Chapter 69 - Rio and Ange
Clack, the sliding door moved to the side.
"You're early."
Rio looked up at me with a smile playing on her lips.
It was her usual, urban, and sophisticated smile.
When she put on that composed expression, it was so perfectly executed that there wasn't a single opening to be found.
It was a smile like beautifully wrapped gift paper.
However, when I looked at her body, she had become strangely unrefined.
Unusually, she was wearing a tracksuit. Seeing the school emblem on the chest, I wondered if it was the school-designated physical education uniform?
The fabric was blue overall, with white lines running along the sleeves.
It felt like she couldn't find her usual gift wrap today, so she decided to wrap herself in newspaper instead.
Don't tell me this is her loungewear?
When we met at the cafe this morning, her outfit had been incredibly high-effort.
Perhaps noticing my gaze, Rio spoke while pinching the hem of her tracksuit.
"...I thought those monsters might come, so I changed into something easier to move in."
She blushed, saying, "It's tacky, so don't look too much."
"No, I'm relieved. So you actually have the side of a normal high school student in you after all."
"W-Why are you laughing?"
"It's just that whenever you send me a selfie, it's always in perfectly styled school or casual clothes. I thought you were fashionable even at home."
"Because I usually dress properly even in my loungewear! Today is, well, an exception!"
With a bright red face, she began thumping her chest.
Oh... the great Rio is actually being shy. It seems that regarding personal grooming, she possesses quite normal sensibilities.
While being clung to by Rio, I made my way toward the shoe removal area.
"I'll be intruding for now. A tracksuit is fine. I think it's somewhat unrefined and cute."
"Shut up, shut up, shu... Hey, Nakamoto-san, do you smell something?"
Rio's movement came to a dead stop.
"There's a house full of trash around here, right? I was hunting goblins over there. That must be it."
"...I-I see."
"If it's too bad, don't hesitate to blast me with deodorizing spray."
As Rio's mouth twitched, Angelica walked up briskly beside her.
"Excuse us for intruding."
"...Hmph. You were here too."
"Of course. I am my Father's daughter, after all."
For some reason, Angelica's face looked proud. She almost looked triumphant.
"Even so... I am disappointed in you, Rio-san. It seems you have strayed far from the path of a righteous father-con."
"Huh?"
"I don't get what you mean," Rio said, raising an eyebrow.
It was strange how making that expression instantly gave her the atmosphere of a rural delinquent.
"To tell Father he smells... this must be a massive point deduction."
"Isn't it unavoidable? I mean, this is extraordinary. Nakamoto-san doesn't seem to mind, and it's not even her own body odor, so what's the big deal?"
"You just don't understand."
Angelica shrugged in a foreign, "good grief" pose.
"No matter what the circumstances for spreading a foul odor may be, a daughter's way of life is to accept anything if it is her male parent's scent. Do you intend to wail 'stinky, stinky' every day if Father were working a trash cleaning job? If it were me, I would joyfully go to sniff him, saying, 'Thank you for providing for the family even at the cost of getting dirty.'"
"...Aren't you a little broken somewhere?"
"No, it is you who is broken, Rio-san! Because I love Father's body odor too! If you don't wash a pillowcase for over a week, it begins to emit a unique scent, but I find that level actually quite enticing! I sniff it every single day! I'm even excited at the thought that when he gets even older, the famously renowned old-age odor will appear!"
"...What is that... Isn't a daughter supposed to be the type to get in the bath with her father and wash him if he smells?"
"Washing away Father's scent...? Even though he's finally smelling, how sacrilegious! Besides, don't you think Japanese people's body odor is too weak, making it unsatisfying? To be so sensitive about deodorizing when it's already like that is, in my opinion, overkill. Even though Father is a man, his body odor is thinner than the women in my homeland. What is this even about? To be blunt, Father only reaches the perfect fragrance on the morning after he was too busy to take a bath."
"Well, Westerners and Easterners have different constitutions, obviously."
"To tell you the honest truth, I would like him to stop bathing every day. I'd prefer once every three days. ...Um, getting off topic, anyway, unlike the cold-hearted Rio-san, I love Father no matter how much he stinks. Even now, if I felt like it, I could bury my face like this and sniff, and if you really want—"
"You're the one who's broken," I muttered, peeling Angelica off my waist.
"Eh... what? I mean, now I'm curious, has my pillow started smelling like an old man?"
"The Father himself doesn't smell, so it's safe. Besides, I like pillowcases before they've been washed."
"...I'm shocked."
It seems the scalp of a man turning thirty-three can contaminate fabric in just seven days.
Until just a little while ago, I was someone treated as an "older brother" by society.
The majority of my heart is still in my twenties.
The sensitivity of a man in his around-thirtys is likely the way he gets slightly wounded every time he becomes aware of his aging.
"In an attempt to back him up, aren't you actually dealing the most damage to Nakamoto-san?"
Ignoring the blank-faced Angelica, Rio ran a hand through her hair.
"Just hurry up and get inside already. I want to lock the door."
Hurried by her, Angelica busily stepped into the entrance.
While watching Rio lock up out of the corner of our eyes, we took off our shoes.
"It'll be cramped, but just relax as you like. The room right after you enter is the living room."
Taking her up on the offer, we entered first.
I walked alongside Angelica through the hallway that creaked with every step.
The first thing that caught my eye were the yellowed shoji screens.
Next were the parched tatami mats.
It was an old house.
How should I put it... it felt as if time had stopped in the mid-Showa era.
The sense of daily life was laid bare, with discarded clothing scattered here and there. Since they were men's clothes, they were likely King Leo's.
As for the walls, there were several traces where stickers had been applied and then forcibly peeled off.
Perhaps remnants of mischief that Rio or King Leo did when they were children?
...Right, of course.
Even Rio had a childhood. There might have been a time when she collected stickers with her older brother and played by sticking them all over things.
Thinking about that, a tremendous amount of guilt weighed down on me.
I, who was born from someone's womb and raised, was flirting in a public restroom with...
"Ugh, uuu..."
"Father...?"
"Are you perhaps worried about the smell of the pillow?" Angelica asked, offering completely misplaced concern.
"I-I'm sorry, Father? No matter how much I personally like it, mentioning that smell was itself out of bounds, wasn't it? I've gone and kicked Father's naive old-man heart with all my might, haven't I?"
As Angelica frantically rubbed my back, I told her, "It's not that."
"I just somehow started hating myself."
When we entered the living room, four zabuton cushions were lined up as if surrounding a wooden dining table.
King Leo. Rio. Mother. And presumably, there were four for Mother's partner as well.
While wondering which seat belonged to whom, I sat down on the cushion at the far right.
Beside me sat a pale-faced Angelica.
As for Rio, she passed right in front of us and headed toward the kitchen.
She was putting a kettle on the fire, so she was probably going to make tea.
She's surprisingly attentive, I thought, watching her slender back, when Rio turned toward us using only her neck.
"Hey, Nakamoto-san."
"It's just a suggestion," she said in a curt tone.