Summary “Ore no Imouto ga Konna Ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai” Volume 8

Part 1

Behind the school building, that fated afternoon. Kuroneko’s white version, Shironeko, with almost teary eyes, waits for Kyousuke’s answer, once she confessed her feelings to him. Kyousuke is very confused (I guess that it was an even bigger shock given how dense he is!).

Is there a person he likes? Doesn’t he like her? She keeps asking those questions. Or is he… confused? Of course.

“Well, what a pathetic boy~ so useless”

“Say whatever you want” Lol, I’ve long held the theory that Kyousuke is a big M, he may be enjoying this!

“But I like that pathetic side of yours… well, if it comes to this, I will have to resort to something else…”

Instinctively, Kyousuke takes one step backwards…

“Don’t try to escape. Sit down on your knees!” orders Kuroneko, Kyousuke meekly complying. Is she going to chew him out?

“Do you… do you like… bentou?” she asks a stunned Kyousuke. “If you go out with me, I will cook for you every day. I’m confident in my cooking skills; I wouldn’t even lose to Tamura-sempai [Manami]. I can even make clothes for you; we can cosplay together, so it’d be very beneficial to you to become my boyfriend”.

“Kuroneko…” Kyousuke notices that she’s even shaking a little.

“Isn’t that enough? What a greedy male, well I can also do… other things”

“Ah.. eeeeh?”

“I didn’t think of anything dirty, you know”

“Well I understand your feelings but…”

“Listen to me well because I won’t say it again. I love you. I love you more than anyone in this world. I only met you last year, but I don’t have such feelings for anyone else. Even if this body were to disappear from this world, I would fall in love with you in the next life” totally Kuroneko-like confession!!

However, Kyousuke needs some time, and promises to give an answer the following day, after the small party Kirino and her otaku friends will held in the aftermath of Comiket. Back home, Kyousuke doesn’t know how to speak to Kirino, after the whole Mikagami incident when Kirino pretended to have a boyfriend and Kyousuke became desperate.

However, Kirino is more direct and tells him to sit on his knees… the second time today! “About yesterday… are you aware of the things you said?”

Things like “If you want to be her boyfriend, you have to make her dearer to you than she is to me, or I won’t approve of it”.

So what would have Kyousuke done if Kirino actually got a boyfriend? If she was actually in love with him?

“Punch him two or three times, and after talking to him if he was a good guy and you loved him… I’d have no choice but to cry, because I’d hate the idea, but I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it”

“What a siscon you are, how disgusting!”

But Kirino means another thing.

“How would you exactly show that I am dear to you, though? Or you didn’t think of anything?”

“Well, I didn’t but… you can ask me any favor, but only one!”

“Then… if soon a girl who is dear to you confesses her love to you, please think about it carefully, because that girl really likes you”

As usual, vague statement on purpose. Does Kirino know about Kuroneko’s intentions, or rather she’s talking about her own intentions?

The following day, before the party, Kyousuke drops by Manami’s, and Manami quickly knows that Kyousuke is worried about something: of course, he’s been thinking about Kuroneko all day long.

“There’s nothing troubling me!”

“Kyou-chan… I will get angry?”

This has an immediate effect on Kyousuke. Manami hasn’t gotten angry at him in three years, but that’s the thing he fears the most in this world. Ayase may get angry and just murder you, but Manami would get really angry at you, from the bottom of her heart: Kyousuke prefers death over that!!

“I’m sorry I lied to you!!! Yes, there’s something troubling me!!!”

“Oh, I understood, but Kyou-chan, please stand up” Kyousuke was on his knees, for the third time in a row. To their dismay, there were two girls, two classmates of theirs, going to the shop, who stop gossiping.

“So at last Tamura-san found out that Kousaka-kun was cheating on her? It will be hell!” Mwhahaha.

To Kyousuke’s surprise Manami knows that it is about Kuroneko: she doesn’t have superpowers, but even if Kyousuke didn’t know there were rumors about them in the school. It’s normal, since Kyousuke often went to her classroom, they were in the same club, they left school together…

And Manami’s advice is clear: properly face Kuroneko, and don’t rush it.

“To think that Kyou-chan is already at that age~”

Mwhaha grandma Manami!!

Anyway, that evening Kuroneko and Saori come over, and first of all they have something to tell Saori…

“Sorry!!!” after all, because of all that happened in volume 7 Saori really came to belie that for the second time in her life, her group of friends would be dissolved, and she’d be lonely again.

“Haha, don’t worry about it, I was OK~” replies Saori.

What a relief…

“Or is that what you bastards thought I’d say?!?!”

“WHAAAAT?”

Suddenly, Saori is wearing sunglasses… the girl they met when they visited her house.

“Sit down on your knees, now!!!”

And for the fourth time, Kyousuke has to kneel before a girl. I’m sure this M guy is enjoying it!”

“Erm… Saori-san?”

“Who said you could speak?!”

Mwhaha Saori kicking us, but finally she breaks down in tears, and says she’s so glad everything’s back to normal again. It’s funny how Saori changes her character depending on the situation, I guess that makes it easier to her to convey her true feelings, what she feels, since she always has trouble doing that, as we were able to see in her PSP route.

But they must be punished for making her suffer: they must have a fun time together, no fighting!

After talking about Comiket, and Kuroneko and Kirino arguing over Meruru (Third season), Kyousuke tells Kirino he has something to show to her. And here we come to something that seems pretty important. Kyousuke admits to us that yes, in principle he hates his sister, but after all what’s happened, his attitude towards her has changed. They made friends together, he protected her secret, he felt all lonely after he left to America, he went all the way to the USA to bring her back, he said very clearly that he wouldn’t give her to another guy and was elated when it turned out she didn’t have a boyfriend…

He admits it, at last. He’s woken to it. He’s a siscon. He can’t understand her, she may hate him, but his feelings won’t change. He wants to improve his relationship with her. And it’s funny that Kyousuke says that Kirino’s actions made him understand he’s a siscon, but at the same time he says that Kirino hates him. That is, even if this is a big step forward, he doesn’t seem to conceive the idea that Kirino’s actions, such as going to the US, were actually to make him realize that! He even dismisses all signs that Kirino might actually be in love with him. It’s impossible! Yet, he’s started to admit, at long last, that he has (strong) siscon feelings.

And the thing he has to show her is… he’s put one of the photo stickers they got during their date in volume 7 on his cellphone! And the wallpaper image is also a photo of Kirino! He wants to see Kirino everywhere! His Kirino!!

But predictably, Kirino gets in a sweet tsuntsun rage…

“Die!!!!! What’s this, even more sexual harassment towards your imouto? This pervert!!”

Before they leave, Kuroneko has some sweet words for Saori.

“Thanks for this party, thanks for Comiket. It was very fun. Ever since I met you, I’ve had a lot of fun, so thank you”

Aww, Saori has to wipe her tears. Kuroneko has been becoming surprisingly honest lately ^_^

Kyousuke sees off Saori and Kuroneko, and decides to walk a little with Kuroneko. Of course, they are both tense. Kuroneko tells him that she was happy to do the cosplay with him, and she think she looked cool.

Kyousuke thinks of Manami’s words, but also of Kirino’s words (whether she meant this, or it backfired her). And all of a sudden…

“Let’s go out together”

“!!” Again, Kuroneko with teary eyes.

And thus, Kyousuke and Kuroneko became lovers.

Part 2

“Hey Kuroneko… no nothing, what are you doing now?”

“Trying to summon the Flames of Purgatory to this world” says Kuroneko on the other side of the phone.

“Erm, a manga or a novel?”

“A manga”

Well, this is a sample of their kinda tense conversations after becoming lovers. They agree to meet in the club room the following day, although Kyousuke regrets not asking her if they could meet to go to school together. And should he still be calling her Kuroneko? He tries picturing it…

“Ru… Ruri~”

“What is it, Kyousuke?”

“UOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” actually cries Kyousuke, all excited.

“Shut up!! What do you think the time is?” shouts Kirino from the other side of the wall…

That wall, reflects Kyousuke, which has always been the symbol of our separation, the distance between us. From which he could hear the music she was listening to, her friends when they came over… every time he sees this wall, he thinks of Kirino. To be able to hear her voice from the other side of the wall makes him a little happy, although it also reminds him a little of the time when they ignored each other.

The following day, Kyousuke didn’t really get to sleep, he was too nervous about his girlfriend.

“I want to meet Kuroneko so badly!!” he exclaims.

Suddenly, someone knocks on the door. Kuroneko?!?! She came to meet him?! He runs downstairs…

“WELCOME!!!!!”

“Oh, Kyousuke-kun, I’m glad you are so happy to see me”

“… Mikagami, what do you want?”

Lol, that’s none other than Kirino’s fake boyfriend, Mikagami, and even if it wasn’t true, Kyousuke doesn’t like him too much.

“Plus, Kirino isn’t here”

“I came to meet you, Kyousuke-kun”

Anyway, the point is that poor Mikagami (Kyousuke may hate him, but I find him a nice guy) is feeling lonely (he confesses this almost in tears!). All these years he’s been living both abroad and in Japan, and to make things worse he’s an otaku: that is, he’s a complete candidate to belong to the Neighbor’s Club in Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai—he has no friends.

When he learns that Kyousuke is actually leaving now because he has club activities (even if it’s summer), Mikagami begs him to allow him to come with him, he wants to meet friends. And even if Kyousuke is actually a little tsundere (I guess like his sister&father), he takes pity on him: he’s like a male version of Kirino one year ago, so after phoning the club president he allows him to come.

On their way to the club, Kyousuke realizes that maybe Mikagami can help him, since he’s been worried about something ever since he became Kuroneko’s boyfriend.

“Mikagami, you seem pretty popular with girls, right? Well, I’d like to ask you for advice… you know, I have a girlfriend now”

“Congratulations!”

“So well, when you start going out with a girl…”

“Yes?”

“When is it OK to touch her boobs?”

Mwhahahaha Kyousuke is really a pervert!!! Mwhahahaha, poor Mikagami almost chokes, but Kyousuke claims it’s actually very important and it’s been bugging him all night… haha I guess Kuroneko and Kirino and Ayase were right about him!! But Mikagami doesn’t have an answer so he phones… Misaki-san (the woman in the agency who wanted Kirino to go abroad). And Misaki-san, who is also apparently a pervert, gives Kyousuke the OK! If they are going out, it’d be weird if he was so reserved!

“To say such things… I guess I was mistaken, I thought you were the ideal brother” says Mikagami.

“I’m not an ideal brother. I’m just a total siscon”

“I know. But even if you aren’t the ideal brother, you are able to help Kirino out”

“Of course!”

Well, before they arrive in the school, the topic of Kirino has come up twice. First, Kyousuke, thinking about that wall separating their rooms, the second Mikagami who thinks that Kyousuke may not be the ideal oniichan, but he can be there for Kirino.

“IS THAT PRETTY BOY KOUSAKA-SEMPAI’S BOYFRIEND?!?!?!?!!?!”

Mwhaha, that’s none other than Sena, who’s about to have a nosebleed when Kyousuke says he wants to introduce them to Mikagami.

“PIPIPIPI, the pretty-boy meter is going up.. 7000…. 8000… IT CAN’T BE! IT’S OVER 9000!!!”

Kyousuke hits her “tsukkomi” style to make her calm down.

“Ouch, Kousaka-sempai, violence is not allowed!”

“Shut up, fujoshi, or I’ll fondle your boobs, you female pig”

LOOOL, seriously, when did Kyousuke become this awesome? So he’s also an S towards Sena.

“Kousaka-sempai, you are behaving like a brutish character in a BL game. Fuhihihihi, this is sexual harassment~”

And I guess that Sena is a complete M!

Kyousuke introduces Mikagami to the club president, and then to Makabe-kun.

“So you are…?”

“He’s Kousaka-sempai’s boyfriend, right?! Aww, my poor brother will feel so lonely, but this is so moe!!”

I just can’t get enough of Sena’s randomness! Mhwhaha. She wants Mikagami to join their club…

“But that can’t be, he isn’t a student in this school” says Makabe.

“Hahahaa, Makabe-senpai, are you… jealous? You got a new and very cool rival! But don’t worry; I don’t think this will be enough to break your love with the club president!”

“I’m sorry Mikagami” says Kyousuke, “these guys are just out of their minds. I think the only ones who are normal are me, and to some extent Makabe-kun… although he crossdressed the other day”

“Forget about that!! And who was the one who wanted to force the girls to make eroge?”

“Forget about that!” replies Kyousuke too.

But on the contrary, Mikagami is actually happy; he finds them very funny and interesting.

Kuroneko arrives shortly after, and of course both she and Kyousuke are very tense, something the others notice.

“Should we tell them about us?” he whispers to Kuroneko, she replies it’s up to him. Suddenly, Kuroneko notices that Kyousuke is looking at her pretty white thighs…

“I’m sorry” he says.

“Why are you sorry?” haha, what an S, Kyousuke exclaims. She loves doing that. And I guess Kyousuke is also a big M, so he’s totally OK. But Sena interrupts their SM play to take her revenge and tells Kuroneko that Kyousuke wanted to fondle her boobs.

“To harass me when you have a girlfriend…”

“EEEH?” say both Kuroneko and Kyousuke,. Who hadn’t told anyone!!! It turns out that everyone in the club thought they were dating… hell, everyone in the school. So they are all surprised when Kyousuke actually admits that they started going out… yesterday.

Nobody can believe it, and then Mikagami goes and says…

“Kyousuke-kun!!! But I thought you were going out with your sister?!?!”

“You bastard, imouto moe eroge maniac!! You thought I wanted to touch my sister’s boobs?!?!?!!?”

Everyone thinks so, Kyousuke! Problem is… he said this in front of Kuroneko!!

The club members actually like Mikagami and they decide to show him the school and then go to Makabe’s house. They tell him he can come by any time he wants, even if he can’t formally join the club. I’m glad for him, and the second time Kyousuke helps an otaku make friends! Therefore, Kuroneko and Kyousuke are now alone, and Kuroneko has something to tell him…

“Do you want to touch them?”

“WHAT?!”

“I’m not angry, really. And I also…”

“Do you want me to touch them?!”

“GO TO HELL!!! I mean I’ve also been nervous and I didn’t know how to talk to you, what to say… I couldn’t sleep all night, thinking about you. So I can’t really blame you for that, and I’ve heard that guys are like that after all”

But Kyousuke thinks that Kuroneko may not really be aware of the kind of erotic fantasies he had about her last night. Mwahaha, this guy.

Anyway, we come to a point that I don’t know how important may be, but I think it’s somewhat important. Kuroneko shows him a kind of diary she wrote last night, when thinking what she’d want to do with him, she “simulated” their dates, etc., etc. It’s a black notebook, and she filled it in one night.

“It’s scary” he says. It’s just… he sees a book full of kanji; she wrote that in one night thinking about him. His erotic self-pleasure fantasies can be seen as cute and childish in comparison to this. And Kyousuke realizes what it is to date an “emo” girl (I know emo is not the best word for Jakigan Denpa Onna, but I can’t find a better one). He can’t understand her. Is it me, or is he starting to question if he should date her? He still finds her cute, though, when he reassures that even if it’s scary, he’s happy she did that for him.

Among the things written there, he spots one “going to a date with sempai”. So Kuroneko wants to go on a date with him. Kyousuke suggests going to a popular date spot that Kirino told him about when they did the fake date, but Kuroneko isn’t too happy when she hears it was Kirino, so Kyousuke ends up suggesting something random, like going to a botanical garden, and Kuroneko actually accepts. So different from Kirino who would have told him to be serious about it! He almost cries… and yet, he realizes something.

With Kirino, their conversations are always exchanging verbal attacks.

With Ayase, it’s always a “boke” and “tsukkomi” thing with some one-sided violence.

With Manami, they can spend the time leisurely conversing.

But with Kuroneko… their conversations are always fragmented.

Half a page was spent on this, and I wonder about the reason, but might not bode too well for Ruri… and there’s something more. Kyousuke wants to take a look at more pages, to know what Kuroneko actually wishes to do… although the next page has a horrible, scary, wailing picture of her. She says it’s a mistake, and she shows the illustration she meant him to see…

This one is the total opposite of the other picture. Around a dinner table, Kyousuke is sitting. With another person. Kirino. An everyday scene, but Kuroneko is not there. Why is Kirino there instead of Kuroneko?

