I think being the younger sister in a pair of close-in-age sisters is a pretty raw deal.
Most of what you wear is hand-me-downs, and if things go badly, you’re the only one in a worn-out uniform while everyone else is in crisp, brand-new ones. (In my case, I got a new uniform for middle school, but my tracksuit was a hand-me-down...)
More than anything, from the moment you're old enough to be aware of things, you’re constantly—constantly—being compared to your older sister. That’s just the way it is. And, sure, it’s still manageable if you actually stand a chance.
But, I mean…
One of them—Ryou-nee—never scored less than perfect on a test until she got to high school.
And the other one—Mika-nee—holds the prefectural girls' records for middle schoolers in long jump, shuttle run, and several other events.
They’re absolute monsters...
I mean, I’m not bad either, when it comes to studying or sports—I’m above average. Back in elementary school, I could outrun Ryou-nee, even though she was already in high school at the time. And while Mika-nee couldn’t even be bothered to take the Eiken, I passed the Pre-2 level when I was in the third year of middle school.
I’m not losing. I’ve been putting in the effort. I’ve been working hard.
But…
When it came to studying, I was always compared to Ryou-nee.
When it came to sports, I was always compared to Mika-nee.
There was one exception—Yuu-nii, three years older than me.
He was kind of like me—good at both studying and sports, but not enough to beat Ryou-nee in academics or Mika-nee in athletics. With our parents out of the picture, Ryou-nee was pretty much the head of the Tachibana household, and Mika-nee acted as her occasional advisor. Yuu-nii and I were the ones who had to follow their lead. Maybe because of that, he was the sibling I got along with best. The two of us would often commiserate:
“Don’t you wish they’d see us for who we are, not just compare us all the time?”
“We’re trying so hard, you know~!”
At some point, a game Yuu-nii was playing helped me feel a little better.
“Hey, Yuu-nii. What’s fun about this game?”
“I get to be the main character.”
“I mean, isn’t that true for most games?”
“Listen closely. This game’s just your standard RPG. You’ve got your usual party members—a warrior with high physical attack, a mage who’s great at spells, a priest for healing. And then there’s the hero: the jack-of-all-trades. Not the strongest attacker, not the best with magic. At the start, they’re actually the weakest. But if you level up enough, they become the strongest, the most useful. They get exclusive equipment, and most importantly, they’re the main character of the story. You see what I’m getting at, right?”
Yeah. I totally get it.
Because Yuu-nii was there, I didn’t lose heart. I think maybe the same was true for him too.
But... Yuu-nii was special in his own way.
...Naturally, I guess—he was a boy.
When I was in fourth grade, Yuu-nii hit his first year of middle school and shot up past 170 cm, taller than Ryou-nee.
“Oh my, oh my. I don’t think I can call you ‘Yuu-kun’ anymore,” she said, looking all proud.
After that, Ryou-nee started calling him by his full name—Yuuji.
Then, in my fifth-grade year, when he was in second-year middle school, Yuu-nii finally managed to outrun Mika-nee in the 100-meter dash.
“Dang it! She finally beat me!”
“Hmph. It was inevitable once I unleashed my power.”
Honestly, watching them go back and forth was kinda cringey.
But let’s be real—the fact that Mika-nee, a high school girl, could beat middle school boys in footraces up until then was the real oddity…
Once he entered middle school, Yuu-nii got tall and super strong. He started doing all the heavy lifting around the house without even being asked.
It was something neither Ryou-nee nor Mika-nee could do—something only he could do. So he stopped being compared to them.
…Not fair.
I’ve been doing my best too, in my own way. I didn’t want to because I knew I’d just get compared, but since I was tall and people kept encouraging me, I started playing volleyball in the third term of fourth grade.
The coach was a good person and didn’t compare me to Mika-nee too much, and I didn’t end up hating volleyball itself.
But then—
“Hey, did you hear? That tall girl at Matsubara Volleyball Club is the younger sister of that Tachibana girl who was in Spring High!”
“Oh, you mean the one who led that club to the nationals at the All-Japan Elementary Tournament six years ago? She must be amazing too, huh?”
…
The other clubs remembered Mika-nee.
So even there, I got compared to her.
I hated it, so I chose a different position from her—I wanted to be a setter.
But it wasn’t just that.
The setter is the team’s core, the playmaker.
Everyone has to follow the playmaker’s lead.
I didn’t want to be the one just following orders.
I wanted to be where I could be the main character!
But…
My teammates didn’t follow me. Looking back, I was the only one obsessed with results and winning. I was out of sync.
I even set up tosses they couldn’t hit. I shouted when they didn’t recognize my effort.
Even though everyone else was doing their best too...
But I couldn’t see that at the time.
I couldn’t accept it.
And I ended up hating team sports.
Even when you work hard and take it seriously, it doesn’t always pay off.
That’s why I decided: if I joined a sports club in middle school, it would be something individual. I wouldn’t get too serious, wouldn’t try too hard.
That’s what I decided.
Two months after I started junior high, Yuu-nii suddenly went missing. At the time, I was really worried. There was no trace of him anywhere, so people called it a modern-day "spiriting away"…
Two years later, when I was in my third year of junior high, Yuu-nii suddenly returned—as a girl.
A lot happened back then, of course, but that's fine. What mattered more to me was Yuu-nii’s appearance.
She had such a youthful, baby-faced look that she only looked younger than me. The height I’d always looked up to was now below my chest. Her figure was so slight that even I probably had more curves in 5th or 6th grade.
