My name is Turi. I'm six years old.
I have a five-year-old little sister named Mine.
Mine has straight, dark blue hair like the night sky and golden eyes like the moon. Even from my perspective as her older sister, she's really cute.
She's always sick and running a fever, so she can't eat much and has never grown very big. Since she can't go outside much, her skin is pale as can be.
She's very cute, but it's a little sad that I can't play with her. The other kids all play with their siblings, so I can't help feeling jealous.
Just the other day, Mine had another terrible fever. It stayed so high that we honestly thought she might die, and the whole family was worried sick. For about three days, Mine couldn't even eat or drink water—she was completely wasted away.
Maybe that fever made Mine a little crazy in the head.
Whether it was the fever or not, I couldn't tell, but she started saying strange words, suddenly getting angry out of nowhere, sneaking out of bed while Mom was doing the dishes even though she usually listened properly, and crying without any reason for an entire day straight…
At the time, I figured maybe she was still suffering from the fever, but once Mine's temperature went down, she got even weirder.
Because she said her body felt gross and wanted me to wipe her down.
When I was heating water to cook, she said she wanted warm water to wipe with.
And she wanted it every single day!
Mine would wet a cloth every day and wipe her whole body. She told me, "There are places I can't reach by myself, so help me," and I did.
On the first day, the water in the basin got really dirty, but after three days, the water stayed clean.
"There's barely any dirt—aren't you just wasting water?"
"But it's dirty, so it's not a waste."
No matter what I said, Mine insisted on wiping her body every day. Before I knew it, a corner of the bedroom had turned into Mine's bathing area.
And for some reason, she tried to wipe me too, even though I was only helping. Even when I said "I'm fine," she'd scrub at my face with the cloth, saying "Turi goes outside, so you're dirtier than me."
Sure enough, after wiping Mine the water stayed clean, but after wiping me it turned murky and dirty. Having her shove the grime she'd rubbed off me right in my face was a little unpleasant.
Even so, Mine would just beam. "If we both use it, it's not a waste, right?"
How could I make her understand that using water every day was wasteful?
Carrying a full bucket of water from the well was really hard work, but how could I get that through to her?
And then, she suddenly started tying her hair up.
Mine's hair is perfectly straight, so no matter how tightly you tied it, it would come undone and fall right back down. That's why we'd never bothered tying it before.
She tried tying it several times and kept failing, getting more and more frustrated, until she suddenly started rummaging through the toy basket. From inside, she pulled out the doll Dad had carved from wood and Mom had made clothes for—my treasure.
"Turi. Can I break this?"
"That's the doll's leg! Mine, that's terrible!"
The fact that my sister could so calmly say she wanted to "break" a doll's leg was terrifying. Way too awful.
When I got angry, Mine hung her head and said "Sorry," then pushed her bangs up and let out a sigh. For a five-year-old, the gesture was oddly alluring, and I couldn't help catching my breath.
"Turi, I want a stick like this. How do I get one?"
What Mine wanted wasn't the doll's leg—it was a wooden stick. If that was all, I could just shave down some of the firewood we'd collected. Before she could destroy the doll, I grabbed a knife and whittled a thin stick for her.
She had a lot of requests—"shave this end a little thinner," "don't make this part too sharp, round it off a bit"—but in the end, it turned out to be something Mine was satisfied with.
"Thanks, Turi."
Mine took the stick with a huge smile, then suddenly jammed it into the top of her head.
"Mine?!"
As I stared in shock, Mine took what looked like a stick she'd stabbed into her head and wound her hair around it, then gave it a hard twist. I don't know how she did it, but a single stick held all her hair in place.
I was amazed that her hair stayed put like some noble's magic spell, but I was also surprised that Mine's hairstyle looked like a grown-up's.
"Mine, you can't do that. Only grown-ups pull all their hair up."
"Oh, I didn't know that."
She looked at me with wide eyes as if she'd truly had no idea, then pulled the stick out of her hair. The instant she did, her hair fell loose in a rush.
After that, she did the same thing as before but only gathered the top half, winding and twisting it with the stick.
"Is this one okay?"
"Yeah, I think so."