“You don’t understand? My journey will still be long”

“I can’t understand what you mean, but in this picture Kirino and me look happy. If there’s something I can do, I want to do it. I’m your boyfriend, after all”

I’m not too good at interpreting symbolic stuff, but even for me it is pretty evident. Thus finishes the chapter. A picture of desperation representing Kuroneko herself, and a happy scene with Kyousuke and Kirino. I also don’t want to jump the gun, so I will wait for developments, but I think something big will happen by the end of the volume (I haven’t seen any spoilers, so I don’t actually know!). But I think Kyousuke’s attitude towards Kuroneko is not very nice. I hope he doesn’t do anything that will make her sad.

Part 3

Kyousuke gets a call from Ayase… the second time he visits Ayase’s room. But as she leads him there, he notices a metallic object in her hand, which she’s keeping behind her back. Ayase… a yandere… that’s a knife for sure! She wants to kill him!!

Fortunately, Ayase is holding no knife, only her beloved handcuffs.

“Your hands, please~”

Let me say it once again. In a cute girl’s room, getting handcuffed by her, Kyousuke I hate you, you lucky bastard don’t deserve it!!!

“So I heard you have a girlfriend. Congratulations” she says after having locked the door.

“Well yeah, so I won’t be able to sexually harass you again. I’m sorry…” mwhaha. And Ayase’s reaction is totally priceless: she takes a lighter and holds it near his handcuffs. And now they are engaging in SM play. You bastard, playing rough games with a girl when you have a girlfriend!!!

But Ayase doesn’t seem too pleased about Kyousuke going out with Kuroneko:

“What do you plan to do about Kirino?” she asks him.

Eh? Why Kirino? What does she have to do with this? I guess that everything, dear Kyousuke, but once again we see that the focus is on Kiririn~

“Then I can’t use you, oniisan!! You were someone I could ask for advice regarding Kirino, but if your relationship grows cold… you can’t allow that, oniisan!”

“I don’t get it. You should be happy. Wasn’t that your objective?”

Ayase glares at him.

“Get out of here!!! You big liar!!!!! You are all lies!!!! Like when you were in my room last time and you asked me to marry you!!”

And it turns out that Ayase’s mother was home, and Kyousuke, in a panic, falls down the stairs, running away afterwards (and although I’ve reread the passage a couple of times, it wasn’t mentioned if Ayase took the handcuffs off… so imagine the situation!) Anyway, although it shouldn’t come as a surprise, Ayase really wants Kyousuke and Kirino to get along… and calling him a liar… maybe she actually want him to be a siscon? She also mentions that Kyousuke telling her to marry him… so maybe she also likes him ^_^

When Kyousuke returns home full of injuries, having fallen down the stairs, Kirino looks surprisingly worried about him, one of those times it’s abundantly clear she can also get really deredere, and she gets the first-aid kit to disinfect his wounds.

“Kirino… Kuroneko and I are dating” Kyousuke finally tells her.

Kirino stops, but continues disinfecting after a few seconds.

“When you told me the other day that if someone dear to me confessed, I should think about it… you meant Kuroneko, right?”

“I’m finished” she says and leaves angrily. Which confirms my suspicion: she must have meant herself, not Kuroneko. I’m surprised how well Kirino has taken this blow, unless she actually knew… I’m still wondering what that long phone call at the end of volume 7 between her and Kuroneko was about.

Later that afternoon he’s going on a date with Kuroneko, although he doesn’t find Kuroneko… but rather a small girl dressed in white, with small angel wings on her back… Kamineko, an angel, Ruri informs him.

“You look good, kinda erotic… your boobs look bigger”

Kuroneko remains silent, and probably angry. Kyousuke won’t get to touch them yet, it seems. And again… was Kyousuke like this before?!

They visit an electronics store and Kuroneko really seems to want a tablet, but she can’t afford it. Kyousuke wants to buy it for her, as a present for his girlfriend and a way of remembering their first date, but she refuses: she will make use of his “reserves” another time.

“But are you sure I am your first girlfriend? It’s as if you were used to it, knowing what to say, being kind…”

“Well, Kirino has often trained me”

“I see, what a siscon”

Afterwards, they go to see the place where Kuroneko works part-time.

“Should we hold hands?” suggests Kyousuke, but Kuroneko questions doing that in public. “Oh well, if you don’t want to it’s OK, although when I went on a date with Kirino we walked arm in arm~ It’s really a pity I won’t be able to hold hands with Kuroneko~”

“Do you think that you can get me to do anything you want just by saying that you also did it with Kirino?”

“No, no, if that was the case I’d tell you that Kirino let me touch her boobs”

“You… you touched your sister’s boobs?!”

After seeing the bookshop, owned by an old lady who knows Kuroneko’s mother, they go to a park to have bentou.

“Was today boring?”

“Of course not!!”

“I don’t say interesting things… I have never dated a boy… are you regretting being my boyfriend?”

Kyousuke reassures her he’s really had a lot of fun and learned a lot about her (which was the goal of the “ceremony”), which makes him happy.

The following day another “ceremony” from her notebook will be carried out: Kyousuke is to visit Kuroneko’s house, which is close to his own. It’s a small, old-fashioned Japanese house. And Kirino has never been there, it feels good for Kyousuke to know he has the advantage over his sister (somehow I have a feeling this small fragment is actually important as for Kyousuke’s motivations, but don’t ask me why). Her sisters are away playing.

“Oh, it’s a pity; I wanted to meet your sisters”

“Are you a lolicon?”

Mwhahah good one Kuroneko. Her parents aren’t home either and this means…

“We are alone in the house?!” you have a good chance, Kyousuke~

Anyway, it seems like “sex” isn’t one of those ceremonies yet. No, it’s not like Kyousuke is thinking about that, of course not, he repeats. They end up watching Maschera, and the “Contract Ceremony” between the main character and the Queen of Night is pretty ecchi… and little after, Kuroneko says she’s going to the bathroom. To Kyousuke’s surprise, and excitement, he finds out that she’s actually taking a bath. But why?! Could it be… she wants to get intimate?!

“UOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DODODODODODO” Kyousuke starts going crazy!

But before anything happens, Kuroneko’s imoutos come back.

“Ruri-nee’s boyfriend!!!!!!!!!” cries the older imouto, Hinata. “She really had one!!”

Kyousuke introduces himself.

“Ooh, then you are the bitch’s oniisan!” that’s the way Kuroneko often refers to Kirino. “Can I call you the bitch’s oniisan?”

“Of course not!”

“Then I’ll call you Kyousuke-kun”

But the youngest sister, Tamaki, has another way of calling him…

“Oniichan~”

Can such a cute creature exist on this world? Kyousuke wonders. No wonder Kuroneko never brought Kirino to her house. If Kirino saw these cute loli imoutos…

“So Ruri-nee is taking a bath” says the precocious Hinata grinning.

“Ahahaha, yeah, how weird even if she has a guest”

“Such a poor excuse. So Kyousuke-kun, are you getting married with Ruri-nee?”

Kuroneko said “she has a boy with whom she has exchanged vows”. Hinata thought it’d be a 2D boyfriend, or an imaginary boyfriend, but she’s surprised she actually had one!! Kuroneko is none too pleased to see her imoutos back so soon, and especially when Hinata asks…

“Where you going to carry out your vows now? Nyufufu, should we leave?”

“No! I just was nervous and sweating so I wanted to take a bath”

“Fufu, nervous why? Say why, say why”

“Ku… kuku… kukukukuku…” Kuroneko finally breaks down and decides to teach her imoutos a (scary) lesson. Unfortunately, the ceremony that she had in mind couldn’t be carried out: to go to the swimming pool with Kyousuke.

Back at home, Kirino is listening to music on her iPhone (actually, she’s singing the OP of the Oreimo anime!) and she is elated because her novel is going to get an anime version. She makes Kyousuke listen to the seiyuu auditions, and one of them is actually Meruru’s seiyuu, so imagine how happy she is. But after some time listening to the same lines, Kyousuke gets bored and Kirino complains that lately he’s been unpleasant to her. And to show him, she decides to repay in kind, and she’s also put Kyousuke’s picture on her phone…

“So I hope you can understand my feelings now”

“So… you love me?”

“Of course not!!” she just wants to show him how it feels, since Kyousuke did the same with her picture. She says she doesn’t really want to carry it, so if he’s sorry she’ll remove it.

“Then remove it now, if you hate it that much” but I guess it being a “retaliation” was just a pretext ^_^

She then kicks him, and Kyousuke ends up tripping and falling on top of her, in a not very different way from that time when Ayase and Kanako had come over… but this time their bodies come into contact in a very… dangerous place.

The following day Kuroneko comes over: again, part of her “ceremonies”. She shows Kyousuke the game they are developing for the club, and Kyousuke is pleased to hear that Kuroneko actually accepted some of Sena’s proposals (she even calls her “Sena” now) so Kuroneko is really opening up. There are two minor issues about the game…

a) Kyousuke sucks at it

b) Kuroneko actually recorded her voice and whenever when the character takes damage, her voice can be heard… in a way that can be easily misunderstood as being perverted. (“Please, stop~”, “An~~”, “Kyaaa~”)

And Kuroneko is helping Kyousuke control it behind him, in a very intimate position. And Kirino arrives at that moment. But for being an awkward situation, Kirino is again very calm… she just says she’s going to leave. Kuroneko asks her to join the game; she didn’t come to her house just to exclude her.

“After all, what am I to you?” she asks Kirino.

“My… friend”

Kirino politely declines nonetheless.

Little afterwards, Kyousuke and Kuroneko are going to a fireworks display. After some shenanigans at Kuroneko’s (with, as Kyousuke calls her, Lolineko, i.e. Hinata), when we learn that Kuroneko goes as far as making poor Tamaki call her “oneesama”, they go to the display…

“Did you have fun with me this summer?”

“Yes, I won’t ever forget this summer”

“Really?”

“Of course, I will always like you”

“Thanks, Kyousuke”

If this was an eroge, they’d be about to get a happy ending, since not much is left of her notebook.

“So… what’s next?”

Kuroneko shows him a page.

Break up with sempai.

Part 4

As could be expected, Kyousuke took a hard blow after Kuroneko decided to break up with him, but he was expecting to solve everything once he met Kuroneko at school the following day, but he couldn’t find her and rushed to her classroom, where Sena told him that Ruri had transferred to another school – In fact, Sena knew about it since before the summer holidays.

Kuroneko didn’t pick up the phone either, and desperate Kyousuke went to her house, which she found completely empty. Feeling empty and tired, he returned home and fell asleep. Once he woke up, he thought about calling his reliable Manami, but he had second thoughts. No, there’s someone better to ask for advice to, and fortunately her door is not locked.

He looks at Kirino, who’s sleeping. Like the Sleeping Beauty, thinks siscon Kyousuke. He tries to wake her up, but she keeps sleeping. ‘She might not even notice it if I touched her boobs’ thinks Kyousuke who has become a boob fetishist lately. I wish he had done so. Meanwhile, Kirino is having a wet dream about Miyabi-chan, from the Sissis game, and ends up hugging Kyousuke in her sleep. He finally wakes her up… but of course she panics. He covers her mouth with his hand.

“Calm down, calm down!!”

As Kyousuke himself admits, it looks as if he was raeping her.

“Kirino, this is not it! It’s a mistake! I’m gonna release you, but don’t cry please!”

“You were thinking of assaulting your imouto in her sleep?!?!”

Mwhaha, maybe she was looking forward to it, poor Kirino.

“And you did the same to me once!” says Kyousuke, and Kirino has no option but to accept it. But she doesn’t want him to turn on the lights because… she’s not wearing any make up! Haha, I love it how Kirino doesn’t her Oniichan to look at her if she’s not pretty~

So well, Kyousuke tells her about all that happened (Kirino didn’t know about it either) and he finally breaks down in tears. In one of those scenes that clearly show what Kirino is capable of, in terms of being deredere and a cute little sister, she hugs him from behind and comforts him.

“I’m your ally. It doesn’t matter how useless my aniki is, even if everyone leaves you, I will always be with you, worry about you, and also scold you. So cheer up, aniki”

Although the ending of the volume is as ambiguous as usual, this was so close, damn it. Wincest almost came to finally materialize! The closeness of both is again emphasized when Kirino tells Kyousuke that she’s sure that, if she got a boyfriend she loved a lot but he dumped her, he’d also be there for her.

“So well, leave it to me, Kyousuke!”

And indeed, before Kyousuke knows they are on a train going to meet Kuroneko somewhere far in the countryside. Kirino managed to contact Kuroneko and Kuroneko actually sent her a GPS thingy telling her where she was. Like a reversal of all the times Kyousuke has helped Kirino, Kirino becomes really reliable and, when they arrive, she tells Kyousuke “not to get lost” while she goes searching for Kuroneko. They finally know where she is after showing her picture to people, and of course, especially given the reason why Kuroneko was here, imagine her face when she sees the Kousaka siblings there.

“I caught you!! I won’t let you run away!” says Kirino, who holds Kuroneko’s hand a little too tightly. “Of course, we’ve come to bring you back!”

Kuroneko is of course taken aback and very rightly, Kyousuke thinks that it’s a relief Kirino isn’t a boy, because if she was she might be able to steal “his” Kuroneko. Well I guess it’s Kirino’s time to shine… and to ask questions. Why did Kuroneko break up with her oniichan?

“I did so to grant a certain wish. That’s why we carried out several ceremonies. This situation is but an extension of that”

“You’re nuts! Give me an actual reply!”

“When I started dating your oniichan, were you OK with it?”

“Don’t reply with an answer”

But Kuroneko insists. Apparently, during the famous phone call after Kirino’s “fake boyfriend” incident Kuroneko told Kirino about her intention to ask Kyousuke out… and Kirino says she was OK with it. Kuroneko knows very well that she wasn’t. Kirino, however, keeps trying to avoid giving an answer. But she knows very well that for Kirino, her oniichan dating another girl was really harsh.

“Let’s say that I didn’t really mean I was OK with you dating” says Kirino after a long time aggressively exchanging questions, “if you really know that much about how I feel, then why did you confess to him? Even knowing your friend would hate it, you did it?”

“If I hadn’t done it, you wouldn’t have told the truth” replies Kuroneko.

And finally, Kirino becomes honest and admits that she just restrained herself after seeing how serious Kuroneko was about it but, actually, in a way that totally mirrors what happened at the end of volume 7…

“I really, really hate my aniki…”

“Continue…”

“I really hate him… but I don’t want him to get a girlfriend. I hate that, I hate it if I’m not the first”

And we finally know why Kirino pretended to have a boyfriend: out of jealousy because of how close Kyousuke was to both Kuroneko and Manami, and she was terrified at the thought of Kyousuke dating another girl.

“And I thought that since you told me you didn’t want me to get a boyfriend, if I told you that I didn’t want you to get a girlfriend, you wouldn’t… but then when I phoned the black one and she told me she was going to confess to you… if such a shy and kind girl was able to muster her courage to confess… I couldn’t get in the way”

Kirino starts crying.

“I don’t want you, Kyousuke” yes, she calls him by his name, “to get a girlfriend… but it’s even worse if you cry… that’s why I will make you apologize to him and bring you back, do you have any problem?”

And here’s another problem. Kyousuke has heard Kirino’s true feelings… and he knows of Kuroneko’s feelings to him. So… who is he going to choose? At this point I’d like to stop for a minute. Although it may seem pretty obvious by now that Kirino and Kyousuke have romantic feelings for each other, at the end the way it’s described it becomes as ambiguous as usual, more like “siblings with a very good relationship” than rather wincestuous. But when you look at this scene… Kuroneko is (or was) Kyousuke’s girlfriend, and this is how they are being compared, Kirino and Kuroneko. That is, Kyousuke and Kirino’s relationship is put at the same level as lovers, so whatever is said “officially” (nowadays I believe that Oreimo will have an ambiguous ending that will not be wincestuous by itself but leaving ample room for us to interpret it as such) it’s clear that this is how the relationship of the siblings is being handled.

So let’s return, before Kyousuke can reply… Kuroneko can’t take the pressure any longer and faints! Of course, in dramatic fashion with a few anime-like phrases, she pretends she’s dying. The author is really good at finishing these tense things with a touch of humor.

And to make things even better, Kuroneko wasn’t really transferring this far, but rather to another city near Tokyo: she was just here on vacation. This means they will be able to frequently see her, which is a relief. So imagine Kuroneko’s feelings with her friends going that far to meet her~

Back home, Kyousuke talks to Manami about what happened and Manami thinks that Kuroneko likes both Kirino and him equally, that’s why she couldn’t choose either, but regarding who Kyousuke should end up with, she thinks that the best girl for him is… Ayase!!

Later, Kirino and Kyousuke visit Kuroneko’s new house, which is much better than the old one. Kirino suggests “keeping” Kuroneko in their house. While Kuroneko makes breakfast (the spent the night there), the siblings talk about both not wanting the other to get a lover.