So when it came to deciding Yuu-nii’s new official age, I stubbornly insisted she should be younger than me.
And (of course it wasn’t just because of my wishes) that’s exactly what happened!
Yuu-nii and I were in the same school year, but her birth month stayed December. That meant I was officially born earlier!
Since becoming a girl, Yuu-nii hadn’t picked up any of the habits you'd expect a girl her age to have. She just washed her hair carelessly, didn’t do any skincare, and obviously didn’t know how to use makeup.
So, I forced Yuu-nii—who hated it at first—to call me “Hina-nee” and patiently taught her everything she needed to know about being a girl.
Her progress with makeup and all that… honestly, it was terrible. (Probably because she wasn’t even trying to remember it.)
But that actually worked in my favor.
Yuu-nii, who wasn’t as good as me. Me, teaching her. People made comparisons, but in a way that put me above her—as the older sister who had it more together.
That had never happened before. It might sound twisted, but I was really happy. It was fun.
With help from all the sisters, we worked hard on Yuu-nii’s grooming, and within two months, she could present herself decently.
…Though we might’ve gone too far—she ended up so pretty that when we walked together, I just looked like the sidekick…
Even so, if you took your eyes off her, she’d sit with her legs spread even in a skirt, and her clothes were still carelessly thrown together… I couldn’t look away.
That was what made it so great!
It really felt like I was taking care of her! I got to bask in that “capable big sister” feeling.
We ended up going to the same high school—because I convinced her to.
Even after we started high school, Yuu-nii would sometimes blurt out unfiltered comments like poison gas and shock everyone around her. I’d scold her, apologize to people, and just constantly take care of her.
People often told me, “You’ve got it rough as the older sister,” but no way!
Having a sister who could stand as my equal and still be compared to me—that’s what I’d always wanted! Being compared and evaluated like that was exactly what I’d always dreamed of!
And Yuu-nii was a great rival, too.
No matter how hard I tried, I could never beat Ryou-nee, but with Yuu-nii, our academic abilities were almost equal. So I worked hard. Every bit of effort showed in my results. When I won, it was by a hair’s breadth. When I lost, it was by just one step. That competition really motivated me.
And when Yuu-nii beat me on a test, she tried to act cool, but it was obvious how happy she was. And when I beat her, she got hilariously depressed—which only made me want to try harder.
This! This is what I always wanted!
When it came to physical ability, I couldn’t beat her in raw athleticism. But I knew she was cheating. It’s not like her coordination actually improved.
Like in soccer. On the surface, she looked like she was dominating the field. But that was just because her overpowered physical ability let her run wild in every direction. It’s not like her dribbling or shooting was particularly skilled. (Even so, she was way better than your average high school girl.)
In basketball, she’d fall for simple feints. And don’t even get me started on swimming.
A sister I could stand equal with—even if we were compared, it was okay.
But…
“Nice to meet you. Tachibana Yuuri-kun. I’m Tada Oonuki, head coach of Tenma University’s women’s volleyball team.”
The final day of the prefectural qualifiers for the June Inter-High.
Just three months after starting volleyball, Yuu-nii had become good enough to be scouted by a powerhouse university.
W-well, she’s still got a long way to go. That’s only because of her cheat-level athleticism.
“Yukiko made the prefectural team, but you got invited to a Japan national team training camp, didn’t you?”
One month later, Yuu-nii had been selected for the All-Japan national team in volleyball.
B-but she and Mika-nee both said it was just a trial…
“Yuu, that girl—she totally sucks at the basics like receiving, but her spikes and serves are crazy good. So she’s actually useful out there. Like, we’d lose 5 more points, but score 8 more because of her. Seriously. Volleyball’s supposed to be about winning rallies, but she just ignores the whole theory.”
When Mika-nee came back from the national training camp, she complained about Yuu-nii—but it sounded more like praise.
She’s actually making it work… Yuu-nii…
Even though I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes yet, I tried to convince myself maybe Mika-nee was exaggerating, and she wasn’t that great.
But that hope was quickly crushed.
In beach volleyball, Yuu-nii teamed up with a complete stranger and still beat a pair of professional beach volleyball players.
Sure, her partner was amazing too. She effortlessly drew out the full potential of Yuu-nii’s physical abilities—something I never managed to do. She turned every awkward set into a perfect toss, never got in Yuu-nii’s way, and truly lived up to her title as the strongest high school setter. She was nothing like me…
Still, the one who finished the game was Yuu-nii.
She kept getting better and better.
Of course she did. Yuu-nii wasn’t unathletic to begin with. If anything, she was above average.
Now that she had absurd physical abilities, any sport she picked up—even a little—could turn her into a near-professional in no time.
…Maybe the reason I never gave Yuu-nii difficult tosses was because, deep down, I didn’t want her to grow. Maybe I was unconsciously telling myself it was too early for her.
And now, today. Yuu-nii and I were doing extra training together…
“I wanna practice some kind of special move! What was that thing called again? The air… something?”
Yuu-nii said with a big smile. Stop it. Don’t go any further than this.
“If Yuuri-chan learns quick attacks, she’ll be seriously hard to deal with.”
Don’t say stuff like that.
As we joked around, more and more suggestions for her growth kept coming up. It wouldn’t happen overnight, but with an amazing setter like Mai-san from the beach volleyball match, I knew Yuu-nii would make it happen.
That’s a place I can’t reach—
“If it’s a setter, we’re fine. My big sister, Hina-nee, is a super hard-working setter, so she’ll definitely make it work.”
…Huh?
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