Chat Group: Anime Girls are Moist-Chapter 324: Critical Condition...

Under Mai's guidance, they led her to the master bedroom.

Pointing at some clothes on a nearby chair, she pressed a hand to her forehead in exasperation and said, "It's just washing these clothes."

They have to change their clothes every day at that household, especially undergarments, because there's a very, very perverted Rei Ao at home—a beast who can charge in at any moment.

"Alright!"

Kawasaki Saki agreed to this job right away. Not only that, she even planned to wash everything by hand, thinking it was the only way to earn her high pay honestly.

"Then I'll leave it to you,"

Sakurajima Mai said meaningfully, patting her on the shoulder before leaving.

Kawasaki Saki walked up and reached out to pick up the clothing. The first item was a conspicuous men's suit—obviously Rei Ao's.

It was her first time washing a man's clothing, so she definitely felt embarrassed. Even so, she mustered her courage and took it. One piece after another, she noticed something strange: many garments had been violently torn. At first, she was only slightly puzzled—until she found some extremely outlandish lingerie. At that moment, she immediately understood how those torn clothes had ended up that way.

"..."

For a while, she stood there staring at the big bed in the room, lost in thought. Her imagination ran wild. It seemed that something she dared not even picture had taken place here.

...

At the Yotsuba household.

Shiba Miyuki returned home for the weekend. Originally, she should have been quite happy, but the inexplicable older brother, Shiba Tatsuya—who kept following her around—soured her mood. She found it baffling to suddenly have an older brother, and it was even more irritating that he seemed to monitor her every move. Throughout the trip, Shiba Miyuki never said a single word to him.

Once inside the house, everything was tidy and quiet.

"Mom, I'm back," Shiba Miyuki called, but her mother did not respond.

Clang!

A sudden noise came from the direction of the master bedroom. Shiba Tatsuya glanced over coolly, narrowed his eyes slightly, and took out his CAD, preparing his magic.

"Miyuki...?"

Shiba Miyuki's ears twitched. She seemed to hear her mother weakly calling her name.

"Mom!"

Startled, she dashed straight to the master bedroom and pushed the door open.

"Ugh!!"

A strong, pungent medicinal smell assaulted her senses. Inside, a pale figure was trying to stand by steadying herself against the bed. It was her mother. Though she looked frail and exhausted, Miyuki still recognized her.

"Mom!"

Without hesitation, Miyuki rushed forward to support her mother. Once on the bed, Shiba Miya—Miyuki's mother—leaned feebly against the headboard. She was about to speak when—

"Cough, cough, cough!"

A violent fit of coughing prevented her from saying anything further. Her hand, which covered her mouth, was smeared with fresh blood.

"Mom, what's wrong? What's happening to you?"

Seeing her mother in such a state, Shiba Miyuki grew so anxious that tears began to fall. Meanwhile, Shiba Tatsuya—this supposed "son" of Shiba Miya—stood by with a cold, detached look, doing nothing. Given his position, it was not surprising. He wasn't truly Shiba Miya's child and was, in many ways, like a machine devoid of emotion.

"Sister!"

Another voice came from outside. It was Yotsuba Maya, rushing in anxiously with a furrowed brow. Stepping into the room, she took in the scene at once. She knew her sister was at the end of her life, but she never expected it to come this soon. Worse yet, the very thing she least wanted had happened: Miya had intended to hide all this from her daughter, but now Shiba Miyuki had come back unexpectedly and seen everything.

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"Family Head!"

At Maya's arrival, Shiba Miyuki felt as though she had found her pillar of support and pleaded at once, "Family Head, is my mom sick? Should we take her to the hospital?"

"..."

Yotsuba Maya's face was drawn and grim. In a hoarse voice, she spoke a cold but inevitable truth.

"Miyuki...your mother...there's nothing we can do for her now..."

"How can that be?"

Shiba Miyuki shook her head in disbelief. "Just a few days ago, Mom was talking to me. She's just sick!" In her view, medical technology these days could handle most illnesses. But Yotsuba Maya shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Miyuki. Miya's condition isn't something ordinary medicine can cure. It's a complication caused by me."

...

When Maya was twelve, she served in something akin to an official envoy.

[Note: The following portion has been altered!]

Together with Saegusa Kouichi—her fiancé in a marriage arranged for political benefit—and others, she attended an exchange event hosted by the Asian Branch of the International Magic Association. However, they were violently abducted by unknown persons and disappeared. Saegusa Hiroichi was severely injured, losing an eye, and Yotsuba Maya went missing.

Later, after the Yotsuba family conducted extensive searches, they found her at a women-only magical research facility. Following an organized raid, they successfully rescued her, but three days had already passed. In those three days, Yotsuba Maya had been subjected to human-modification experiments, including a "Artificial Magician Experiment."

When she was finally rescued, her mind was nearly destroyed. She was on the verge of mental collapse.

To save her, the head of the Yotsuba family at the time—Yotsuba Genzou—asked Yotsuba Miya (now Shiba Miya) to use mental magic to reconstruct Maya's mind, processing her memories. Because Miya's mental magic could interfere with a person's spirit but not erase memories, Genzou told her to convert all of Maya's recollections—her "experiences"—into "knowledge." Effectively, all of her personal memories were turned into data. That was how they pulled Yotsuba Maya back from the brink of complete mental death.

Yet because all of Yotsuba Maya's original memories had become mere data, it was essentially no different from "killing" the person she used to be. As a result, although Shiba Miya and Yotsuba Maya appeared to be sisters, there was always an invisible barrier between them.

After what had happened to Maya, Shiba Miya carried a profound guilt, as though she had killed her own sister with her own hands.

She repeatedly overused her mental interference magic as a form of self-punishment. Long before she was twenty, she had already spent ten years in and out of convalescent hospitals because of that overuse. Her body was now riddled with complications. Unless a miracle occurred, there was no saving her.

With a heavy heart, Yotsuba Maya recounted her history with her "older sister." It was the first time Shiba Miyuki had heard any of it, and she stood there, dazed.

Shiba Miya, for her part, gazed for a long time at this younger sister—"another person's perfect copy," in her mind—before finally looking away.

Even though she addressed Maya as her sister, even as she faced death, she couldn't truly see Maya that way in her heart. She believed she had already ended her real sister's life at the age of twelve. She had no desire to lift that barrier. Yotsuba Maya, for her part, simply treated her as a different person altogether.

~~~

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