Fikush-ON!

Ch. 24: Actual Summer Vacation

Now that my summer vacation had "officially" started, there was nothing stopping me from staying up until dawn. That's exactly what I did the day after my job ended. I bought hell of a lot of snacks, spending my night playing games. I ended up pulling an all-nighter, only hitting the hay at 8am. The rest of my family left for a trip early in the morning, leaving me to watch the house for a couple of days. No one to disturb my sleep, and no one to complain about me making too much noise, great! There's nothing better than waking up naturally, without something to disturb yo—

Ding, dong!

...of course.

I slowly opened my tired eyes, staring at the ceiling. Damn it, I don't even need to check the clock to know that I haven't slept enough, maybe five hours or so. Ah, whatever, I'll just go back to sleep...

Ding, dong!

What, again? Ugh, just give up already... Or, maybe it's something important? Maybe I should check it out, I can always go back to sleep later. Taking some seconds to gather my strength, I got out of the bed, picking up my pants and t-shirt from the floor. As I was getting dressed, I heard the front door opening.

"Is anyone home?"

That's a voice I'd recognize a kilometer away.

"...yes, come on in!" I gave a tired answer.

Finally getting dressed, I checked myself from the closet's mirror to make sure I didn't look like a total mess. Eh, only half-a-mess, it'll do. I slowly moseyed downstairs, spotting the visitor in the living room. She, of course, was Ui. However, there was another girl, too, who had crouched down to pet Dash.

"Good morning, Eiji-kun," Ui greeted me.

"Yo," I said with a wave of a hand, and nodded towards the unfamiliar gal. "Who's she?"

The girl turned to look at me, frowning. "Geez, give me a break!"

That's when I finally recognized her. "Ah, the cat girl. You've got yourself some tan."

'Some' was an understatement; her skin was totally tanned, which is why I didn't recognize her at first.

"That's because we went on a trip to a rock festival, and it was sunny out there," Azusa explained, and frowned again. "And I have a name, you know!"

I just smirked at her, as she continued petting Dash. As the rest of my brain began to wake up, I noticed something about the girls.

"Why are you gals in your school uniforms?"

"Ah, we're planning on going to school to give Jun-chan some treats, her Jazz Club practices even during the summer break," Ui explained, showing me a small lunch box in her hands. "We came over to ask if your sister would like to come along, too."

I sighed tiredly. "Sorry, but the rest of my family went on a trip just this morning, Tamiko included. They'll be gone for a couple of days."

"...oh, that's a shame," she muttered.

I kept looking at her for a few seconds. "What if I came in her stead?" I asked half-seriously.

I didn't expect to get much of an answer, but to my surprise, Ui actually seemed to think about it. "...I wonder if the school would allow it. It's summer vacation, so maybe they're not so strict about rules."

Wait, gal, I was just joking. Unsurely, I turned to look at Azusa. She kept her eyes on Dash, staying quiet. Almost as if she was thinking about it, too.

"What do you think, Azusa-chan?" Ui suddenly asked her.

Azusa frowned a bit, but sighed right after. "...fine. But even a single word from a teacher, and you're out of there, got it?" she said, glancing at me from the corner of her eye.