“Siscon!”

“And you are a brocon!”

“It’s OK in my case, since I’m an imouto. And you are disgusting, because you are the brother”

“What kind of logic is that?!”

Meanwhile, Kuroneko serves breakfast… wearing a maid dress and nekomimi! Kirino gets all jealous because she (thinks?) Kuroneko is trying to seduce Kyousuke even if she dumped him!

“Fufufu, this is also a ceremony. They will continue until my wish is granted”

Kyousuke translates Kuroneko’s statement into Kirino terms: “I still want life counseling”

“Don’t forget about it, my curse hasn’t been lifted yet”

Speaking of ceremonies, there seems to be now a second notebook, and she shows them a (not very good according to Kirino) illustration of adult Kyousuke and Kirino, waiting for a Kuroneko who is bringing breakfast. Which means that, as usual, we’ve gone in circles, assuming that what Kuroneko really wanted is for the siblings to get along, thus the scene with the three friends together. And with Kyousuke thanking Kirino for what she did for him ends volume 8.

Summary “Ore no Imouto ga Konna Ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai” Volume 7

Part 1

“Sorry for making you wait” says Kyousuke’s girlfriend. Kousaka Kirino.

“Let’s go!” replies Kyousuke “You look good in those clothes”

“Really? Thanks! You also look cool… I’ll call you Kyousuke. That’s what lovers do” suggests Kirino, blushing. “So Kyo… Kyousuke, where are we going?”

To understand what’s going on we need to go back in time.

“Be my boyfriend” those were Kirino’s words. Kyousuke heard them, unable to reply. This is bad. Really bad.

“Don’t you want to?”

“Not that, I mean… Kirino… I’m your brother? or… do you actually… love me?”

Kirino gets as red as a beetroot. “Of course not! How would I… how would I… love you!!”

It turns out she wants him to pretend he’s her boyfriend.

“Pretend! You should have said so from the beginning. Don’t say something so ambiguous!”

She slaps him.

“You only got it wrong because you are a siscon!”

Damn! I don’t want to remember that, it makes me feel like killing myself!

Some time later, they meet one Fujima Misaki, the director of a modeling agency who wants to give Kirino an exclusive contract, which means going to Europe. For some reason, this woman reminds Kyousuke of Feito (the woman who stole Kirino’s novel in volume 3) Of course, Kirino needs an excuse and told her she has a boyfriend so she can’t leave. Kyousuke remembers what Kirino told Ria: her place is Japan. Also, it might be difficult for her to get their father’s permission after just running away from the US.

“I’m Akagi Kyousuke, pleased to meet you”

“Pleased to meet you. Kyousuke-kun, break up with Kirino, will you?”

“Ha?”

“I’ll give you money. 500,000 yen” [6000 dollars]

“Really??”

Without Misaki noticing, Kirino hits him with her elbow.

“Sorry, I mean, this is not a matter of money. I love Kirino!” after hearing this, Kirino stamps on his foot, and he notices she’s blushing. To prove his point. Kyousuke places his arm around her shoulder. She mutters “sick!”

Misaki says she won’t give up. She changes the subject and very suspiciously asks Kirino to attend a fashion show she’s organizing the following day. If she sees any dress she likes, she will give it to her as a present. Kirino looks very enthusiastic, but of course Kyousuke has seen through her and butts in.

“Sorry, tomorrow is a little… we’re going on a date, you know”

Kirino looks at him as if saying “what the hell are you saying” but she finally realizes his intentions.

“Oh, yes, of course my honey (‘-^*)” [the smiley was in the novel xD]

That evening, Kyousuke is lying on the floor while Kirino is stepping on his knee.

“So you took the chance to sexually harass your little sister! Putting your arm around her shoulder in a public place! Did you really become a pervert while I was away?”

Well, he didn’t become a pervert, it’s just that the number of perverts around him increased.

That evening, Kirino gets a call from a co-worker: apparently Misaki wants to trail Kirino and Kyousuke during their date tomorrow, even ditching the fashion show. This means they do have to pretend they are lovers once again, but at least they know she will be following them.

Now in the present, they meet in a park and Kirino tells Kyousuke to choose where to go. He doesn’t really know where to go.

“Well, it’s very typical, but what about a movie?”

She stamps on his foot. “That’s a line from an eroge you just played the other day!!!” However, she says so while they are walking arm in arm, so if Misaki is watching, they do look like lovers. And by the way, Kirino accepts the offer. But suddenly they bump into Manami.

“Kyou-chan, Kirino-chan?”

This is bad! Kyousuke tries to explain it.

“Manami, this is…”

“Let’s go, Kyousuke” says Kirino and they leave. “You’ll explain it to her later, Misaki may be watching us”

After a while, Kirino suddenly laughs.

“Did you see her face?”

“Don’t laugh at my osananajimi!”

“I wonder if she saw us as lovers” says she, giggling.

“What do you mean?!”

“Who knows…”

Kirino wants to watch a romance movie, but Kyousuke can’t stand the idea of watching such a movie with his little sister and suggests watching an anime movie, “Little Sisters”. After the movie, Kirino is really enthusiastic about the super-cute lolis in the movie, but Kyousuke tells her to shut up, as Misaki may be trailing them (although they haven’t spotted her so far)

They are hungry now, and Kirino decides to go to a cake store, which she often visits with Ayase. There is actually a special menu for lovers, including two drinking straws. Kirino is looking at it, and Kyousuke says there’s no way they are going to order that. Kirino replies that Misaki may be watching. However, Kyousuke won’t give in. After all, even if she was his real girlfriend he wouldn’t do something so embarrassing. Kirino finally gives in.

“Kirino?”

This is bad!! None other than Kirino’s friend Kanako is suddenly there. And she must have seen his face when she came over… although fortunately, it looks like she has totally forgotten about Kyousuke. In fact she never even realized that he was her “manager” when she cosplayed as Meruru.

“Kirino! So you really had a boyfriend! But don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone!”

“What are you doing here?” asks Kirino.

“Flirting”

They notice that indeed she’s with her prey… none other than Bridget, the British loli they met during the Meruru cosplay event. Of course, Kanako hasn’t become a voracious lolicon, at least not yet. She was trying to pick boys up when she met Bridget. Kirino almost goes crazy when she sees the cute Bridget (she even got a DVD of the event). Of course, they wonder if she’s met Bridget before and Kirino has to say that Ayase (who works for the same company) showed her pictures of the event. Anyway, Bridget wants to go to Animate but Kanako refuses. Why should she look after a kid? Bridget starts crying.

“KANAKO, YOU MADE BRIDGET-CHAN CRY? I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!!!!”

Everyone freezes, looking at Kirino. Kanako wonders why she’s getting mad at her, if she’s just met Bridget.

“It’s just… you shouldn’t bully little girls! Next time I’ll tell Ayase”

“No, anything but that!”

“Bridget-chan” adds Kirino “next time I’ll take you to Animate”

“Kirino, don’t push yourself. After all you don’t like that disgusting otaku crap”

“Oh, of course not, ha ha ha”

“That’s not disgusting crap!” cries Bridget

After cooling down, Bridget asks Kirino and Kyousuke if they are really lovers, and of course they say they are.

“It’s just… I like this stuff about love… it’s just, I’ve never experienced it” Even if several boys have confessed to her, she has never really experienced love. “So please, oneechan, tell me about it!” Bridget is really cute when blushing, and Kirino is drooling.

“You can ask me anything!!” says an enthusiastic Kirino.

Kanako however has other question… “Kirino, how can you like a plain boy like him?” Waa, what’s this, all of a sudden.

“Well, he’s gentle… and very dependable” and she whispers to Kyousuke that it’s only an act “And he loves me a lot”

“And what do you like about her” says Kanako looking at Kyousuke.

“Ahm… her face?”

“What?” Kirino is angry “Only that? Not that I have a cute personality, that you admire the way I think, that I’m considerate to others?”

“Well…” says Kyousuke after a few seconds “I like that you are passionate about what you like. And thanks to you, I’m having a lot of fun in life” In fact, he got new friends thanks to Kirino, and also their own relationship improved a lot. Still, Kanako mutters that they don’t look like lovers before leaving.

Now Kirino is really angry after what Kyousuke said, and she won’t even walk arm in arm with him, even if Misaki may be trailing them. They decide to go to a game center. Hopefully they can play some game without having to speak much, since Kirino is really pissed off. He can’t understand women.

Kirino often goes there, with both her “normal” and her “otaku” friends. And in fact, she sees some classmates of her on one of the floors, so they go to another, where there’s a photo booth… for couples. And Kirino insists on going into it. And to Kyousuke’s surprise and horror, she chooses a heart-shaped frame for the picture. If this picture was seen by someone, they’d be in deep shit.

“If we’re pretending to be lovers, we have to do it right” says Kirino, grabbing his arm.

Just as they are going out, they meet… Kuroneko, who becomes absolutely petrified.

“That’s the couple booth… what the hell are you doing?” She even drops a coin she had in her hand. She’s totally confused.

“No, this is a misunderstanding…” Kyousuke tries to explain the situation to her. “We’ll explain it to her later, Misaki may be watching” Kirino whispers to him. “You say that, but I don’t see her here” “You have no power of attention”

However, Kirino looks totally amused, she’s actually grinning. What a sadist!

“What’s going on here?” stutters Kuroneko.

“Kyousuke. Should we tell her about our relationship?”

“No, you better not…” says Kuroneko.

“We’re on a date! Let’s go, Kyousuke ♡”

After leaving, Kyousuke suddenly starts laughing.

“Well, after all there’s not much difference between you being my little sister, and my girlfriend”

Wow, what the hell did just I say????

“You’re disgusting; you’ve been playing too many eroge”

At home that evening, Kirino gets a call from Misaki letting her know she’s giving up on her. Kirino suddenly reproaches Kyousuke for trying to molest her during the date, using eroge lines, and even telling her to shut up when she was talking about the movie. Kyousuke also gets angry, after all she asked him to pretend they were lovers.

“So if you have any complaints go and tell your boyfriend!”

“You were my boyfriend today!”

“I will never pretend to be your boyfriend ever again!”

She hits him.

“Idiot. I shouldn’t have asked you to do it. Next time, I will rely on my real boyfriend” she cries and leaves.

“….. real boyfriend?”

Part 2

“Do you have something to do now?”

“……… NOTHING AT ALL!!!!”

“I have something very important to tell you, oniisan” says Ayase on the phone, “could you come to my house now?”

Wait, wait, wait, Kyousuke, calm down. It’s Ayase that we are talking about. It’s a trap. That’s for sure.

“Oniisan… you can’t?”

“I can, of course I can!!”

Most likely it’s a trap, but who could say “no” to a really cute girl if she invited you to her house?

In no time, Kyousuke arrives at Ayase’s house. Her mother is working in her studio, and Ayase takes him to her room. Kyousuke is all excited.

“Oniisan, could you please extend your hands?”

“Yeah, like this?”

Before Kyousuke realizes what’s happening, a pair of shiny handcuffs is locking his hands.

“What is this????”

“Handcuffs”

“I know that. Why are you doing this?”

“Because you’re repulsive and I don’t like you being here”

“The words you say and your face don’t match. You have played with my maiden heart! I thought you were going to confess to me!”

“I spoke as I always do. And don’t look at me so defiantly. I could call my mom now and say that you are a pervert who stalks me and who has broken into my room begging me to handcuff him”

“Fine… I give up, tell me what the matter is”

Ayase shows Kyousuke the picture he took with Kirino the other day. But… how can she have it, when he kept all the pictures and hid them in one of his porn books? Does she have supernatural powers?

“I warned you not to lay a hand on Kirino”

Kyousuke realizes that he’s in trouble, handcuffed and helpless.

“Please, don’t kill me!!!!”

“Don’t be afraid, I won’t do anything to you… but, that’s so cruel, oniisan!!”

“If you didn’t intend to do anything to me, you wouldn’t have handcuffed me in the first place!”

Kyousuke realizes he has no option but to quickly tell Ayase what happened if he wants to save his life. In fact, it turns out that Ayase had heard about Misaki and she herself was going to do something about it, because she didn’t want to lose Kirino again. She finally believes Kyousuke.

“So please, if you understand, take off the handcuffs”

Ayase starts unlocking them.

“Why do you grin like the moment I touch your hands to unlock them? So disgusting!”

“It’s not what you think. It’s just, this situation is very embarrassing”

“Why embarrassing?”

“So for you handcuffing people isn’t something weird?”

“MOOOOOOM, A PERVERT HAS…”

“Wait, wait wait!! Don’t tell her!!!”

Ayase laughs. “I’m not so evil; it was a joke… wait, DON’T HIDE IN MY BED!!”

Ayase starts hitting Kyousuke with the handcuffs.

After calming down, she suddenly handcuffs him again… because she’s going to serve some tea, and she’s sure that while she’s away, he will open her drawers and put her underwear on his head. After Ayase returns, she finally takes off the handcuffs and it’s Kyousuke’s time to ask Ayase a question.

“A question? Sexual harassment again?”

“I’ve never done that!”

“No? You do that every time we meet! Last time you asked me to marry you!!”

“That was a serious proposal full of love”

“That’s… materially impossible!”

“So cruel, what if I kill myself?”

Kyousuke looks really depressed!

“But oniisan… it’s true that the first time I met you, I liked you a little”

“REALLY!!!!!!????????????????”

“That was at first. Now I hate you. But recently… it’s true that you seem to be a kind person, I sometimes feel like I want to be friends with you. But I hate you”

“Let’s say you never saw us last year when we were coming back from Comiket. Would you be my girlfriend now?”

“I didn’t say that much! Don’t fantasize! And be careful of what you do to me. I always tell Manami-san about you”

In fact, both girls became for some strange reason friends, and it was through Manami that Ayase learned about their date.

“Does Kirino have a boyfriend?”

“What, what , what? That’s a lie! What do you mean. That’s impossible!!” Ayase grabs him by the collar.

Kyousuke tells her about Kirino’s words.

“I think she was just angry… it’s true Kirino is very popular with the boys, but she says she won’t have a boyfriend that isn’t three years older than her. Although she’s even popular with them… so technically she could get a boyfriend any time she wanted. But I don’t think she has one… but, could you find out for sure?”

Ayase is worried, but she thinks that’s not the case. However, it’s true that she doesn’t know everything about Kirino — for example, Kirino hid from her that she was an otaku. Therefore, Kyousuke wants to ask Kirino’s other friends if she has a boyfriend. He decides to go to the Computer Game Club to meet Kuroneko. However, only the president is there, and by the way it stinks in there, after all it’s a hot summer day. Sena and Ruri come in after a while, and they immediately complain about the smell. Kyousuke tells them that it’s not him that stinks, but the president.

“So why is his smell on you?” says Sena, who starts having her yaoi fantasies.

Kyousuke and Ruri don’t speak — he wonders what she’s thinking after seeing him and Kirino. After ventilating the room, they talk about the upcoming project — they are going to sell the RPG game Kyousuke, Ruri and Sena made on the second day of Comiket. Sena says she wants to forget about that game, which got panned on 2ch, but Ruri says that no matter what others say, this is something they created. And even a few people said they liked it. How are they supposed to tell them that the game is actually a failure?

Thus ends the day, and for the first time in a while Ruri and Kyousuke go back together… but they don’t speak. She’s clearly angry.

“Listen…”

“What is it, siscon pervert who makes his own sister call him ‘Kyousuke’ and goes around flirting with her?”

Kyousuke explains it to her.

“A fake date, huh? Just like in those imouto eroge you love”

“Wait! I only play them because Kirino forces me!”

“Oh, are you sure? I thought that that’s only an excuse you keep repeating yourself since you actually grew to like them”

“Listen, does Kirino have a boyfriend?”

“Apart from you?”

“Don’t tease me! I’m serious. She said she had one”

Kuroneko laughs. “What a siscon you are. But I don’t think she has one”

“Oh, really?”

“But if she had one, what would you do?” she says whispering in his ear.

“I don’t know! And what about you?”

“That is an interesting hypothesis. Kirino is always very enthusiastic about what she does, so she’d probably spend less time with her friends if she had a boyfriend. That would make Saori very lonely. But that would also make me very happy”

That evening Kyousuke calls Saori because he wants to not only go to Comiket with them, but also he wants to make a doujinshi with Kuroneko, Kirino and Saori.

“What a wonderful idea” says Saori, who was surprised to hear this proposal coming from Kyousuke.

“Hey, Makishima-san~ your true self appeared” says Kyousuke when Saori forgets about her otaku persona.

