Matori yesterday.

She had been informed about the injury and the test results, but Yuzuki had cried her eyes out, and in the end, she had to be comforted by Matori on their way back.

 

“So, I hope you’re happy that I’m safe.. no, I’m the one who should be sorry for worrying you.”

 

Sakuto was watching the two embrace from a distance when Hikari quietly spoke to him.

 

“Yuzuki-chan kind of reminds me of the old Chii-chan…”

“Huh…?”

“She blames herself for things that aren’t her fault, and she only direct anger and sadness at herself…”

 

Yesterday, Sakuto had learned from Hikari—

 

“Her name was ‘Mashiro,’ Chii-chan named her, but about three months after we started keeping her… she escaped from Chii-chan’s room and disappeared…”

“I see.”

“Chii-chan blamed herself, but I don’t think it was her fault… Of course, I understand the feeling of responsibility as a pet owner, but…”

 

Hikari looked down.

 

“I also feel like if I had been there, maybe I could have done something… It feels like I’ve put a burden on Chii-chan, and it feels suffocating…”

 

Hikari gently took Sakuto’s hand.

It wasn’t the usual lovers’ touch, but more like she was seeking a place of comfort.

 

“After that, Chii-chan became stiff and cold like she is now. I might be overthinking, but I feel like her awkwardness with people is because of the loneliness of losing Mashiro.”

 

Hikari then smiled.

 

“But after she met you, she became softer and warmer, like she is now. That’s why I’m really grateful to you. Thank you for being there for Chii-chan, Sakuto. And while we’re at it, please take care of me too, okay? ——”

 

——I haven’t really done anything deserving of thanks.

On the contrary, I always feel that I should be the one expressing gratitude.

 

As he watched Chikage tenderly pat Yuzuki’s head with a gentle smile, the expression seemed especially mature to Sakuto.

 

“Hey, Sakuto.”

“What is it?”

“When did those two become so close? Chii-chan isn’t using formal language with her anymore.”

“I’m not sure…”

 

Sakuto was a bit surprised by this unexpected development, but perhaps those two just clicked. However, he felt a complex mix of emotions.

He was happy, but how should he express this feeling?

He couldn’t quite place it, but he felt a sense of embarrassment.

 

“Huh? Is that okay? She’s still using formal language with you, Sakuto. Has Yuzuki-chan gotten ahead of you?”

“What…!?”

 

Hikari was grinning, and Sakuto looked troubled. The two of them were slowly getting back to their usual banter.

While they were doing so, Chikage suddenly looked at the entrance of “Karen” and said,

 

“Huh? We’re missing one…”

 

With that, Sakuto and the others looked towards the entrance.

Confused, Matori spoke up.

 

“Eh? But everyone’s here, right?”

“But the white one…”

 

Everyone was puzzled.

 

“I haven’t seen a white one from the start…?”

 

Yuzuki spoke up with confusion, and Matori nodded in agreement.

 

“Tabby, mackerel tabby, calico, black… those are the only four that are always here.”

“Eh? But… Sakuto-kun, there was a white one here the day before yesterday, right?”

 

Sakuto closed his eyes and tried to recall the memories from the day before yesterday.

He also tried to remember if there was a white cat in any of the Polaroid photos inside the “Karen” shop, but—

 

“…No, there wasn’t. Hikari, do you remember?”

“Nope, I don’t think I’ve seen a white one either. Actually, I haven’t seen a white cat at all since coming to this town.”

“Is that so…”

 

Chikage looked unconvinced.

 

“Then maybe it was just my usual fantasy… Sorry for causing a fuss again.”

 

As Chikage gave a wry smile, Matori laughed and said, “What are you talking about?”

 

(A white cat…)

 

Sakuto tried to remember again when—

 

“Sure is lively here〜”

 

Suddenly, the old woman who had disappeared before appeared out of nowhere, startling Hikari and Chikage.

Since Sakuto had met her the day before, he wasn’t as surprised and asked,

 

“Ganny… why are you here?”

“Why? I’m here to help, to help.”

“Help…?”

“Because I own that beach house over there.”

” ” “What!?” ” “

 

Sakuto and the twin sisters were utterly astonished.

 

“The manager is my grandson, but look, my name is written on that sign over there. ‘Karen’ is my name. Kousaka Karen, that’s me. Pretty stylish, huh?”

” ” “What───!?” ” “

“By the way, the surfboard used for the sign is mine. I used to live in Hawaii, and back then, I surfed every day, but lately, once a week is my limit. Getting old isn’t much fun…”

” ” “…” ” “

 

Sakuto and the others were speechless.

