To Part 3

Kirino has come down with a bad cold, and Kyousuke, as usual, is worried about her, even if he still claims, and will continue to claim, that he hates her. He goes to her room to make sure she’s eating properly, and he finds that she seems to be depressed. It turns out that her novel, called Maisora (妹空, which of course contains the kanji for little sister!), has been published in hardcover format. Kyousuke congratulates her, but she tells him that the author is not her, but one by the pen name of “Rino”, the same name as the main character in Kirino’s novel. In fact, the phone number the editor she met gave her has turned out to be fake.

Kyousuke asks her what she’s going to do, and she says that she will do nothing. Kyousuke gets angry at her defeatism, and he wonders why he’s even worried about the sister he hates so much. Could it be that all along he didn’t hate her but… no, impossible. But whether it’s possible or impossible, the following day he meets Saori and Kuroneko and asks them for advice. By the way, another one person who claims to hate Kirino is Kuroneko, although Saori tells Kyousuke that Kuroneko was very worried about Kirino during Winter Comiket, which Kirino couldn’t attend due to her cold.

After hearing Kyousuke’s story, Saori is surprised he’s willing to do so much for his sister. “As I thought, your relationship isn’t just a mere brother-sister relationship” “That’s not it!” Shouts Kyousuke. “Then, Kyousuke-shi… are you a masochist?” Precisely what Kuroneko told him the other day.

Kyousuke suspects that someone got the business card of a real editor to steal Kirino’s password, since the original was on the website. Funnily enough, Saori says she actually has some connections in that publishing company, and she can arrange a meeting with an editor. Kuroneko volunteers, and she will also take the chance to submit her doujinshi. They pretend to be brother and sister, who have written the doujinshi together, and Kuroneko takes the chance to start calling Kyousuke “oniisan” — something she will continue to do in future volumes, until she becomes Kyousuke’s kouhai!

They meet the editor whose name was on the card that Kirino was given—Kumagai Ryuusuke, alias pudding (he loves pudding because it looks like boobs… what a perverted old man!) And obviously, he’s not the guy Kirino met that day. However, they can’t just bring up the subject yet. Kumagai says he read Kuroneko’s doujinshi and, unfortunately, they can’t publish it. Although it has some good points (he especially liked the original character named… Kirino, a hard blow for Kuroneko!), all in all it’s not good enough. He shows Kuroneko her draft full of corrections in red pen, and Kyousuke notices she’s about to cry.

“You bastard!! There’s no other way of saying it? Who do you think you are, making other people’s little sisters cry?” Kuroneko, still pretending they are siblings, adds “I’m sorry my brother has gotten so mad. When it comes to his little sister, he gets too carried away”

Kyousuke apologizes and Kumagai tells Kuroneko, however, not to give up—but next time she shouldn’t arrange a meeting using her connections but use the normal channels.

They couldn’t talk about Kirino’s novel that time, but they return for a second time, this time with evidence about Kirino being the author of the novel. They have already talked to the editor when the person who calls herself “Rino” comes. She’s a woman in her 20s called “Iori Fate Setsuna” (Fate because she has a quarter of foreign blood), a name she hates since it sounds like an anime character! Something that, during that day, Kuroneko and Kyousuke will use to annoy her. Kumagai explains the situation to her—Kyousuke and Kuroneko, “siblings”, claim that their little sister wrote Maisora. Kumagai says he’s Fate’s ally and that, if they are unable to prove it, they will forbid them from coming to the office again.

They learn from the editor that Fate has been submitting drafts for 10 years and was never successful, something Kuroneko wastes no time in mentioning. Kyousuke also shows the pics they took during their date. However, this isn’t of course enough, and Fate attacks: “I guess your silly sister just read my novel, saw the pictures she took and thought she had written it herself, and you two siscons just went along with it”

By the way, as Kyousuke checked the pictures and papers he had brought, he saw that Kirino drew several pictures of him, with footnotes such as “Kyousuke didn’t have enough money and is pathetically apologizing to the shop assistant” “He finally bought me some cheap earrings, but he has no fashion sense at all and took him forever to choose” “When I poured the bucket over me the idiot got so angry. What a siscon! wwwww” “He saw his sister in a bathrobe and got excited! Is Kiririn’s chastity in danger?”

When it looks like they’ve run out of evidence, however, Kyousuke has an ace up his sleeve. It turns out that the website has two sections, both with different password. One for works you publish, and another for personal use, where Kirino has the draft of her second novel, and both having different passwords, Kirino can still log in. That day, Fate was going to actually bring the draft of the sequel, and Kumagai has already read both. His assessment is that the draft Kyousuke brought is written by the “real” Rino.