Just after talking to Saori, Kyousuke gets a text message from his friend Akagi Kouhei.

“Where do you think I am?” says the title… “in my sister’s closet”

What is that pervert saying? Is he confessing, or maybe bragging?? He gets another message.

“I think my sister may have a boyfriend. After finding the catalog with the sex doll that looked just like her, she got angry at me and said something that implied she had a boyfriend. I was trying to find some clue, but she returned while I was in her closet. She’s now playing yaoi games”

Akagi wants help from Kyousuke. He gets another text message.

“My sister has a gimp suit in her closet!!!”

“That’s what you bought for her at the sex shop!!!”

“Oh, you are right. Damn, that scared me!! By the way, Kousaka, when can I borrow that porn DVD we bought together, with the actress that looked just like Tamura [Manami]?”

“I could call your sister now and tell her to check the closet. So losing your 980 yen is a small price to pay”

“You win… wait, my sister has started to move on her chair!!”

“If you want my help to peek at your own sister doing that, I’m afraid I can’t help you”

“No, she’s not doing that! I mean, she took a picture. It could be her boyfriend? I can’t see”

“Akagi, what would you do if your sister really had a boyfriend?”

“MURDER”

“But Akagi, your sister is… your sister”

After all, one day they will get a boyfriend, they will marry, and they will distance themselves from their brothers. But then again, there will be no need for their brothers to look after them right? For Kyousuke, Kirino leaving for the US just felt too soon. He gets Akagi’s reply.

“I’d really beat her boyfriend up. Seriously, I want her to be happy, I know that, but I can’t accept the idea of someone taking her away from me”

Kyousuke thinks about himself. On that floor there are only his room and Kirino’s. Wouldn’t it be great if things remained the same forever? And what about Akagi? He must think like that. There’s no way he can actually have romantic feelings for his sister, can he? And what does Sena think about this? And… Kirino?

Kyousuke almost forgets about Akagi, but he gets one final message.

“My sister has found me!”

“I won’t ever forget you, Akagi”

It’s already pretty late when Kirino returns. 6:30 pm, very unusual for her. Kyousuke asks her where she was, but she says it has nothing to do with him. She tries to pass, but he grabs her hand.

“It hurts! No seriously, you’re hurting me. What do you want?”

And why is he even grabbing her hand? Why is he acting like that? He finally releases her hand.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

“What, are you jealous? Hahaha, how revolting”

“But do you?”

“Who knows”

“I just can’t understand you”

“And I can’t understand you either. By the way, next time I’ll introduce you to my boyfriend”

Part 3

Early in the morning, Saori and Kuroneko come to Kyousuke’s house, but Kirino didn’t know about the doujinshi they are going to make for Comiket. Kuroneko guesses that Kyousuke must have found it difficult to tell Kirino, after she said she had a boyfriend. However, after explaining it to her, she agrees, and says she has nothing to do on that day anyway.

Kyousuke feels relieved. So that must be why I felt so weird all this time, after hearing that Kirino had a boyfriend: of course, if she has a boyfriend, she may not be able to participate, that’s why I was so upset about that, because that would ruin my plans for Comiket.

Kuroneko is sleepy that morning.

“I understand you are all excited with the preparations but you shouldn’t over-exert yourself” says Kyousuke.

“Uhm, I know”

She isn’t wearing her colored contact lens today and she sounds surprisingly childish, but Kyousuke finds her cute.

“I just woke up early today, since I took my little sister to a gymnastics radio program”

Saori can’t help but laugh, imagining Kuroneko surrounded by kids. Oddly enough, Kyousuke thinks that she wouldn’t look all that weird.

Kirino wonders if Kuroneko was in her gothic lolita outfit with the kids. Of course not! So she has other clothes? Absolutely! Ruri promises to wear something different next time they meet.

Meanwhile, Saori mentions that Ruri-chan has become friends with Kyousuke, but Kirino asks who that is.

“Do you mean that that Ruri is… this black one?”

Kyousuke looks at Kuroneko and she nods in agreement.

“Yes, her real name is Gokou Ruri”

“It’s not my real name; it’s my temporary name as a human”

“Yes, yes, her temporary name as a human…”

“And why was I the only one who wasn’t told?”

They try to explain to Kirino that it all happened while she was away, since Kuroneko is in the same school as Kyousuke, and in the same club to boot, but Kirino is visibly angry. Kyousuke guesses that she likes Kuroneko so much that she fears that he will take her friend away.

“I see you are in the same club, you return home together, you lie next to each other on bed while I’m away… just as if you two were dating. How revolting”

What! Kyousuke thinks. Even if we were dating, what would the problem be?

Saori tries to calm them down, patting Kuroneko, as if she was a pet!

“Well, it’s not like you two are dating or anything” says Kirino as an afterthought, clearly relieved.

However, there’s the curse, however, thinks Kyousuke, who is still troubled by it.

So well, they have decided to make a doujinshi that combines a manga (drawn by Kuroneko) and a novel (written by Kirino and illustrated by Saori)

“So you can draw too, Saori?” It looks like all girls around Kyousuke can draw!

“Well, not very well, you’d laugh at me”

“I think you’ll do alright”

“Thanks. I’ll try!”

Somehow, for an instant he almost glimpsed the “real” Saori. Ever since Kyousuke saw her real face, he’s been seeing her more and more as an imouto. A very tall imouto, nonetheless. But alas, we have a problem. What can Kyousuke do for the project? He can’t do anything!!

“Well, I knew this would happen… so I have an idea!”

“I have a bad feeling about this” says Kuroneko

“What a rude kouhai! Why do you say that?”

“Well, the last time you had an idea you said “let’s make an eroge”

“But that was a good idea!”

“And when I told you that I can’t draw porn scenes with boys, you said you’d pose as a model for me so I could draw those scenes!”

“I never said such a thing!!!!”

“Just what the hell are you doing in your club??!?” asks Kirino

“Well, they call your brother “sexual harassment sempai at school after all”

“It’s a misunderstanding!”

“It’s the truth”

“Well, it is but…”

Fortunately, Saori decides to help him and asks him what he wants to do.

“I’ll cosplay so we can add a Maschera cosplay album”

Kirino, who was drinking some juice, is so shocked she suddenly spits it all over Kyousuke’s face.

Everyone is skeptical about such a plain guy cosplaying, but Kuroneko, while blushing a little, says that she thinks it’s a good idea and she will help him.

At last the third day of Summer Comiket arrives, although Kyousuke already participated the previous day with the Game Research Club.

“Kirino, isn’t that the same dress you wore for Comiket last year?”

“Yes, how unusual of you to notice something like that”

“Well… because I can see your collar bones…”

“Where the hell are you looking at, you pervert??”

“Why pervert? I have never touched you!”

“Not that, but you are always looking at me with perverted eyes”

“How nostalgic, it’s been already a year since we came here for the last time”

“Why are you changing the subject?! But yes, it’s very nostalgic”

“So that’s why you are wearing this dress today?”

“No! It’s just coincidence”

“Anyway, let’s wait for Kuroneko”

They hear a familiar voice.

“I’ve already been here for a while”

To their surprise, there is a girl standing there they hadn’t noticed. Wearing a straw hat, a beautiful white one-piece dress… Kuroneko!!? So different! She looks beautiful and so young.
“You are not Kuroneko [black cat] anymore! You are Shironeko! [white cat]”

“Are you praising me?”

“Isn’t that the dress I chose for you?” asks Kirino.

“Yes… thanks” wow, even her personality has become whiter!

“You’re welcome” However, why does Kirino sound angry? Shouldn’t be happy that Ruri is wearing the clothes she chose for her?

“Nice choice, Kirino!”

“Well, she’s very quiet; I thought those clothes would look good on her. You often see characters in eroge like her who wear these clothes”

“What? So you want to dress your friend like in an eroge?”

“Yeah… so… the dress was for today…” Why does she sound so upset?

Kyousuke also wonders about his relationship with Kuroneko. Last year, she was just his sister’s friend. But, what is she now to him?

They meet Saori and they start setting their stand up. Saori wants to take Kirino to greet the other participants, which is a form of courtesy at Comiket, but for some reason Kirino doesn’t want to go.

“You can go, I’ll stay here with my sempai” says Ruri.

“Oh… I understand your feelings then” says Saori to Kirino. “Alright, I’ll go alone”

While Saori is away, they suddenly receive the visit of… Feito, the woman who plagiarized Kirino’s novel, who tells them about all her financial problems, and now she’s assembled a team of talented artist to participate in Comiket, as a manager. She hopes she will be successful this time around.

Comiket starts.

“Maybe I should have been cosplaying, to attract customers” says Kyousuke.

“What? Where is that confidence coming from, all of a sudden?” replies Kirino

“You said I looked good!”

“Well, because it was cosplay, but you are suddenly behaving as if you were a hot guy. And that’s metaphysically impossible”

“I think he was a little cool, dressed in pitch black” says, however, Kuroneko.

Kyousuke thanks her, almost crying, and tries to put his arm on her shoulder.

“Don’t touch me, will you?”

Well, thinks a saddened Kyousuke, she probably didn’t like me, but only liked the fact that I was cosplaying as a Maschera character.

Kirino is upset because they haven’t sold anything yet, but Ruri tries to explain that it’s not that easy for an unknown group like them. Apparently, Kirino had wanted to print at least 10,000 volumes since she was confident they could sell them, but of course they ended up printing 50, which is still a lot according to Ruri.

After a while, some person comes and takes a look at their doujinshi, but he just laughs and leaves. They assume it’s Kyousuke’s fault. But while Kirino argues with him, they finally sell the first doujinshi. Kirino dismisses it, it’s just one sale after all she’s already sold tens of thousands of her novels, but Kuroneko knows her pretty well and tells her to hold the fifty yen coin. What for? Kuroneko insists, and before they know it Kirino is looking at it and smiling.

Kyousuke complains it’s so hot and Ruri gives him a drink. He takes a first mouthful, and after that chugs it. For some reason, she is looking at him and just says “you’re so silly”

Comiket is as crowded as ever, and after a while they meet Akagi Sena, who has come with the rest of the club. She’s sweating and Kyousuke can see her bra (she has huge boobs!)

Kyousuke introduces them to Saori. They have already heard about each other. The president of the Game Research Club and Saori, the leader of the “Unite, otaku girls” community. Two eccentric otaku leaders.

After Sena talks about some hot cosplayer she has just seen, it looks like Magabe-kun, another club member, is jealous and she finally apologizes to him. Kyousuke wonders if they are dating. After a while, Ruri pulls his T-Shirt and points towards Kirino, who is alone, playing with her iPhone, just like that day when they went to the offline party and she couldn’t make any friends.

Kyousuke wants her to talk to them but Kirino isn’t good at this. Sena gives Ruri a Meruru doujinshi.

“Here it is, I didn’t know you liked this stuff for kids”

“It’s not for me, it’s for a friend”

“What, Gokou-san? Do you have other friends besides me?”

“Yes, is there a problem?”

In a very similar way to last year, when Kuroneko gave Kirino the Siscalypse CD, she gives her the doujinshi. Kirino finally introduces herself to them.

“I’m Kousaka Kirino, 15, pleased to meet you”

“Oh, Kousaka-sempai had a little sister! But you don’t look alike… she’s so cute! So, Kirino-san, do you like Meruru?”

“I FUCKING LOVE IT IT’S A GODLY ANIME!!!!!!!!”

Magabe has noticed that many members of the club have siblings. In fact, he had a little problem with his big sister and Kyousuke offers to help, since he’s used to this kind of quarrels between siblings. It turns out that his big sis saw Magabe with an eroge called “Let’s fuck, big sis” and after that whenever she sees him, she blushes and looks away.

The president says that means a flag has been triggered, but Kyousuke insists that in real life, your sister is just thinking you are a sick pervert. 2D and 3D aren’t the same.

“So any advice?”

“Well…” says Kyousuke, “At night, sneak into her room, get on top of her, slap her and tell her that you need counseling. Then, show her all your big sister porn collection”

“If I do that my life will come to an end!!!”

Kyousuke doesn’t understand. After all, that’s based on his own experience! The president, however, who has a little sister himself, who is a neet and annoying, and yet they never can bring to hate each other, tells him to apologize to her. She will understand. They are family after all.

While the boys are having this conversation, Kyousuke overhears the girls’ conversation.

“Sena-chii” says Kirino, “so you have an oniisan?”

“Yes, but now I am angry with him. I can’t say why, but he did something really disgusting. You know, my brother is a siscon.

“Oh, I understand! My own brother is such a pervert! The other day he insisted on walking arm in arm with me!”

“Well, my brother is sorry for what he did, and the other day I read his cell phone and found out why he did it. It turns out that he was upset because, after a fight, I told him that I had a boyfriend”

“Why did you say that, Sena-chii?”

“Well, I wanted to see what his reaction was”

“Yes, I know, I know!” says Kirino, nodding “You say something you don’t mean because you are angry”

“Exactly, Kirino-chan, you understand my feelings perfectly!”

“Well, we are both imoutos after all!”

“We should tell each other about books and anime”

What! Thinks Kyousuke. Do you want to turn my imouto into a fujoshi!!!

“By the way, Sena-chii, what do you want to do about your brother?”

“Well, I’m going to forgive my baka-nii. He just behaved like that because he likes me so much… and that made me a little happy. So I bought a present for him”

A BL doujinshi, actually. Poor Akagi. However, Kyousuke feels relieved after hearing Sena, who continues being a faithful brocon.

And thus, Comiket comes to an end and to their surprise, they’ve sold all the doujinshi. Saori even cries and they are very happy.

“Doing this kind of things from time to time” says Kyousuke, “isn’t bad”

“What are you saying, all of a sudden?” retorts Kirino.

By the way, Kyousuke met a certain maid that day. It turns out that her incest SM doujinshi was a hit. Rumor has it that the characters are based on Kyousuke and Kirino… damn you, perverted maid!!

Part 4

After their relative success as a doujinshi circle, they decide to relax. Kirino has noticed that there is a circle called EBS with a very stylish emblem that Saori thinks looks similar to the emblem of Eternal, a famous make-up brand (Saori sent Kirino some doujinshi in a box of that brand, which she almost opened in front of Ayase and Kanako) It turns out that the circle’s vendor is cosplaying, and Kyousuke remembers that Sena had seen someone cosplaying and she claimed it was a guy… and, yes, on a closer look it’s a handsome guy.

Saori immediately realizes, although she doesn’t say anything, that the handmade accessories the circle is selling are the work of a professional, and to her surprise they are selling them at the ridiculous price of 500 yen (6 dollars) Once again, the not so veiled hint that there’s more to Saori that meets the eye. On paper, it was already stated in volume 6 that Saori is an ojousama who has many sides to her, but the fact that she seems to be extremely familiar with fashion makes me think that this will grow in importance later on, and not only as a way of contrasting Saori’s usual otaku style with her actual fashion tastes.

There’s an accessory that Kuroneko likes, that looks like a rosary, but she doesn’t have any cash, so Kyousuke buys it for her. The vendor suggests that he could put it around Kuroneko’s neck, but if he did that, it would look as if it was a present for her!

“Is… is it OK?”

She looks at him as if she wanted to say something.

“Is there something on my face?”

“No, I was just thinking…”

It is at this point that they notice that Kirino has stayed behind. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that Kyousuke and Ruri were having a very rabu rabu moment, or if it’s just because, as we immediately find out, that guy is actually an acquaintance of Kirino, who greets her. He is Mikagami Kouki, a coworker of Kirino, model and famous, gifted designer… who is also an otaku. Kyousuke feels it’s a similar situation to last year, when they met Ayase, but this time it’s pretty different.

So well, Mikagami is an 18-year-old guy, like Kyousuke, and precisely three years older than Kirino (once more, the fact that she wants a boyfriend who is exactly three years older than him is called to mind) Not only that, he is handsome, he is famous, he is a gifted designer… and now Kirino finds out that he’s an otaku (as a matter of fact he became a designer because he liked designing anime-related goods when he was a kid. As can be seen, being an otaku is often more than a hobby)

Kyousuke feels threatened, as Kirino and Mikagami happily discuss eroge. He decides to ask them what their exact relationship is and they are very vague about it. Misaki-san (the manager who wanted Kirino to go overseas) introduced them and after that they met a couple of times. Of course, it’s starting to look as if they were dating, although we will find out the truth at the end. But at any rate, Kyousuke can’t help but feel that Kirino has finally found a replacement for him. He should feel relieved…

Another interesting line. Mikagami refers to the fact that his big brother, who isn’t an otaku, is participating and he’s happy, although his brother got a little carried away. Kirino replies “Yes, yes, I know what you mean. You are happy that he’s helping you, you are thankful, but if they get too much into it it’s bothersome” Kyousuke guesses she’s referring to his attitude last year, but it’s interesting to know that the tsuntsun Kirino was “happy and thankful”

Although it’s not largely related to what matters the most, that is Kyousuke’s relationships with the girls, there is one interesting concept that I have often talked about. Mikagami wishes people would know about the awesomeness of eroge, he wishes to just publicly talk about it, but Kirino strongly disagrees. It’s understandable Mikagami is passionate about eroge, but apart from probably destroying his career, it would also draw unwanted attention from the media to certain… “interesting” scenes in eroge. I really agree with Kirino. Much as I’d be happy if people were interested in otaku stuff, it would also mean that society at large would become more aware of what otaku culture is, rather than seeing as something vague and fuzzy. In other words, people may see you as weird for being an otaku, because people look down upon anyone who isn’t into mainstream stuff. But the less the general public knows about lolicon or siscon, for example, the better.