It was too perfect to be a joke, but more shocking was the realization of something else.

 

“Um… Kousaka-san, could it be──”

“Grandma───!”

 

At that moment, with a voice as bright as two-tone colors, Matori ran over to Grandma Karen and high-fived her with a cheer, “Yay!”

 

“Did you come to help out?”

“I thought it’d be busy today. Plus, spoiling my great-granddaughter is an old person’s privilege.”

“I’m so happy! Thank you, grandma♪”

 

While Matori’s character collapse was one thing, Sakuto and the others were simply dumbfounded by the rapid-fire truths.

 

(But, it makes sense… I thought she seemed familiar…)

 

Then Sakuto remembered another question he had.

 

“How did you know about Chikage’s name and that she’s a sister, and also about Hikari’s name and their last names?”

“I always keep up with the information about the school my great-granddaughter attends. Look──”

 

Grandma Karen pulled up YouTube on her smartphone, and what was displayed was the Arisuyama Academy Broadcasting Club’s 【Arigaku Ch】, which she had properly subscribed to.

 

“I see… the twin switch prank episode right before summer vacation…”

“Exactly.”

 

With that realization, Sakuto let out a big sigh.

 

“Right, have you made your choice yet?”

“Choice? What do you mean?”

 

Grandma Karen’s voice grew hushed.

 

“Which of the twin sisters will you choose…”

“Choose… I──”

 

──I like both of them, and I can’t possibly choose. If anything, both are already my girlfriends.

He couldn’t say that in front of Matori, but──

 

“The three of us already shattered that legend together.”

“…I see, I see.”

 

Grandma Karen smiled faintly while Matori, not understanding, looked at her with a puzzled smile.

 

“There’s something I wanted to ask you, grandma.”

“What is it?”

“About the incident on Imoko Mountain where you suddenly disappeared… If it wasn’t magic, how did you do it?”

“That is… a secret. A lady has many secrets.”

“Aww! Karen-chan, you’re so cute〜♡”

 

While watching Matori react, Sakuto couldn’t help but feel a bit annoyed but managed to keep his irritation in check and moved on to another question.

 

“Then… what did the legendary cat of Futagoko Town look like? And while we’re at it, if you know the house where the legendary twins were born, please tell me.”

 

Grandma Karen nodded thoughtfully.

 

“A white cat. The twins’ house is──there, that kimono shop where the bench was.”

 

At that moment──

 

(What…!?)

 

Struck by a sudden sense of discomfort, Sakuto pressed his temples.

 

(This is strange… Why… This has never happened before…!)

 

Sakuto finally managed to say “Thank you” to Grandma Karen, but his face was pale.

 

***

 

Although Grandma Karen offered to treat him to a drink, Sakuto stayed on the beach.

As he pieced together the memories of the past three days, he noticed a significant gap in his memory.

The white cat, the kimono shop, the bedroom of the villa, Aneko Island──he had seen it several times and even touched it.

But no matter how far back he searched his memory, there was no image of the white cat.

 

The first encounter was supposed to be at the kimono shop—

He should have been sitting on the bench, stroking it, but there was no image of the white cat in that memory.

From the beginning, there was nothing there, and he only had a memory of stroking empty space.

 

The second time was in the bedroom of the villa──

Right before that, he had a dream of a flower field, but that’s not important right now.

 

The third time was on Aneko Island──

He saw the white cat, tidied up the shrine it led him to, and prayed.

Yet, despite that──the image of the white cat he was supposed to have met three times had vanished from his memory. He couldn’t even recall its voice.

 

Or was it never in his memory to begin with? Did he have a false memory? What exactly had he seen and heard?

While grappling with this strange sensation, he remembered Chikage’s words──

 

『But the white one…』

 

──No, but… Could that really be?

As if possessed by a strange thought, Sakuto turned towards the beach house “Karen” and moved sideways.

There, the cat had returned to the beach where it had been found──

 

And so, he lined up the pedestal where the guardian cats Matori mentioned were gathered, right at the center of the triangle of Imoko Mountain.

When it aligned perfectly, the vermilion torii gate could be seen through the trees on the mountain.

That spot was right between the mountain and the sea, a place watched over by the gods of the mountain and the sea──

 

He turned 180 degrees to look.

Indeed──there was the center of Aneko Island’s triangle.

And again, through the trees on the island, the vermilion torii gate was visible.

And on that straight line between the mountain and the sea was the villa where they had been staying.

 

Is this just a coincidence?