From then on, Mine always tied her hair up with a wooden stick. From the front, it looked like she had a stick sticking out of her head, but she seemed happy with it.
Oh right, today Mom took the day off from work, so for the first time in a while, we all got to go to the forest together.
We gathered firewood, collected plenty of mushrooms, and picked a lot of herbs for seasoning meat. All of this was needed for Winter Preparations, so every kid who came along worked hard gathering things.
I wish Mine would hurry up and get better so she could come to the forest with us.
"I'm home."
"Welcome back, Turi."
"What did you get? Show me, show me!"
When I got home, Mine peered into my basket with a curious expression on her face. She'd done the same thing last time too—what a weird kid, I thought. But then things got even weirder.
"This! This, give it to me!"
Mine's eyes lit up as she pulled Meriya fruit out of my basket. It was rare for Mine to want something so badly, so I thought I'd indulge her a little and handed over just two fruits.
"Thanks, Turi!"
With an angelic smile, Mine nuzzled the Meriya against her cheek, then went into the storage room. She came back looking positively giddy.
"Mine, what are you—"
The moment I called out to her, Mine suddenly swung a hammer down onto the Meriya.
THWACK! A dull thud, and SPLAT! The Meriya burst apart, splattering everywhere.
Juice splashed onto me too.
"……"
"……"
If you smash something with a hammer, obviously the pulp and juice go flying everywhere, right?
You'd think anyone would know that, right?
"Hey, Mine. What are you doing?"
I said, forcing a smile without wiping the juice off my face.
Mine let out a strange little yelp and jumped.
"…Um, well, you see. I wanted oil."
She had that "I've done it now" expression and looked up at me pleadingly for help.
That was clearly the face of someone who hadn't thought for a second that smashing it with a hammer would make everything explode.
"Even if you want to get oil, there's a proper way to do it! What are you doing?!"
"Oh, really…"
She looked dejected, but was this kid really going to be okay?
We'd just squeezed Weiss oil together the other day—had she forgotten?
Maybe the fevers had truly made her lose her mind!
…Should I talk to Mom about this?
After that, Mom came home from the well where she'd been doing cleaning and dinner prep, and sure enough, she got angry.
It was Mine who'd done it, but I got scolded too. Being an older sister was the worst. At times like these, Mine didn't seem cute at all.
"Turi, Turi. How do you get the oil? Tell me?"
Mom was still fuming, so Mine crept over to me and asked in a whisper.
She wasn't being subtle at all. See—Mom was already looking this way.
"Mom, can I teach her?"
"Sigh, you'd better teach her properly, or it's going to be trouble down the line. Go ahead and show her."
Mom sighed and pointed at the storage room.
The tools and cloth for squeezing oil were all in the storage room, so I took Mine there to show her.
"…You can't use the wooden table in the kitchen because the oil and juice will soak in. Put this metal table down first. Then spread the cloth out properly. Put the fruit inside and wrap it up, or the juice will go everywhere."
Meriya fruit was edible, so normally you'd squeeze oil from the seeds after eating the fruit. But Mine insisted she needed oil from the actual fruit too and wouldn't budge.
Mine was happily swinging the hammer down, but her aim was off, she had no strength, and she kept bending over at the waist. Even when she smashed the fruit, the seeds weren't crushed at all.
On top of that, she only squeezed the cloth after completely crushing the seeds, but with Mine's strength, nothing was coming out.
"Mine, that won't work. The seeds aren't crushed, are they?"
"Ugh… Turi…"
Mine looked up at me with such a pathetic expression that I couldn't help stepping in to help.
I took the hammer from Mine—it was already sticky and slippery with juice, and it nearly slipped out of my grip when I lifted it.
Sighing, I wiped the hammer and gripped it tight.
"You crush the seeds completely like this…"
If it were Dad, he wouldn't even need a hammer—he could use the heavy press weight and crush them easily. Once a boy got strong enough to use the weight, he'd be trusted with real work. But since the weight was too heavy for us, all we could do was crush them little by little with a hammer.
"Then squeeze the cloth like this…"
"Wow! Turi, you're amazing!"
Watching the oil drip drop by drop into the little container, Mine was overjoyed. She was cute. But my arm really, really hurt.