Later at a fast food restaurant, Kyousuke says some hateful things about Mikagami, and Kirino reproaches him for engaging in backbiting, but Kyousuke gets angry because Kirino does the same with Manami after all.

The following day Ruri and Kyousuke go to school to meet the others at the club. After that, there will be a small party at Kyousuke’s with Kirino, Saori, Ruri and himself.　Ruri notices that Kyousuke looks worried and tells him she can guess what it is.

“You are thinking ‘if that guy was Kirino’s boyfriend, I’m not needed any longer’”

Kyousuke stops. They are in front of his house.

“Is that your ‘dark power’ too?”

“Even if I don’t use it, I can tell. Because… I’m always looking at you”

“If you say that, it can cause misunderstandings”

“I… I don’t mind”

“So… do you like me?”

“I do. When it comes to liking you, I wouldn’t lose to your sister”

This is similar, but way more emphatic, to what Ruri told Kyousuke in Volume 5. I know there are some people who argue that Kirino doesn’t have romantic feelings for Kyousuke, but after all that we’ve seen, and after what we’ll see in this chapter, I think it’s difficult to maintain it. We already know what Ruri’s feelings for Kyousuke are. And we know that she acknowledges Kirino as her rival. Why say that, if it wasn’t because she’s aware of Kirino’s feelings for Kyousuke?

Kyousuke asks Ruri about the kiss, but Kirino suddenly opens the door and tells them to come in. But before they follow Kirino, Ruri pulls Kyousuke by the sleeve. She still has something to tell him.

“From that time, I’ve been thinking. I didn’t know what to do. I felt that whichever I chose, I would regret it. I had never been so hesitant. And in the end, I have decided to learn from a certain person, and be honest about my own desires. I will become greedy. I’m sure that that girl wouldn’t give up either”

“I don’t understand you…”

“I don’t care, just listen. I will do whatever it takes so I can get what I desire”

First of all, I just love how good Ruri has become at dealing with dense people like Kyousuke. Instead of going around in circles with him saying “I don’t understand” all the time, she just tells him to shut up and listen. I suppose that that “girl” is Kirino, the one who became honest, but I wonder what she exactly means, since Kirino, even if it’s true that right now her brocon feelings are now intense, doesn’t seem to have accepted, loud and clear, that she loves Kyousuke—at least in a way he understands. It’s obvious that the reason why Ruri hadn’t gone on the offensive yet had been Kirino, since going out with Kyousuke might mean losing Kirino. However, something tells me that there was something that made her change her mind. Perhaps when they went on a date and she saw them, she realized that at this rate she might lose to her.

It’s obvious that Kirino overheard them, and there’s a tense atmosphere. Nobody speaks, except for Saori who doesn’t understand what’s going on and tells Kirino that, whatever happens, she will be her ally, clearly not being aware that this means not being Ruri’s ally. It’s the first time that we see Saori not being mindful of the situation. Kirino finally explodes, and tells them she has something to announce. She is going out with Mikagami.

“We even kissed”

Kuroneko glares at her.

“You…”

“Do you want to say something to me” says Kirino defiantly.

Kuroneko doesn’t reply and they try to start the party, but it’s useless. Before leaving, Ruri says that she can’t waste her time with a brat. In my opinion, and as usual I’m not that good at analyzing characters’ intentions, Ruri hates the idea of Kirino giving up on Kyousuke without a fight, which would demonstrate Ruri’s complicated feelings.

Kyousuke and Saori inquire more about it. Kirino says they’ve been dating for some time after she came back from the US and that he’s after all handsome, rich and talented. And he said that he would never cheat on her. And he listens to what she says. Unlike somebody. Clear as crystal. She feels that Kyousuke cheats on her with Manami and Ruri, and he never listens to what she says… or understands her feelings. Kyousuke gets really angry, and Kirino leaves.

Kyousuke feels sorry above all for Saori. As we learned in volume 6, she has always feared she would lose her friends, in the same way she lost her friends after her sister left. Saori however reassures him that it’s not his fault, but he keeps blaming himself. Saori tells him that this time; she may not be able to solve this by herself, so Kyousuke promises to help her, although he fears he might fail. She tells him to be more confident, but he thinks that she’s overestimating him. In that case, if you fail, says Saori (the real one, taking off her glasses), you will have to take responsibility. You will become the guy who destroyed our community.

That day, Kirino brings her boyfriend over. Their father got angry and fled to his room, and Kyousuke is extremely rude to him so Kirino tells him to leave as well. He talks to his dad, who thinks that it’s too soon for Kirino to get a boyfriend. For some reason, Kyousuke ends up defending Mikagami. After all, he seems to be a nice, serious guy; he’s talented and rich, and he seemed to get along with Kirino really well. And nowadays girls have boyfriends at a young age, and Kirino always knows what she’s doing. And Kyousuke knows that what he’s saying is right… so why does he feel so angry? There could be no better guy for Kirino than him. And it should be Kirino who should decide.

However, his father is so against the idea that he wants to go downstairs and beat the poor guy up. He doesn’t care if he loses his job. So Kyousuke offers to go instead (which pretty much mirrors what happened when Kyousuke offered to get rid of Kirino’s collection) Kyousuke admits that his feelings are the same to his father’s.

This parallel between Kyousuke not wanting to give his sister to another guy, and their father not wanting to give his daughter to another guy, is, as usual, yet another way of being hazy about Kyousuke’s feelings. Since we can safely assume that the father has no romantic feelings for Kirino, we can infer that it’s the same for Kyousuke. I think that at this point, there’s no way of telling if Kyousuke’s feelings are, after all; if only those of an overprotective brother or if there’s something else. But, as we are going to find out now, I think that Kirino’s love for him is only too evident.

In Kyousuke fashion, the first thing he does when he comes into the living room (the mother has left meanwhile) is… to get on his knees and apologize to them. He tells Kirino that it’s true that in the past he told her she could do whatever she decides, but he’s taking it back. He doesn’t want her to go out with a guy. Why? He doesn’t understand (again, this vagueness about his feelings!) But as a brother, he can’t accept it, much though he knows she should be the one to decide. He also goes on to say that he doesn’t know why she got angry yesterday, but he’d like to eventually apologize in an honest way.

“Late… it’s too late” cries Kirino.

To Mikagami, he says that he won’t give her to him.

“I’m sorry, but Kirino is more important to me than is to you”

“So you wouldn’t give her to any boy you don’t approve of?”

But Kirino gets angry… so angry she hits the table and throws some cakes at his face. How can Kyousuke say that when he’s always flirting with Manami and “that black one”? And she adds something incredibly interesting:

“And that time you had such a disgusted face, so why now all of a sudden are you saying that”

She says “that time” That should be when she asked him to become her (fake) boyfriend, so here, after the whole novel, after spoilers and speculations, we can conclude that there was more truth to it than it seemed. I can imagine her disappointment when Kyousuke didn’t seem to like the idea, after saying he was a siscon. To add insult to injury, Kyousuke doesn’t seem to understand and asks her what Manami or Kuroneko have to do with this.

Crying, she tells him that it was all a lie. Mikagami isn’t her boyfriend. He confirms this.

“There was something she wanted her brother to realize” — Kyousuke, what a surprise, doesn’t understand. Kirino tries to explain it, but she can’t say it. She’s crying and Kyousuke can’t endure seeing her suffer, and tells her it’s OK if she doesn’t want to say it. Whether this means he may have guessed what she was going to say or not is unclear, but it can’t be ruled out.

So this fake boyfriend thingy is I think the evidence that Kirino loves Kyousuke. This volume was nothing but a battle between the two heroines, Kirino and Kuroneko, over one very dense guy called Kyousuke. Seeing that she might lose to Kirino when she was showing her “boyfriend” around during their date, Kuroneko went to unprecedented lengths to win Kyousuke’s heart. The birth of Shironeko, for a shy girl to be so straight… Which of course was now a threat to Kirino. To explain why so fast, and why Mikagami, we needed one last piece of the puzzle. Mikagami was told by the manager to try to convince Kirino to leave, so that’s why they knew each other. Of course, Kirino saw through her plans immediately. Having met him at Comiket and having heard fellow brocon Sena’s own story, she made up her mind to carry out her plan after Kuroneko almost confessed her love to Kyousuke in front of their house. In fact, her feelings must be really strong for Kyousuke, since this episode contrasts handsome otaku overachiever Mikagami with plain, talentless (?) Kyousuke, and yet it is Kyousuke who is passionately loved by Kirino.

 

Summary “Ore no Imouto ga Konna Ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai” Volume 6

Part 1

Well, it’s summer. One year has elapsed since Kyousuke found out that Kirino was an otaku, and she has just returned from Los Angeles. Ayase cries once she meets her beloved Kirino and is delighted to know that during her stay at L.A. Kirino actually read the magazines where Ayase appears as a model – although I have a feeling yuri yandere Ayase thinks this means something else.

Meanwhile, Kyousuke has other things to think about. He has finally understood that Ruri’s (Kuroneko) kiss wasn’t just a “curse” – it may be indeed a declaration of love. He doesn’t sleep all night thinking about it and tries, without success, to ask her about her true feelings.

There was a very mysterious statement by Kuroneko in the past: I like you as much as your sister likes you.

If that’s the case, does Kuroneko hate Kyousuke? Then why kiss him? Kyousuke decides to ask Kirino, so he calls her… but as could be expected, she hangs up after he asks her “how much do you like me?”

One day, Ayase tells him to meet her in a nearby park. She asks him to look after Nanako, Ayase and Kirino’s friend who in last volume cosplayed as Meruru in order to win a figure that Ayase wanted to give Kirino for her birthday. Nanako, a very annoying girl who even smokes, has been “persuaded” by yandere Ayase to quit smoking, but Ayase doesn’t trust her, so she wants Kyousuke to pretend he’s a manager from the modeling agency.

Kyousuke refuses at first, until Ayase promises to remove him from her cell phone’s blacklist. Kyousuke accepts at once, although his marriage proposal to Ayase is met with her activating the anti-rape buzz on her phone.

Bridget, a 10-year-old British loli who lost to Nanako during the contest in volume 5 is also working as a model now, and both will cosplay during the event. Kanako bullies her, and is quite rude to Kyousuke who is forced to give her a massage – including on some… not very decent parts. Kyousuke wonders if she isn’t aware she’s a girl and he a boy, or what. When she even lets out some moan, poor Bridget turns as red as a beet.

The event, the launch of the third season of Meruru (where Meruru actually turns evil!), goes well -Kyousuke spots Kirino and her otaku friends-, although once they return to the changing room Kanako complains that Bridget hit her with her magic wand during the show. To make things worse, she needs to go to the bathroom so she asks Kyousuke to help her.

However, once outside, they see that Bridget is surrounded by some gaijin (foreign) otaku, and she seems a little scared. One of them presses his cheek against Bridget’s. When Kyousuke is about to intervene, it is Kanako who very angrily goes and hits him hard, protecting Bridget.

However, it turned out the otaku was… Bridget’s father!

Bridget is however very happy Kanako wanted to protect her, and Kyousuke notices that Kanako’s legs were actually shaking. Well, in the end she’s a girl, after all.

 

Part 2

One day, Kyousuke is looking a little down and his osananajimi Manami asks him what’s wrong. Although Kyousuke doesn’t want to admit it, it all boils down to the fact that he was expecting his relationship with Kirino to improve after he “saved” her and brought her back to Japan, but there’s little progress in their relationship. Kyousuke insists once again, however, that even if he felt lonely without Kirino, he still hates her, and vice versa.

Manami however says she doesn’t think Kirino hates him that much – Ayase -who surprisingly became a friend of Manami’s- told her that Kirino had been talking a lot about Kyousuke recently, much to Ayase’s chagrin.

Meanwhile, well, it’s not my case, I admit it, but it seems that for most guys there comes a crucial time in their lives when they visit a sex shop for the first time. Akagi Kouhei, a friend of Kyousuke, who we met in volume 4 when, during the night sale at Akihabara, he bought a yaoi game for his fujoshi sister, Sena. He didn’t turn out to be gay, but rather a siscon… while his sister is a brocon. Nice combo.

But Akagi isn’t only going to take a look at the sex shop. He wants to buy a present… for his sister. You aren’t actually going to give her a ■■■ (beep), asks Kyousuke, meaning obviously something like a dildo. Of course not! replies Akagi. Like I could! I want to give Sena-chan (that’s the way he calls his sister) something way healthier. Bondage goods (Whether the excuse he gives, that she needs it as reference for her doujinshi, is true or not, is up to the reader!)

After Akagi buys the bondage goods for his sister, they head for the dreaded “Sex Dolls” section, a display of Japan’s finest technology, with dolls that look just like a real woman… the only problem is the price – from 600 dollars to as much as 10000 dollars… Suddenly, Kyousuke finds a meganekko doll with huge breasts that looks just like Sena. When he mentions it, Akagi is really angry but after realizing the doll does look like Sena it’s not long before he starts thinking about saving up money to buy it…

After their sex-shop adventure, they head for a McDonald’s. Suddenly, Kyousuke asks him: “What is your sister to you?” His reply is quick: “An angel“. Isn’t it the same for Kyousuke? Kyousuke doesn’t think so, but this leads to the realization of what it was like when Kirino was born and, after all, whether you hate your sister or like her, it becomes your task to look after her. After all, Kyousuke does hate Kirino and Kirino does hate Kyousuke, as we’ve been reminded all along, but Kyousuke has looked after Kirino nonetheless.

By the way, Sena was there, behind Akagi, all the time. But well, she’s a brocon too, so she shouldn’t be too angry about it. As usual, however, the fujoshi asks Kyousuke and Akagi if they are on a date.

Part 3

For the first time after Kirino’s return Kuroneko and Saori pay a visit to Kyousuke’s house. Accidentally on purpose, Kuroneko enters Kyousuke’s room, implying she’s gotten used to entering his room while Kirino was away. Kirino gets quite angry and apparently jealous.

Although Saori has made up with Kirino, they notice she’s looking down. Kirino, Kyousuke and Kuroneko decide to visit her at her home.

They arrive at a posh house, but they don’t know which room number it is. Suddenly, a tall girl playing with a BB gun appears, and she’s actually able to identify who they are – she introduces herself as Makishima Kaori, Saori’s older sister. Saori is not home, but she invites them in. The sisters are apparently living by themselves, and they give Kaori the presents they got for Saori so she can give them to her – by the way, Kaori likes all of them except for Kirino’s Gundam figure, because the pilot is Kugimiya Rie and she can’t stand mixing the character (Nena) with her seiyuu. Kyousuke is unable to understand why Otakus get so serious over these things!

Kaori shows them several rooms with lots of otaku goods, including old arcade machines and lots of Meruru figures which of course Kirino loves. Suddenly, there’s an earthquake -at first Kirino shouts that her wish has come true and the Meruru figures are alive and moving!- and Kaori tells them to get out. In the chaos, with Kirino not wanting to leave to protect the Meruru figures, several glasses fall from Kaori’s pocket… including some round glasses like those Saori wears.

Once outside, they of course know now that she was Saori all along. When she denies it, Kyousuke takes off her glasses… and suddenly she screams and starts crying because he has seen her “real” face. They realize she may have her reasons and decide not to push her any further.

After calming down, Saori takes them again inside and it’s time for a cosplay party! Kirino is dressed in gothic lolita fashion, like Kuroneko, and Kuroneko like a Meruru character. And Kyousuke? As the male lead in Kuroneko’s favorite anime Maschera – Kuroneko must have loved seeing the boy she loves dressed as her favorite anime character!

But the main dish is Saori… with everyone cosplaying, she feels it safer now to show her true self – in fact a very beautiful ojousama. For the first time, she introduces herself as Makishima Saori, speaking in normal, a little ojousama-ish Japanese.