What may have started as a fantasy seemed now to be an obsession as fragmented memories connected, and imagination and doubt rapidly expanded.

Why—

Why did the mountain god and the sea god set the condition to turn the cat into a pebble?

There are many old tales with cruel endings and many stories where animals transform into something else, but why a pebble?

If it gets buried in the sand, it will never be found.

Without noticing the cat turned to stone, wandering the beach and searching while crying——

 

Was the sad ending really just to leave behind the lesson that “He that hunts two hares catches neither” for future generations?

He had always harbored this question in the back of his mind.

Rather, he had hoped it wasn’t so.

Because his own situation resembled that of the white cat the old lady had spoken about.

However, Chikage’s words might be the key to finding hope.

Sakuto took out his smartphone, launched the map app, switched to aerial photos of Futagoko Town, and zoomed in—letting out an “Ah.”

 

Looking up at the blue sky, he somehow felt outsmarted.

Was it a riddle set up by humans who created the legends in the past, or perhaps a prank by the great gods?

Sakuto’s smartphone slipped from his hand, landing face-up on the white sandy beach.

Displayed on the screen was an image of Futagoko Town from high above.

From directly overhead, there were two perfectly round mountains of the same size—Aneko Island and Imoko Mountain.

And at their center was Koishi Beach, but the area of the white sandy beach was about the same size as those islands and mountains.

 

Why hadn’t he noticed it before—

The shape of the white sandy beach was that of a white cat with a long tail, innocently frolicking.

The base of the beach house where the cats were, was right where the heart would be.

In other words, they had been embraced in the chest of a giant white cat from the beginning.

 

If the legend itself had been miscommunicated, then perhaps it was supposed to be like this——

The cat was turned into a pebble. But that was the size from the gods’ perspective, not the size of a pebble as humans would think.

This beach, its sands and pebbles, all represented the white cat.

If so, it was too small for mere humans to stand beside.

To stand alongside the white cat, the twin sisters went to the sea and the mountains themselves.

So that the three of them could live happily ever after in this land.

With the twin sisters gazing at the white cat——

 

(The white cat I saw was of the town’s legend… and the white cat Chikage saw was Mashiro grown up… no, but…—)

 

Sakuto’s thoughts went round in circles, but he could never quite connect the white cat Chikage saw on this beach and the Mashiro she saw at Imoko Mountain with the white cat he met three times—tying it back to Futagoko Town’s legend and Mashiro.

However, one thing he considered—

 

(Maybe we were destined to come to this town from the beginning…)

 

Sakuto smiled wryly, and for a moment, he thought he heard a cat’s “Meow” from nowhere.

 

“—Sakuto-kun, what’s wrong?”

 

As Chikage came calling, Sakuto’s delusion was interrupted.

 

“That’s strange…”

“…? What is?”

“I thought delusions were Chikage’s specialty…”

“Wha…! Even you, Sakuto-kun! I’m not having any lewd delusions!”

 

Why she assumed it was something naughty, Sakuto couldn’t help but laugh.

 

“By the way, that kitten…”

 

Chikage was holding a small kitten.

It was a newborn Siamese tabby with blue eyes.

 

“I found this little one just now behind the house. It seems to be without a parent, so Yuzuki is going to take it home. We have to visit Yuzuki’s house soon—”

 

—Chikage said, stroking the nape of the Siamese tabby’s neck with a smile on her face.

Seeing her face, Sakuto smiled from the bottom of his heart, but—

 

“About yesterday… Just like you said, Sakuto-kun, I really did meet Mashiro in the mountains.”

 

Chikage smiled awkwardly and looked at the Siamese tabby fondly.

 

“It might be my delusion, but I want to believe that all grown-up Mashiro came to save me at that time.”

 

Sakuto smiled and said, “I see.”

 

“I was thinking after talking with you, Chikage. I’m the hopeless one. I’m always being saved by you and Hikari.”

“No, that’s not true…”

“I really think so. Thanks to you, I have fun every day, and I get all kinds of inspiration… I’m truly grateful. I also admire your hardworking nature. That’s why, Chikage, I… I want to be with you forever from now on, and follow your example…”

 

Overwhelmed with joy, Chikage’s face turned red, and she was about to enter delusion mode in her joy, but she shook her head vigorously from side to side,

 

“Of course! I’ll keep working hard! Please let me stay by your side, Sakuto-kun, forever and ever!”

 

She said this with a beaming smile.

 

***

 

“The first round of the Pocky-less game—!”

“Yay—!”

“Um… can’t we at least play with Pocky…?”