Fate tells them how she’s been trying to become a professional writer for 10 years, and how she hates how people like the real author of Maisora, who know little about the art of writing, can be so successful. Kuroneko also agrees, since she’s been working so hard to become a good writer, and yet someone like Kirino is successful while she isn’t. Kyousuke also realizes that he’s like Kuroneko, always living in his sister’s shadow. The perfect Kirino who can do everything: she’s a top student, a model, a successful writer, an athlete. He wonders if he didn’t hate her, at least in part, because he was jealous of her talents.

In fact, Kyousuke tells both Kuroneko and Fate that they aren’t that useless—it is Kyousuke himself that is pathetic. They’ve been working hard, but he hasn’t. He’s never tried. He understands that both Kuroneko and him didn’t do this for Kirino, whom they hate, but for themselves, to satisfy themselves. He goes as far as crying. He begs Fate to return the novel to Kirino, the results of all of his sister’s efforts. Fate is surprised. “Didn’t you just say you hated your sister?”

Kyousuke admits to himself that he’s always been trying to convince himself that he hated Kirino, although in reality he doesn’t really understand what he feels. Meanwhile, Kumagai tells both Fate and Kuroneko not to give up, and even if they can’t become pros, they should at least enjoy writing what they like. They will always find someone who likes it.

Back at home, Kyousuke tells Kirino about what happened. Kirino by the way announces she will stop writing after the second volume of her novel. Kyousuke is shocked. With so many people trying for years to become pros, she’s going to give up so lightly? She claims there are other things she wants to try, although Kyousuke thinks it’s just so she can enjoy some new eroge. Kyousuke also mutters “I’m sorry for everything until now” “What?” “Nothing, forget it”

It’s now February, six months since they met Kuroneko and Saori, and they are holding the second anime appreciation party. As usual, Kuroneko and Kirino are arguing, and suddenly Kuroneko attacks “By the way, your brother confessed to me and told me he loves me” Kyousuke denies it immediately, Saori bursts out laughing, but Kirino remains strangely silent, and just says “how disgusting”. Kyousuke thinks she reacted like that because she’s afraid of losing her friend Kuroneko to him.

At the end of the novel, Kirino tells Kyousuke there’s another counseling session she wants to hold, and that it will be the last.

Comments

Volume 3 is clearly full of siscon/brocon elements, and is actually extremely important to understand volumes 5 and 6. I think that both Kuroneko and Saori are aware of what’s going on. I love it how Kuroneko tauntingly says that when it comes to Kyousuke’s sister (i.e. Kirino), he gets too carried away. Kyousuke really protects Kuroneko this time too, and I think that, seeing how dependable Kyousuke actually is, she’s already starting to develop feelings for him. Being aware that Kirino may also have brocon feelings, it’s interesting to note that some time later Kuroneko tells Kyousuke that she likes him as much as Kirino likes Kyousuke. Taking into account all we know, and the fact that Kuroneko also has feelings for Kyousuke, this probably means that both Kuroneko and Kirino have feelings for him. And we get even more evidence about Kirino’s feelings. For example, although it looks a little silly, the fact that she drew some pictures of Kyousuke with those footnotes. Let’s remember that, after all, Kirino is a 14-year-old girl, and a tsundere to boot, but it’s clear that she was really happy that she was able to go on a date with Kyousuke. Kyousuke thought that Kirino was angry because he might steal Kuroneko from her. However, it’s probably the opposite: she doesn’t want Kuroneko to steal her brother.

As for Kyousuke, he’s slowly starting to realize that he loves Kirino, although it won’t be until volume 6 that he finally admits it, as he shouts to Kirino that he’s not a lolicon, but a siscon. So far, he’s been always telling himself that he hated Kirino, that their relationship was bad because of her. It’s probably the case he doesn’t understand Kirino is a tsundere, but I think the one to blame is Kyousuke. Probably because of jealousy and his siscon feelings, he started to shun Kirino. Let’s not forget that Kirino once reproached Kyousuke for not having behaved like a brother until now. Do you remember that, in volume 2, Kyousuke tells Ayase that thanks to eroge he got close to his beloved sister? In principle, it was to make Ayase hate him so she could make up with Kirino, but Kyousuke, who usually insists so much that he hates Kirino, never actually told us that what he said wasn’t true.

Finally, this chapter showed why I hate criticism. It’s so cruel, often so random. Seriously, I might not like Kuroneko’s doujinshi because that’s not a genre I enjoy, but going as far as harshly criticizing her… I really hate that attitude. Of course, I understand that was Kumagai’s job, but personally this is why I never blog about shows I don’t like. If I don’t like it, I just quietly drop it and forget about it.

So well, another long post, sorry, but volume three is extremely important. Well, until volume 7 comes out, I’ve completed my series of posts about the Oreimo novels. This has proved to be highly successful. I just don’t have the time or skills to translate the novels, but writing long summaries can be a decent surrogate, and I intend to do the same with other novels. The next novel I’ll be blogging in this format is Dekotsun. Although pretty unknown it looks like it will be my thing: it has siscon elements too, apparently lots of fanservice and harem.