She tells her story – she actually has a sister called Kaori, but she married and is living abroad. They used to have many common friends, and those were happy times for Saori. However, when her sister left the group dissolved and she found herself all alone. This is the reason she started the online community through which she met Kirino and Kuroneko, for which she created her otaku persona.

Summary “Ore no Imouto ga Konna Ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai” Volume 5

Part 1

We reach volume 5 of the Oreimo series. Volume 4 ended with a shocking development: Kirino leaves for Los Angeles after being scouted for track and field athletics. And with Kirino gone, without even telling her friends or brother, Kyousuke finds on the first school day in April that Kuroneko is now a student at his school – Kyousuke-senpai, she calls him, having decided to stop calling him “oniisan”

Although Kirino is gone, Kuroneko and Saori have become Kyousuke’s friends and they often come over to his house. After the first day of school, Kuroneko, still dressed in her uniform, and Saori, are in Kyousuke’s room, with Saori quick to point out that Kuroneko may have wanted Kyousuke to tell her she looks good in her uniform, since otherwise Kuroneko would be wearing her usual goth lolita outfit. It won’t be the first hint of a possible Kuroneko X Kyousuke relationship. We have also learned Kuroneko’s real name, a clear indication of her “upgraded” status in the story: Gokou Ruri, although she still prefers being called Kuroneko.

It’s been commented before, but Kuroneko has a hard time socializing. She is very shy and also quite clumsy, and Kyousuke learns that she eats alone at school, has no friends and her classmates often skip cleaning duty and leave everything for her to do. Meanwhile, Manami and Ruri meet. Ruri is quite rude to Manami, which Kyousuke attributes to Kirino bad-mouthing his osananajimi, although of course the subtext could well imply that Ruri sees her as a rival, since Manami is very close to Kyousuke – the same hostility that Kirino shows could be attributed to her having brocon feelings as well.

One day, Kyousuke receives a call from Saori, and they discuss what to do to help Ruri. But he has also realized that Saori seems to insist on meeting a lot, and after Saori almost loses her mask -she even refers to herself at some point as “watashi” instead of her usual and weird-sounding “sessha’- she confesses that after Kirino left, she has become aware she may lose her friends – graduation, a fight, going overseas… lots of things can happen and she wants to treasure every possible moment. Kyousuke mentions she must have lots of friends, but she confesses that although she may know many people from her online activities, her only true friends are Kirino, Kuroneko and Kyousuke.

Kyousuke decides to do something to help Kuroneko: join the Game Research Club, so she can make friends who share the same hobby: computer games. But since Ruri is not very socially skilled, he decides to join as well to help her.

The first surprise is the president: he is the guy who lent the bicycle to Kyousuke in Akihabara when, in volume 4, Kirino made him go and buy some eroge. To top it all, not only is he a complete otaku, but he must be over 20, having repeated several years.

There is also another female club member: Akagi Sena, who turns out to be the class rep of Ruri’s class – and they don’t get on precisely well. And why is the serious class rep in the Game Research Club? She says she wants to learn programming, although after being pressed a little she admits she loves computer games. And could there be even more? She is the sister of a friend of Kyousuke, whom he met that fateful night in Akihabara because Sena had sent him to buy yaoi games.

 

Part 2

Sena provides much of the humor in volume 5. Once she goes into “fujoshi” mode, she does little to hide from people her sexual fantasies about the different boys she knows having sex with each other. She seems to especially like the idea of her brother and Kyousuke being lovers.

The Game Research Club president wants the two girls, Sena and Kuroneko, to make a game to foster teamwork, and both will have to give a presentation of their proposals. Sena’s proposal to make an RPG is extremely good, including a demo of the engine. Kuroneko’s proposal is to make a visual novel, but her presentation doesn’t go really well, and she only gives the members of the club a thick stack of paper with the script, which is hardly understandable.

One of the funniest moments comes when Kuroneko/Ruri and Sena argue about what’s the proper way of creating fiction. For Sena, it is important to please the audience, while for Kuroneko the important thing is to do whatever you want to do regardless of what the audience thinks – which is the reason why Kuroneko’s doujinshi, novels, or games usually suck – if you can, listen to the second track of the Drama CD. Passionately, Kuroneko defends those onanii-works, that is, masturbatory works, a hyperbole meaning it’s just for your own enjoyment and satisfaction, and in the heat of the moment she just retorts “And if you think that’s wrong, then I’ll show you and masturbate to my heart’s content, like I care”. Kuroneko’s reaction when Kyousuke points out to what she has just said is priceless.

Meanwhile, the jury has considered both proposals, and Sena gets 0 votes, while Kuroneko gets all the votes. How is it possible? Well, Sena’s game, albeit very good in theory, turned out to be an RPG about the different members of the club doing… well, except for the word “butt“, the rest was censored, but you get the picture. Sena gets really angry and runs away crying “I’ll tell my oniichan!!“. And thus, the bespectacled, serious-looking class rep turned out to be a crazy fujoshi with a brother complex.

Meanwhile, Kuroneko confronts Kyousuke – why is he helping her, doing so much for her? Probably because he misses his sister and wants her to be Kirino’s substitute. Of course, although she appears to be annoyed by this unwanted attention, it is easy to see that what she doesn’t want is to be seen as a little sister -that’s why she stopped calling him oniisan- but as a girl and of course potential lover. And Kyousuke, to be ironic, asks her: Is it that you like me or what? Kuroneko replies, to Kyousuke’s astonishment, Yes only to add that she likes him just as she likes Saori or Kirino – but of course, we can see beyond this.

In fact, Kyousuke assists Ruri creating the game -basically testing it- and there’s a scene where, while in his room, Kuroneko is lying on his bed with her laptop and she asks him to lie besides her to take a look at something. More Kuroneko x Kyousuke vibes. Kyousuke wonders if she isn’t aware he’s a boy at all. Or maybe she is too aware of it?

Kuroneko’s game turns out to have too many bugs, so she needs help… from Sena. The proud Kuroneko actually begs Sena to help her. Volume 5 was clearly about Kuroneko’s character development. Sena finally accepts. As both girls argue and argue, yet manage to complete the game, Kyousuke realizes their interaction is similar to that of Kuroneko with Kirino, so they are probably friends.

Their game, of course, turns out to be quite crappy, getting lots of bad reviews on the Internet. Sena gets angry while Kuroneko says she doesn’t care about what other people say – although we can see she probably really cares.

 

Part 3

One day, Kyousuke gets two text messages. One is from Kuroneko: she wants to meet him after school. The other is from Kirino, who hadn’t contacted anyone so far, so all of them, Kyousuke included, were very worried. The message tells him to “destroy all her collection” (of eroge, etc.) Surprised, Kyousuke tries phoning her, but she hangs up on him. Not knowing what to do, he tries calling Ayase (through Manami, since Ayase has blacklisted him)

She is quite cold towards him (let’s not forget she thinks he’s a siscon otaku who got Kirino into porn games), but she bursts into tears after Kyousuke asks her if Kirino has gotten in contact with her – she hasn’t. Ayase thought that Kirino hated her for some reason, and Kyousuke is quite worried now that he learns that Kirino hasn’t even got in contact with her best friend -and yuri partner.

Meanwhile, Kyousuke goes to meet Kuroneko. Kyousuke tells her what’s happened, before anything else, and that he is thinking about going to the US to rescue Kirino.

Kuroneko agrees -she is also worried, although she won’t admit it!- and she also thanks him for helping her out – from making the game to socializing. She then kisses him on the cheek, telling him that it’s a curse – he must bring Kirino back or die a horrible death.

At home, his father readily agrees and Kyousuke leaves for Los Angeles. When he finally arrives at Kirino’s house, she has a cold and isn’t looking very well. After the initial surprise, she (reluctantly, as usual) lets him in. Kyousuke, who by now has become quite skillful in dealing with Kirino, stops her usual tsundere complaints by inviting her to play eroge.

Meanwhile, he learns that Kirino hasn’t played any eroge so far, since her roommate is some loli -and you know what would happen in the US if they learned she played porn game with little girls-, and that she didn’t want to contact any of her friends until she won a race – which she hadn’t been able to do. Being among elite athletes, she wasn’t doing that well, and had fallen ill and depressed after exhausting herself, not being able to contact any of her friends or having abstained from her noble hobbies for so long.

Kyousuke tells her to return home with him – and after some (expected) resistance, after Kyousuke tells her clearly that he misses her, she finally agrees.

When they arrive in Japan, there’s someone waiting for Kirino – Kuroneko. She’s panting, but she denies she had got there running – although Kyousuke knows well that after he told her to come to the airport, she must have been very eager to meet her friend.

 

Summary “Ore no Imouto ga Konna Ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai” Volume 4

The fourth novel of Oreimo is the best so far, no doubt about it.

In the first part, Ayase, Kirino’s yandere friend reappears. She wants to give Kirino a present for her birthday, something she will love, so it must have to do with otaku stuff -in Volume 2 she discovered Kirino’s secret-, and asks Kyousuke for help – since she believes Kyousuke to be a loli- and siscon otaku who got his sister into eroge.

After asking Kirino’s otaku friends for advice, Kyousuke suggests that Kirino may already own most anime goods she might want, therefore the best course of action is to get a limited edition figure of Meruru – however, to get the figure she has to win a cosplay contest. Ayase is disgusted, but since she will do anything for Kirino decides to… deceive her friend Kanako, another girl from Kirino’s class, telling her that the cosplay contest will be part of a selection process to become a model like Ayase and Kirino. Kanako turns out to be quite a bitch, but on the stage she changes her personality and ends up winning against an American loli.

I have to wonder why Ayase is so overprotective and aggressive when it comes to Kirino. She is a yandere, of course, but could it also be she is in love with Kirino? I wouldn’t discard it at all.

 

 

In Part 2, Kyousuke’s osananajimi Manami, who is clearly in love with him, insists on visiting his house. Kirino, for some reason, reacts negatively and won’t stop abusing Manami, who however wants to get friendly with her. Kirino goes as far as scattering all of Kyousuke’s hidden porn in his room and showing, on the computer, some siscon eroge, so when Manami insists on seeing Kyousuke’s room, she sees everything. Her hilarious reaction is to ask Kyousuke “Should I call you oniichan?” At least she looks happy since Kyousuke seems to have a fetish for meganekko and she wears glasses.

I love Manami. Well, I love meganekko as well, but above all she is a plain, normal girl. Kyousuke, don’t let her go. That’s the kind of life I’d love as well. A life without problems or adventures, based on routine, with a loving, faithful, cute wife.

In Part 3, Kyousuke is depressed because Manami saw all his porn, and Kirino and her otaku friends decide to throw up a party to cheer him up. Some of the events are playing eroge, Saori thinking that Kyousuke likes being stepped on by girls dressed as maids, and Kuroneko’s doujinshi comic about a sister who looks just like Kirino who is in love with her oniichan who looks just like Kyousuke, and she sneaks into his room to smell his pants. Finally, Kirino gives Kyousuke a present and says “I’m sorry” for the first time in his life, which makes him even cry. The present turns out to be an eroge, by the way.

This is the turning point. For the first time, the “deredere” seal has been broken, apparently for no reason. So far she had always been tsuntsun towards her brother – aggressive and unfriendly. For the first time in the series, she has been nice to him.

Finally, in Part 4 Kyousuke is asked to buy two new eroge at a shop in Akihabara – the only problem is that it’s a night sale, but Kirino wants to play the eroge as soon as possible. After several events at Akihabara, Kyousuke returns home and is persuaded to play the eroge with his sister, which leads to a hilarious situation where he is basically watching incest porn scenes with Kirino, and he wonders what to do if he got an erection!

 

After that, Kirino, who, as I mentioned, has become nice towards him, says that as part of her last “life counseling” which she announced in volume 3, she will show him some of her “secret” collection, which was mentioned in volume 1, as a token for all the help he’s given her. Amongst some surprising things, she suddenly focuses on her primary school report cards. It shows that the now ace of the track and field club was really bad at sports during primary school. The now top student, was average. It shows she has worked hard to be what she is now. In theory this was the last life counseling, although Kyousuke doesn’t take it seriously. After all, they live together, and Kirino seems to have relied on him on this stuff even after she made otaku friends.

To his utter surprise, she then said “Ja ne, aniki” (aniki being a respectful term for brother she has never used towards him, usually referring to him as “anta” -you-)

As we head towards the end of the novel, Kyousuke notices one day that Kirino isn’t at home. At dinner she hasn’t appeared yet and after asking, his father answers that she is no longer in Japan – she has been scouted by some American sports team. She is no longer there. It was really the last counseling session.

As the new school year begins and Kyousuke goes with his future wife Manami to school, he meets a girl who looks familiar – Kuroneko, who is now at his school, calls him senpai.

Summary “Ore no Imouto ga Konna Ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai” Volume 3

Part 1

The third volume of Oreimo begins with a monologue by Kyousuke who tells us that three months have elapsed since the events in the first volume and, despite all of this, his relationship with Kirino hasn’t changed one bit: he hates her and he’s sure she hates him as well. I have already said that this is actually pretty interesting, because until the very end of volume 6 and despite everything else he will continue to claim their relationship is really bad, that it hasn’t changed, and that they hate each other.

This first chapter is also interesting because we get to know more about Kirino’s personality, that of a tsundere, and that can also help understand her relationship with Kyousuke. One day, she’s angry because she was going to meet Saori and Kuroneko and they got five minutes late. She’s complaining about them all the time, and yet we learn that she arrived… one hour early, which shows that she was really looking forward to meeting her friends. Anyway, Saori suggested holding an “anime appreciation party” at Kirino’s house so that Kuroneko can watch Meruru as the two girls are always arguing about their favorite anime (Kuroneko likes Maschera, which is aired in the same time slot as Meruru.

That day, Kyousuke comes back after spending some (quality? lol) time with Manami and finds it’s pretty dark inside, and Kuroneko is sitting there, but not Kirino. It turns out Saori couldn’t come so, there being no “moderator”, they had a fight (about anime again?), but Kyousuke notices that Kirino didn’t kick Kuroneko out, and Kuroneko didn’t leave—that is, they want to be together, but their proud personality doesn’t allow them to be honest! Kuroneko tells Kyousuke the reason she got angry with Kirino, it turns out it wasn’t because of anime, but because Kirino had written a cell phone novel, a medium increasingly popular among teenage girls. Kuroneko complains about the style (full of emoticons, etc.) but above all about the fact that there’s a character modeled after her that gets raped. Kyousuke decides to go see his sister who’s upstairs… playing eroge, of course. She says she actually got angry because she read Kuroneko’s doujinshi. She says it was a very bulky work, difficult to read since she only thought about herself and not her readers and the worst thing is, there’s a character modeled after her who the main character makes her sex slave! (why junior high school girls write about rape or sex slaves, Kyousuke can’t understand) However, Kyousuke notices Kirino actually bothered to read Kuroneko’s doujinshi. She claims it was to be able to criticize her, but he knows well she did it out of friendship.

Kyousuke goes downstairs and decides to watch Meruru with Kuroneko, an unsettling experience since the DVD version isn’t censored and it’s a little awkward to be watching an anime with half-naked magical shoujo lolis together with a girl. Kuroneko starts saying why she doesn’t like it, just as Kirino comes downstairs. They start arguing about anime, again. This is actually pretty interesting, since Kuroneko likes darker animes while Kirino is like me (and I guess many of my readers) and likes anime that, just as she describes Meruru, are about “friendship”, and of course have cute girls. Kuroneko criticizes its apparent lack of plot and the fact that it has lots of fanservice. Kirino’s reply: it’s not our problem if your anime doesn’t sell well. And you are just too picky.

But at any rate, Kyousuke managed to make the two girls spend the evening together, so all’s well that ends well. Before leaving, however, Kuroneko asks Kyousuke why he bothers to do so much for his sister, when she treats him like that. Kyousuke replies he doesn’t understand himself. “Are you a siscon” “No!!” Then Kirino kicks him “You are sick”. Kuroneko asks “Then are you a masochist?” “No!!! I guess… it’s because we’re siblings after all!” “I understand…” Kuroneko replies, “you are a good brother. I’m jealous” Kirino looks puzzled. “Could it be that you like him?? You have such bad taste” “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t like this boy at all. That’s like a bad joke. I couldn’t be attracted to a boy who doesn’t’ even wear nekomimi. He isn’t handsome at all, he’s just plain and looks like a guy who won’t ever be something in life. He’s like 100,000,000 light-years away from my ideal type” How cruel!! thinks Kyousuke.