 

On the train ride home, while the twin sisters were unusually excited, Sakuto looked tired.

He was also relieved. Somehow, it felt like the usual dynamic among the three.

 

“Listen up, the purpose of this game is, well, to kiss!”

“Ah, yeah… I kind of figured that much…”

 

Why did Hikari explain something so obvious so carefully?

 

“But what if we mess it up…?”

“Ah, yeah… I think it’ll probably be okay? We start from the shortest route, where the lips touch…”

 

Sakuto didn’t understand why Chikage looked anxious.

 

“I mean, if that’s all there is to it, it just turns into a game where we kiss and it’s over… I really wonder if there’s any point in making it a game format at all?”

“Okay, I’ll start first──”

“Wait…! Hikari—”

 

The first round ended.

Just before the kiss, Sakuto got embarrassed, and Hikari won.

 

“The second round is my turn, right? Chu—”

 

The second round ended. They both got embarrassed this time, so it was a draw.

 

“What is this game!?”

“So, the third round is between me and Chii-chan, huh?”

“Ugh… That’s the one thing I wanted to avoid…”

“Then don’t push yourself, Chikage… And Hikari, can you listen to what I have to say?”

 

With Sakuto in between them, the twin sisters placed their hands on each other’s shoulders.

As he watched the cute pair blushing in front of him, Sakuto thought to himself how adorable the scene was.

 

“Okay, let’s go, Chii-chan…”

“Yeah… Come here, Hii-chan…”

 

Thump-thump… Thump-thump──

 

“──Stop right there!”

 

Sakuto interjected his right hand between the faces of the twin sisters.

 

” “Eh??” “

“No, I’m the one who’s supposed to be surprised… Can you both tell me why you’re more embarrassed with each other than when you’re with me?”

“Because…”

“It’s our first time…”

 

As he gazed at the blushing twins, Sakuto let out a deep sigh.

 

──And so.

The three-day trip became an unforgettable experience for the three of them, filled with heart-pounding excitement and suspense like they had never known before.

Chikage, who was not fond of cats, overcame her fear and made a friend named Kusanagi Yuzuki.

In a way, it was Chikage who came out on top in the end.

 

The future of the three, now bound by a strong bond, is──not yet to be told here.

After all, summer has just begun. There’s still plenty of fun times ahead──

 

“When we get back, should we get even more lovey-dovey? Next time we could go to the pool or a fireworks festival!”

“I agree! Sakuto-kun is okay with that, right? We won’t get stranded next time!”

 

Faced with the cute twin sisters’ plea, Sakuto bashfully nodded with an “Okay.”

 

***

 

“Heh, you started keeping a cat?”

“Well, yeah…”

 

This was a week after Sakuto and the others’ trip in early August.

Yuzuki was called by her classmate, Matsukaze Shun, and they met at a cafe.

 

“…Takayashiki, is he still hanging out with those twins?”

“Yeah, well…”

 

Yuzuki replied distractedly while using LIME. Her LIME conversation was with Chikage.

Since then, she had been exchanging messages with Chikage from time to time.

She was concerned about Chikage’s injury, but it seemed to be okay now. Since Chikage sent a LIME saying she wanted to come see the Siamese cat, Yuzuki decided to clean up her messy room when she got home.

Somehow, she felt a strange sense of compatibility with Chikage.

They both avoided talking about Sakuto without saying it, but they seemed to understand each other’s feelings, making their LIME conversations comfortable.

 

(If I leave Sakuto to Chikage, he’ll be fine… I hope she does her best with him.)

 

Yuzuki decided to entrust Sakuto to Chikage.

She scoffed at herself for thinking such thoughts──

 

Seeing Yuzuki’s expression, Shun furrowed his brows and opened his mouth heavily.

 

“Hey… about what happened in junior high school, aren’t you going to tell Takayashiki?”

“…I won’t tell him.”

“You should tell him.”

“Why?”

“If he knew the truth, Takayashiki would──”

“I’m not going to tell him.”

 

Yuzuki cut him off sharply.

 

“…Sorry, I really have to go now—”

 

As Yuzuki stood up and headed for the exit, Shun grabbed her arm.

 

“Why?”

“It’s just… it’s all in the past.”

“…Oh really? Then why—”

“Stop being so persistent!”

 

 

Yuzuki shook off Shun’s arm and finally left the cafe.

Left alone, Shun leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling.

 

“…Why? Why do you always look so bored…”

 

The words muttered by Shun did not echo off the ceiling but vanished emptily into the air.