"Thanks, Turi."
"Mine, you can't leave the cleanup undone. Here, let's put everything away."
I showed Mine how to clean up as she fumbled around, clearly not knowing where anything went.
Because she was sickly and small, she looked much younger than her actual age and it was easy to forget, but Mine was already five. Once she turned seven, she'd have her
Even without that, I'd be turning seven next year. Once I started as an apprentice, Mine would end up doing more than half the household chores. But if she didn't even know where the tools were or how to use them, would she really be all right?
I'd need to keep an eye on her condition while gradually having her do more and more chores—otherwise, no one would hire the current Mine for anything.
I had to get Mom to stop coddling her, and as her older sister, I needed to teach her properly too.
"Turi. Give me some herbs too."
"Just a little, okay?"
"Okay!"
Mine picked through the herbs sitting in the basket with a serious expression, smelling each one carefully before adding some to the extracted oil.
I figured she was probably trying to infuse the fragrance, but some of the herbs Mine picked had a smell that belonged in insect repellent—nothing you'd ever want to eat.
Whoa… I should probably use this for dinner before the scent completely takes over.
But when I tried to use the Meriya oil for dinner, Mine threw herself in front of me in a panic.
"Turi! Don't! What are you doing?!"
"If we don't eat it soon, it'll go bad! These herbs—if the scent soaks in too much, it won't be edible anymore!"
"You can't eat it!"
No matter what I said, Mine just shook her head and tried to hide the container of oil. When I looked to Mom helplessly, Mom scolded her too.
"Mine! Turi went and gathered that, didn't she? Stop being selfish!"
"I'm not being selfish! Turi gave it to me!"
No matter how much Mom yelled, she wouldn't listen.
When Mom and I gave up and left her alone, figuring anything we said was useless, Mine started asking for warm water like always.
But then Mine dumped about half the oil straight into the basin of water and started swirling it around with her hand. If she did that, it would be completely unusable. We'd gone to all the trouble of gathering it from the forest!
"Mine!? What are you doing!?"
"Huh? I'm going to wash my hair."
I had no idea what Mine was talking about. This sort of thing had been happening more and more lately.
Confused, I looked down at her, and Mine dunked her hair into the basin and actually started washing it.
She swished the submerged part back and forth, splashing water over her head with her hand again and again. She repeated this until she was satisfied, then wrung her hair tight before drying her head with a cloth.
After patting it dry over and over, she ran a comb through it, and Mine's dark blue hair suddenly took on a gorgeous shine.
"…What is this?"
"Um… 'Simple-chan Rinshan.'"
"Huh?"
"Turi, want to use it too? If we both use it, it's not a waste!"
Having just watched Mine get cleaned up right in front of me, I wanted to try it.
I wanted to feel beautiful too.
But since I'd just spent the whole time scolding Mine, it was a little awkward.
Still, Mine said "You're the one who picked the Meriya and the herbs, Turi—and you're the one who squeezed the oil…," and any awkwardness I felt went flying.
Come to think of it, hadn't I done all the prep work for this myself?
Without hesitation, I undid my braid and dipped my hair into the basin to wash it, just like Mine had done. Mine reached in too, her small hands scrubbing the hard-to-reach spots for me over and over.
"I think this should be enough?"
After drying it with a cloth and running a comb through, my hair went silky smooth just like Mine's. My hair had always been frizzy and rough, the kind that a comb couldn't even pass through, but now it was soft and flowing.
I was so moved by this almost magical result when— "You got so pretty! Turi, you smell nice."
Saying that, Mine combed through my hair with a happy expression for some reason.
I was thrilled to be clean, but why did Mine know how to do all this?
I was sure of it now—Mine had really become weird.
The thought that she might get weirder every time she ran a fever from now on was a little scary.
…But when I saw Mom rushing over to stop Mine from dumping out the basin, only to realize Mine had already used it, I felt just the tiniest bit of excitement wondering what she'd do next.
That was me, Turi, getting pushed around by my weird little sister. And of course, she'll keep pushing me around from now on too.
Incidentally, Mine hasn't even considered that people think she's acting strange. She believes she's blending in perfectly.
Next time, we'll have the debut of major characters outside the family.