 

 

Part 2

In Japan, Christmas Eve has a particular tradition associated with it: it’s the night for couples, and thus it’s no wonder that the ubiquitous love hotels are all booked. As Kirino is going to take a shower in a love hotel room, Kyousuke sits on the bed, pretty tense. “And don’t peek” says Kirino.

What? No, this is not a preview from volume 7. This is still the third volume. To find out how Kirino and Kyousuke ended up in a love hotel on Christmas eve, we need to go back at the beginning of December.

One day, Kirino asks Kyousuke for another counseling session. Kyousuke asks what it is, and as usual our Kirino turns the tables on him and tells him that if he wants to know he should prostrate before her. He doesn’t, but she stills tells him to be grateful because she’s going to tell him what the matter is: it turns out her novel has become really popular on the net, and popular novels may be published. “Is that rape novel so popular?” Asks Kyousuke, puzzled. “Yes, isn’t it awesome?” replies Kirino who seems to be OK with it being called “a rape novel”. She tells him that a person from the publishing company has arranged a meeting with her.

“Was it a guy?”

“Yes… what, are you worried about me? Haha, you disgusting siscon. But I’ll let you come with me if you insist”

Kyousuke realizes that Kirino is actually scared of going alone, and she wants him to go with her. To tease her, he tells her he won’t be going with her then, and she just angrily replies “Do as you like” However, Kyousuke tries to picture Kirino going alone and meeting some random guy, and immediately says he’ll go. “What, why should I take you with me? Say at least ‘please’” replies a tsundere Kirino. They go to the publishing company and she’s been asked to wait for that editor in the lobby, so she tells Kyousuke to come at once if she sends him an empty SMS, which would mean she’s in trouble—that is, she’s actually uneasy!

Kirino and the publishing company guy leave the building and go to a café, with Kyousuke trailing them. After the meeting, Kirino just says to Kyousuke “What, why are you still here”. At any rate, she’s been asked to write a new novel, and she wants to go to Shibuya to gather materials, and she’s taking Kyousuke with her. Since their parents will be on a date on Christmas Eve, they decide to go that day. Manami also asks Kyousuke to come to her house for Christmas, and the poor osananajimi is dejected when Kyousuke tells her he already has plans, but doesn’t want to give her any details.

Shibuya, 24th December. Kirino and Kyousuke are going to follow the same steps as the protagonist in Kirino’s novel. If this is a simulation, should we hold hands? Asks himself Kyousuke, but Kirino has other plans. She wants him to be run over by a dump truck, since the first boyfriend of the protagonist dies that way. What’s the matter with this novel?!?! He isn’t really willing to do so, so they head for a department store where the next scene takes place. One month after her boyfriend was killed, the protagonist gets a present from her new boyfriend. And in fact Kirino has already even chosen the present Kyousuke is going to buy her, as part of the simulation! But 30,000 yen is too much for Kyousuke, as it turns out that, in the novel, the protagonist is dating a young, wealthy CEO… what a lolicon! exclaims Kyousuke, but Kirino says that this kind of stories is very popular among teen girls, as they want to date guys older than them, since guys their age are too immature.

“What about you?” asks Kyousuke

“Me, I’d date at least a guy in his second year at high school“

Anyway, the CEO was actually married and his wife caught him cheating on her with a junior high student, so he dumped the protagonist. She’s then very sad (although Kyousuke claims the one who must be really sad is that guy’s wife, being cheated on with a 13-year-old girl!) Unhappy, Rino engages in compensated dating. Kirino and Kyousuke will now simulate a date with her next boyfriend, a boy who is poor, which means that Kyousuke can actually buy her a cheaper present. Meanwhile, Kyousuke decides to take a look at Kirino’s notes since the novel seems too crazy to begin with.

“Main character: Rino. 13 years old. Normal and cute (only half as cute as me) A very pure girl, who thinks love is very important. Easily hurt (what, didn’t she even engage in compensated dating?) She has a very cute little sister. Her name is Shiori-chan (and how does even an imouto fit in this story?)

Boyfriend 1. Name Tetsu. He’s suddenly run over by a dump truck. He’s a little wild sometimes, but he’s also kind. It’s his first time dating a girl, so he isn’t used to it. (Isn’t this cute?)

Boyfriend 2. Name Kazu. 32 years old. A young CEO at a venture firm. Has wife and kids. Both the company and his wife learn he was dating a junior high student so his social life is ruined. Dumps the protagonist. He kills himself? He’s very good at sex (why is a junior high school student writing about a guy being good at sex? Looks hot in a suit. He’s just fooling around with the main character, but he also gets serious some times. (Isn’t it cool for the main character to have such a boyfriend?)

Boyfriend 3. Name Toshi. Very cool. His family is actually rich, but he can’t use his parents’ money so he’s poor. Has a part-time job. Second year at high school. He’s good at playing the guitar and is in a band. Blond hair. Top student. Captain of the soccer club. He’s very kind and worries a lot about her. He likes her very much but won’t admit it. He never gives up.

He finally opens his heart and dates Nori, who gives up compensated dating. But one day Toshi is run over by a car and loses his memory. But Rino stays by his side and he falls in love with her once more. But one day, Rino is raped, but Toshi continues loving her and supports her. But one day Toshi is diagnosed with leukemia and is in hospital, so Rino feels lonely and cheats on him with his best friend who had always liked Rino. But Toshi learns of it, and she decides she loves Toshi after all, even if he’s sick, so she dumps his friend. That night, his friend is killed by a motorbike. In the end, Toshi is healed through the power of love. Happy ending”

Kyousuke’s reaction is “what the hell is this novel?”, but Kirino is really proud of it, and claims that stories like this are very popular, especially if they have happy endings.

However, Kyousuke poses an interesting question. Why does Toshi do so much for that bitch? Kirino’s reply: “because he loves her, of course”. For some reason, Kyousuke gasps.

Anyway, now they go to see a concert, and after it Kirino goes to a convenience store, and she returns with a bucket… which she pours over her head. Kyousuke asks her why she’s done such a stupid thing, it being so cold outside, and she says Rino waits for Toshi after the concert, even if she knows he won’t come, and gets drenched in the rain. This is the reason they end up in a love hotel: so Kirino can get a shower… as this is what, precisely, happens in her novel. Kyousuke however is very nervous. After all, Rino and Toshi didn’t probably check out of the love hotel without doing something first… While Kirino takes a shower, he gets a call from Manami, wondering if he could go to her house after he finishes doing whatever he had to do. He admits he’s with Kirino. “A date?” Asks Manami. “No no, we just went shopping, to a concert…” “Well, Kyou-chan, that’s a date, isn’t it?” By the way, nothing happened in the love hotel. What a pity!

 

 

 

Part 4

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.

 

Summary “Ore no Imouto ga Konna Ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai” Volume 2

Part 1

One month after the events in the first novel, Kyousuke is still a normal guy, except for the fact that he’s being forced to play imouto-themed eroge by his little sister, Kirino — fortunately in the privacy of his own room.

Through a wiki, Kyousuke learns the mechanics of “Siscalypse“, a highly-customizable fighting game where loli imoutos fight each other — the loser also losing all her clothes. Once you gain experience playing in campaign mode, you can play online. In fact, Kirino wants Kyousuke to play with her online so she can gain experience points, since she really sucks at the game. He also meets Saori online and gets her phone number.

That day, Kyousuke learns from Kirino that some of her friends are coming over tomorrow, so under no circumstances is he to leave his room — and she suggests he could spend the time playing eroge. “Play eroge while the house is full of teenage girls? What kind of torture is that? And what if I’m caught?” ”No problem” Kirino replies “In that case I would never speak to you again and act as if you were a stranger”. At any rate, Kirino forbids him from leaving his room and talking, nay, even looking at her friends.

The following day, Kyousuke decides to browse the Internet to pass the time after being expelled from the living room by Kirino. He remembers that his osananajimi Manami is for some reason collecting pillows (no, not that kind of pillow) and searches for a present for her. He ends up on a website selling dakimakura — yet another otaku oddity.

Meanwhile, Kirino and her friends are now in her room and he can listen to their conversation. Kirino has been weird lately — she doesn’t have time for her friends, she has been texting in secret and the other day they heard her talking on her cell phone — she was arguing with someone, but after she hung up she was smiling. Conclusion: she has a boyfriend, but no matter how much they press her, she won’t tell. Kyousuke suddenly feels jealous, but he realizes that the person Kirino was talking to was probably none other than Kuroneko. Kirino tries to change the topic, faking that she’s angry (very different from the actual angry Kirino)

One of her friends then asks her about Kyousuke, and says that he looks like a nice person. Kirino curtly denies it, and the rest of the girls start bad-mouthing Kyousuke — 14-year-old girls can be really cruel — but even if Kirino was the one who started speaking ill of Kyousuke, once her friends actually are saying very cruel things about him she remains mysteriously silent.

Suddenly, someone is at the door, with a package for Kyousuke. Kirino also goes downstairs and sees that it’s a package from a famous make-up manufacturer, and thinks that it’s a present for her. Kyousuke who was expecting no package whatsoever, gives it to her, still puzzled about it. He gets a phone call then — Saori. It was a package for Kirino, but she didn’t know her real name, so she sent it to Kyousuke instead. It contains… doujinshi (she had used the empty package of make-up products she had bought overseas). “Pornographic doujinshi?” asks Kyousuke. “Of course!”

Kyousuke realizes that this is a serious situation, because she might open the package in front of her friends. He barges into her room, to the astonishment of the girls, and tries to grab the package, but Kirino is holding it tight. In the ensuing struggle, Kirino trips and Kyousuke, trying to save her from the fall, ends up on top of a Kirino whose bra and panties are now exposed. Kyousuke finally gets the package, but suddenly Kirino’s astonished friends ask them if they are in a forbidden relationship. Both deny it, and Kyousuke gets kicked out of the house until Kirino’s friends leave.

While he’s outside, a cute girl, one of Kirino’s friends, called Aragaki Ayase, approaches Kyousuke. She thinks there was a reason why he acted like that, and asks him to forgive Kirino. She also exchanges her phone number with Kyousuke, or “Oniisan” as she calls him.

 

 

 

Part 2

This chapter turns our attention to Kyousuke’s relationship with his osananajimi Manami. They spend the evenings together, preparing for their exams, and Kyousuke is a regular visitor at her house—a shop selling traditional Japanese confectionery. Manami’s grandparents are always urging them to get married already, and all in all Kyousuke finds here the peaceful life he yearns for.

And yet, when asked by a classmate of his (Akagi, we’ll know more about him and his sister in volumes 4 and 5) if Kyousuke and Manami are dating, he curtly denies it. He’s never even thought of her that way—he thinks of Manami as a grandmother figure. Of course, Kyousuke is cruelly oblivious to the fact that Manami is in love with him.

One day on their way home, they meet Ayase. Kirino’s friend and Kyousuke exchange a few words, and Manami inquires about her—and notices that Kyousuke was making eyes at her. He denies it—although he isn’t going out with Manami, it would be rude of him to admit that he was ogling another girl. Manami is at least relieved: Kyousuke is interested in girls. Just like a grandmother whose grandson has reached puberty.

She is however a little jealous and asks Kyousuke if he thinks she should change her looks or something. Kyousuke tells her that the way she is he likes her more than Ayase. She doesn’t need to change. She’s really glad to hear that.

Some days later, however, Manami looks a little depressed and tells Kyousuke that she has something to do and can’t hang out with him after school. The following day, she doesn’t go to school (due to “personal reasons”) and worried, Kyousuke tries calling her on her cell phone, but it’s off. At school, Akagi mentions the possibility that Manami got a boyfriend, so it’d be a little awkward for her to continue hanging out with him. Kyousuke is appalled at this idea, because he loves being with Manami. Not in a romantic way (he insists), but because she offers him the simple life he wants—the opposite to Kirino.

 

Kyousuke is now truly worried and calls her house, but all he learns from her little brother is that she’s away and that she told him not to tell Kyousuke where she was. Could she be actually avoiding him? Why? Kyousuke’s peaceful, happy days may be in danger. Her brother also told him something important: when she started looking depressed, which turns out to be the day after they met Ayase. He has nobody to turn to… except maybe… Kirino? He heads for her room. After all, he helped her out the last time, she should also hear him out and give him advice.

Kirino is, as usual, very tsundere-ish but she ends up accepting to listen to what he has to say… as a favor, of course. Kirino seems to hate Manami for some reason, but she’s also strangely quick to draw a conclusion: it all happened because of the way Kyousuke looked at Ayase. Even if she hates Manami, she seems to sympathize with her. Being compared to another girl was certainly cruel. Since Kirino insists all the time that she can’t stand Kyousuke and Manami’s relationship, she speaks from her point of view. She proposes that Kyousuke give her a present, because she’d be happy if she received something from a boy she gets along so well with that they can even have a quarrel. When Kyousuke asks Kirino if that’s from her point of view, or from the point of view of a normal, plain girl like Manami, Kirino just replies “Who knows…”

The following day, Kyousuke waits for Manami outsider her house for… two hours, with a present: a pillow. It looks like as if she wanted to avoid him and he has to grab her hand so she doesn’t run away. In the end, Kyousuke learns the truth: the day after they met Ayase, Manami decided to trim her hair, but she didn’t do it very well and that meant she had actually… changed. And since Kyousuke didn’t want her to change, she had been avoiding him so he didn’t hate her. As for why she was away… it turned out a relative of hers was in hospital, but it was nothing serious—but in case the worst happened, she didn’t want Kyousuke to worry, so that’s why she told her brother not to tell Kyousuke. And why was her cell phone off? Well, she never takes her cell phone outside, in case she loses it.

In the end, what did you expect from the plainest of all girls!

 

 

 

Part 3

 

Boys and girls, never forget to delete your browser’s history… unbeknown to Kyousuke, Kirino is able to check the websites he visited on the laptop he borrowed from her—and she’s extremely angry because he had been visiting porn sites, so angry she’s about to cry. Kyousuke doesn’t understand why she’s taken it so seriously. However, she’s only willing to forgive him if he helps her make good memories during the summer (why ask him? he wonders).

Not knowing what to do, our hero has two options. Call Ayase, or call Saori, since he has the phone number of both. Both girls seem friendly, so he’s in two minds about which girl to call: Kirino’s “normal” side, or Kirino’s “otaku” side? He calls Saori, who quickly comes up with a plan: Summer Comiket!

Things however don’t go that well. It’s really hot, there are too many people, and Kirino gets bored. Saori, however, seems to have a plan, and takes Kirino to meet some doujinshi artists she knows (Saori seems to know a lot of people and have lots of connections). Kirino is now happier, but Kyousuke has no interest in meeting people he doesn’t know anything about and waits there. A girl in her 20s, dressed as a maid, beckons him and shows him her doujinshi—an erotic manga about maids. It’s a little awkward for Kyousuke to be seeing a porn manga with a girl, but he starts to get a little excited and asks her if the maid in the manga is modeled after her… when suddenly Kirino, who has just returned, hits him for trying to “sexually harass” the girl. She’s really, really jealous, but Kirino hitting Kyousuke gives the doujinshi girl an idea: a bondage incest manga. Kyousuke realizes otaku are fearsome.

As usual, Kirino and Kuroneko are exchanging jabs, but that’s the way they have to show their friendship. Kuroneko starts to speak (passionately) about doujinshi, as she seems to have some experience. Although she’s always expressionless, Kyousuke can find a slight smile on her face when she admits it feels good to be praised for a work you’ve created. Kyousuke (who is being made to carry the stuff the girls have bought—for some reason most of it is porn. It’s somewhat shocking for him to be with three 14 and 15-year-old girls who are buying erotic stuff) also has his chance to enjoy Comiket when he sees a person cosplaying as Cell, which makes him get into the swing of it.

Kirino wants to buy the limited edition of Siscalypse, but to her chagrin it’s sold out. There’s one chance to get hold of the precious game expansion: there’s going to be a contest where people are going to compete against a really good player. If they can win, they get the limited edition. But Kirino sucks at the game and loses immediately. Kuroneko, however, suddenly disappears and before they know it she has easily beaten her opponent, which is received by a round of applause from everyone. Kuroneko wants to give Kirino the game, but she just replies “What do you mean by that”. Kuroneko replies “Then if you don’t want it I’ll throw it away”. “I didn’t say that” “Then be honest with yourself and say you accept it. Or maybe you are too proud?” “What’s with that attitude, why should I have to say that?” After a pause, Kirino finally says “Well, if you insist, I’ll do you the favor and accept it. Be grateful to me”

Kyousuke and Saori look at each other. They know this is how these two girls interact with each other. Kirino’s words actually mean “Thank you very much, I’m really, really happy!”

 

 

 

Part 4

Carrying bags full of hentai items they bought at Comiket, our heroes arrive at the local station, just when it’s starting to rain. While they are of two minds about taking a taxi, someone calls Kirino’s name from behind: it’s Ayase, who is really glad to meet her friend. When she sees Kirino is with Kyousuke, she asks them if they are on a date (maybe still believing they had some sort of forbidden relationship), and both deny it. Ayase however, starts to suspect something is amiss, since Kirino seems to be nervous, unable to reply where she’s going or if she wants ride home, and willing to leave as soon as possible.

Ayase also notices that Saori and Kuroneko are waiting there, and wonders if they’re friends of hers. Kirino can’t give an answer, but Saori is quick on the uptake and continues walking with Kuroneko. Once they’ve left, Kirino just says very unconvincingly that “she doesn’t know those guys”. However, Ayase says she just remembered there was some kind of otaku event nearby, and Kirino very foolishly starts saying things like “Oh, well, I’ve heard it’s called Comiket” or “I heard they sell doujinshi or something like that”, and basically gets so fired up that Ayase now gets really suspicious.

The girl who so far had looked like a really nice, kind person shows her true colors, to Kyousuke horror: Ayase is a yandere. “Are you lying to me, Kirino? I hate lies. I hate likes. You lie, you lie, you lie!!!!”. When Kyousuke tries to help Kirino, Ayase just shouts “YOU SHUT UP!!!!!!” After this, Ayase tries to take a look at the contents of the bags, and everything falls to the ground. “Kousaka-san, please don’t speak to me ever again” Are Ayase’s last words.

Kyousuke tells us several times that although he doesn’t really care about Kirino, once Kirino asked him to give her life counseling, he will keep his word and help her. Once the new school term starts, he asks Kirino if she was able to talk to Ayase. At first, she refuses to give an answer and asks him why he cares about it—importantly, she says something Kyousuke doesn’t really understand “after all this time are you trying to behave like a real brother now?” Kyousuke gets carried away and admits he even cried thinking about the whole affair, which Kirino finds both embarrassing and ridiculous… although she finally admits she hates this situation, but there’s nothing she can do since Ayase won’t make up with her unless she gives up her hobby.

Kyousuke actually gets angry this time, because of his sister’s defeatist attitude, and decides to call Ayase, who says she wants to be friends with Kirino again, but she wants to save her first from that terrible hobby. Apparently, some journalist had spoken against child porn, lolis and eroge at a PTA meeting, linking that hobby with a murder where the guy was found to be a fan of Siscalypse—Kirino’s favorite game. Ayase actually blames Kyousuke, thinking he got Kirino into that hobby… although, as we know, it was the opposite!

Without anyone to turn to, Kyousuke can only think of a person… his father, the police officer. He tells him he wants to talk to him about “a friend of friends who saw him carrying hentai stuff and now she won’t be friends with him”. We can imagine his father’s reaction: “Wait, I think I didn’t hear you… how can you talk to your father about that, you bastard!!!!”… but in the end Kyousuke manages to get some advice from him.

 

 

Part 5

The following day, Kyousuke meets Ayase near her school and she reluctantly agrees to hear him out. Apparently, his father (always by chance, it’s not like he wanted to know more about otaku stuff because his daughter likes it!) knows a little about that case and it turns out that the otaku murderer didn’t commit the crimes under the influence of eroge—it was all an exaggeration by some moralistic journalist who wanted to launch a crusade against otaku. Ayase admits she was wrong, but she doesn’t want to be friends with Kirino anyway, because that hobby is still dirty and perverted. She cries “Give me back my friend, that person is not the real Kirino”

Suddenly, Kirino appears and tells Ayase to stop talking about a “fake Kirino” or a “real Kirino”. Who’s the real Kirino? The one who is fashionable, athletic and gets top marks? “Yes, that’s my Kirino!” replies Ayase. Kirino, however, continues. “Is it weird having that hobby? The real Kirino couldn’t like that? I’m a fake Kirino? I’m sorry, Ayase. You are wrong. Those dirty manga you hate, me, I love them. I have lots of porn games, which I really love. I love anime with cute girls. I can’t get tired of it. I’m very happy when I look at all the good I have. So please, I can understand your concern, but I won’t give it up. Because I like it”
“More than your friend?”

“No, it’s not like that… I like you as much as I like eroge. I like my friends from school, but also my otaku friends. All of them are very important to me, I can’t throw them away. So Ayase, I won’t give up on either. I won’t give up my hobbies, and I will make up with you. Do you have a problem with that?”

Ayase is moved by Kirino’s words, especially the fact that she said she likes her, but in the end says she can’t make up with Kirino, because she can’t approve of her hobbies.

Suddenly, Kyousuke takes some books out of his bag. Homer’s Odyssey and the Nihonshoki, and also some siscon doujinshi. His point is: the two classical works are admired by everyone, but they also feature stories about incest. By denying Kirino’s beloved eroge and doujinshi, she’s also denying some of the most important classics. Unsurprisingly, Ayase is unimpressed. Suddenly, Kyousuke embraces Kirino.

“As you can see, Ayase, we love each other. That’s why we collect stories about forbidden love. Don’t call “dirty” something that is the proof of our love. You say it has naked girls, porn scenes? That’s not the point! Kirino’s hobby is what reestablished our broken bonds! Our relationship was always cold. I could never help my sister. I could only watch my sister cry while saying it had nothing to do with me. That’s why I’m so grateful to our hobby. Thanks to it, we became real siblings for the first time. I didn’t have to use the pretext that it didn’t concern me while watching her cry. This love, who can deny it? This is the proof of our love. Listen to me… I looooove my sister!!!!”

Silence.

“Kirino, let’s make up. Immediately” said Ayase, “I’m sorry I said it’s dirty or I cared about such small details. I just didn’t know…”

Kyousuke approach her “Well, well, that was troublesome”

“Don’t come any closer, pervert!!! Don’t speak to me! Pervert, pervert, pervert!! As I expected you were the root of all evils. Don’t ever touch my Kirino again. You’ll soil her. You’re revolting. You make me sick!”

“Ayase?”

“Don’t worry Kirino, I’ll protect you. Let’s run!… and you sicko, die!”

Well, said Kyousuke to himself once they left. “Just as planned”

Some days later, Kyousuke gets an SMS from Ayase:

“To lying oniisan

Thanks to you, I made up with Kirino. I won’t approve of her hobby, but I’ll make an exception for a while. But I won’t give up. I’ll save her from you, devil. I won’t lose to you. P.S. If you do something weird to Kirino I’ll fucking kill you”

Later, Kirino is speaking to Ayase on the phone once again. Kirino then speaks to Kyousuke…

“What you said the other day, was it true?”

“Who cares? Forget about it”

“Don’t you understand? After that, I was thinking and… if I’m honest, I… think I love you, brother”

“Eeeh, are you serious?”

Kirino bursts out laughing.

“How stupid! You actually believed that? Haha, how disgusting, you siscon”

Summary “Ore no Imouto ga Konna Ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai” Volume 1

Kousaka Kyousuke, 17, is a self-proclaimed ordinary person – and very proud of it. He has no dreams, except becoming a normal person in the future, living a normal life.

Kousaka Kirino, 14. Kyousuke’s sister. She’s really sophisticated and popular, and a real beauty.

All these years, Kyousuke and Kirino haven’t got along well – to tell the truth, it wasn’t a matter of getting along or not. They just ignored each other; being completely different, it was difficult to maintain a friendly relationship. Kyousuke can’t even remember what the last time they had any sort of meaningful conversation was. And as far as he is concerned, there’s no reason why this situation shouldn’t continue forever.

One day, Kirino bumped into Kyousuke. Nothing out of the ordinary. Kyousuke apologized but Kirino just mumbled some angry words and left. But suddenly, Kyousuke noticed that something was behind the shoe rack – a DVD case, on the cover a little girl. Stardust Witch Meruru, some magical girl anime. Before having time to think, his mother appears and he manages to hide it in time. She thinks it’s porn, and tells Kyousuke to study instead of reading that kind of stuff – his grades are only good because he often studies with his osananajimi, an extremely normal girl called Tamura Manami.

Back in his room, he opens the case and to this surprise it actually contains a porn game (eroge) called “Loving my little sister ♪” featuring lolis.

Shocked, Kyousuke tries to figure out who this belongs to. His father, a strict police officer, is out of the question. His mother? No way. But the most unlikely of all is Kirino – a stylish, sophisticated girl like her can’t possibly like an anime for kids… or a loli eroge (he is assuming the loli eroge is just inside the Meruru case by mistake) But he knows the DVD isn’t his – the most likely culprit, in fact, if other people were asked.

Kyousuke is really curious about it, and decides to set a trap. At dinner, he causally says that some anime for girls are becoming popular, like this anime called Stardust Meruru, and he is thinking he could give it a try. His father asks him what the matter is and says that anime is a bad influence so it’s out of the question. Kyousuke notices that Kirino looks upset and she leaves the table.

Wondering if it’s really possible that the Stardust Witch Meruru DVD case belonged to Kirino (even if the wrong DVD was inside), he pretends he leaves to buy some ice-cream at the convenience store and comes back through the back door, and, as he expected, he finds Kirino searching his room. He shows her the DVD. She insists it’s not hers, that an anime for kids can’t be hers.

He finally persuades her to take the DVD by asking her to throw it away for him. She takes him and leaves, but she suddenly turns around and asks him if he thinks it would be weird for a girl like her to own such a DVD. To her surprise, Kyousuke says that he doesn’t really find it weird. He has no reason to criticize others for their hobbies.

After this incident, they didn’t speak to each other for a few days. One night when he was already asleep, Kyousuke wakes up to find that Kirino is on top of him. He asks her what the matter is and she tells him that she has something to tell him. She takes him to her room, and says that she needs some “life counseling” – a word that will become mythical in Oreimo. After obtaining his promise that he won’t laugh at her, she shows him her hidden collection – full of anime DVDs and eroge. Yes, Kirino is a complete otaku, but with a double life. At school, she is really popular and stylish. In fact, Kyousuke learns that she can afford to buy all this stuff because she’s working as a model.

She admits this isn’t the type of hobby a girl her age should have, but she can’t help it. She really likes all those moe girls, especially the loli imouto type – in fact many of her games are siscon eroge. Kyousuke, almost panicking, asks her if she could actually have feelings for him, but her reply is quick- don’t mix 2D with 3D. There can’t be a sister who has feelings for her brother in real life.

Kyousuke loves being with his osananajimi Manami. She is normal – so normal, she reminds him of his own mother. Of course, Manami is in love with him but he doesn’t notice.

Compared to the peaceful atmosphere surrounding Manami, the first thing Kirino asks Kyousuke when he gets home is to come to her room to play… eroge. Dumbfounded, he wonders why the hell he has to play erotic games sitting next to his own little sister. The loli that appears when starting the game claims everyone in the game is over 18 (lol!)

After being taught the basics of eroge, Kyousuke starts playing. The main character wakes up, and his imouto Shiori is sleeping inside his own futon. As Kirino explains, depending on what your choices, the imoutos may increase or decrease their disposition towards you. Three options: 1) Hug her softly 2) Get out of the futon trying not to wake her up 3) Kick her out, no questions asked.

As you can imagine, Kyousuke chooses… 3, which makes Kirino really angry. “What are you doing to Shiori-chan?!?!” Well, at least, Kirino admits, that was an option she had never chosen, so it was interesting to see what happens.

Kyousuke starts to realize that Kirino is making him play because she’s been alone all along – nobody knew about her hobby, she has no otaku friends to interact with, and proposes to search for friends. It’ll be difficult, because it is obvious it will have to be girls of her age who are also otaku. How?

Surprisingly, it is Manami who helps: she had heard about “offline meetings”, meeting people you get to know online – and by the way, this is the first time we learn that Kirino seems to hate Manami for apparently no reason (For those who know about Volume 6, it is pretty relevant)

They look for some sort of community, and they find one. “Otaku girls, gather together!” The administrator is one Saori, whose Japanese is very formal and pretty eccentric. She informs Kirino (nickname: Kiririn) that they will hold an offline meeting soon.

Kirino, although unwilling to admit she’s anxious about it, asks Kyousuke (tsundere mode: “well… if you insist!”) to come with her. Since it wouldn’t be appropriate for a guy to show up (Kirino’s suggestion that Kyousuke crossdresses is quickly rejected), he will follow her and watch from the shadows. She gets to a (maid) café in Akihabara before Kirino and the rest do. One of the otaku girls catches his attention – an extremely tall girl, dressing weirdly, who turns out to be none other than Saori “Bajiina” herself.

Things don’t go well, however, and Kirino, who is dressing stylishly, which alienates the otaku girls, makes no friends and when the meeting is over, she rushes outside. Kyousuke chases after her, and tries to comfort her, when suddenly Saori runs to them. She noticed that Kirino didn’t make any friends, and wants to hold a second party at a McDonald’s for Kirino, and also for another member who was also unable to interact with the others, a girl dressed in gothic lolita fashion – none other than Gokou Ruri. Kuroneko.

Both have sharp tongues, but as they argue about anime, Kyousuke realizes that Kirino has finally managed to make otaku friends – Saori and Kuroneko. While the two girls continue arguing outside, Kyousuke thanks Saori for all she’s done.

Kyousuke is tired after the events at Akihabara, and Manami suggests calling off their study session. Kyousuke asks her if she feels like going somewhere special, but as we could expect, our extremely normal Manami wants to go to… the local park – she doesn’t mind where, as long as Kyousuke is with her.

At the park, they see some people doing a photo shoot – one of the models being none other than Kirino. Kyousuke learns from Manami that Kirino ranked among the best students in the whole prefecture. At home, his mother is radiant because she’s heard that Kirino is the ace of the track and field club.

Just… just how awesome is Kirino? Since they didn’t have a single conversation in years, he never knew about all of this. Meanwhile, Kyousuke completes his first eroge with a laptop that he borrowed from Kirino, since he didn’t feel really comfortable watching a loli imouto eroge hentai scene with his sister next to him.

One day Kyousuke gets home and there’s a dead silence in the living room. Kirino and his father are sitting there. His mother stops Kyousuke from coming in. From what his mother tells him, his father found one of Kirino’s anime DVDs, probably in a similar situation to Kyousuke’s some time ago. Kirino rushes out of the house, crying. Kyousuke’s father is determined to search Kirino’s room for more otaku material, but Kyousuke block his way. He finally manages to persuade his father to at least let him talk to Kirino; but in exchange, his father tells Kyousuke to take responsibility and throw Kirino’s stuff away. Kyousuke accepts.

Having gained some time, Kyousuke rushes to find Kirino. She is in a video arcade and Kyousuke tries asking her if she couldn’t just give that hobby up. Crying, Kirino says she can’t. It’s become part of her, and this is something she won’t give up. Moved, Kyousuke returns home and tries to persuade his father. His father argues that otaku stuff is a bad influence. Kyousuke points out that he doesn’t know anything about it, and he admits he doesn’t, but he insists it’s a bad influence. Kyousuke also tells him that, if it was such a bad influence, why would Kirino keep getting top grades, while having a job and being in the track and field club?

His father is, however, unimpressed. Kyousuke shows him then several family albums. Then, another album, which his mother gave to him and which is his father’s precious photo album – Kirino’s debut as a model. Wasn’t he proud of all Kirino accomplished? (Even if his father insists he only wanted to see pictures of Kirino as a model to check whether it was a proper job or not)

And now, Kyousuke produces a picture that Kirino took that very evening: Saori and Kuroneko, together with a smiling Kirino. Being an otaku, Kyousuke argues, is also part of Kirino. Kirino is all of that – the model, the honor student, the athlete, and the otaku. If his father denies Kirino’s otakuness, he’s denying Kirino herself.

This time, his father is moved, and admits he didn’t know, in fact, anything about otakus except for the prejudices in the media. He won’t throw away Kirino’s collection, except for… any porn. This is not about whether it’s bad for her or not anymore, but about the fact that it is illegal for minors to own that stuff. But most of Kirino’s stuff is actually pornographic in nature, so this won’t do either, Kyousuke thinks. But he has no arguments to counter his father’s argument… except…

“That porn was actually mine”

His father is dumbfounded.

“And mom even knows about my porn mags. So there’s nothing wrong then, is there?”

His father gets really angry but just retorts “Do whatever you want, I don’t care anymore” and leaves.

Thus, Kirino’s otaku stuff was saved. Unprecedentedly, she actually thanks Kyousuke, and warns him. “I will still need some counseling”