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“Then, please let me use your arm as a pillow.”
    “What?!” He had no idea why that warranted a “Then.”
    Without Rentaro’s consent, Tina crawled into his blankets. When he reluctantly offered his left arm as a pillow, Tina happily put her head on it and started sniffing his sleeve. Wondering what she was doing with a bitter smile, he let his gaze return to the ceiling. He wouldn’t be able to fall asleep for a while, anyway. That’s what he thought, but strangely, the warmth of a body next to him was comforting. His eyelids grew heavy, and he finally went under.
    Light flickered behind his eyes. A gentle breeze, filled with the fresh scent of morning air, blew over the back of his neck and his shoulders. Something swayed in the wind, causing a fluttering sound. Opening his eyes slightly, Rentaro lifted his head. The wind came in from a crack in the window, which was blowing the curtains, which in turn was causing the light to flicker. But it looked like it would be a nice day, along with yesterday. Getting up and looking at the clock, he saw that it was 6 a.m.
    Enju, a morning person, was already out of bed. When she noticed Rentaro, she raised a hand as she swung her pigtails. “Are you awake, Rentaro?! I’m making the morning coffee.”
    Just then, as if Enju’s words had given a signal, the teapot whistled, and the TV announced that it was six o’clock with up-tempo music as a new program started. The morning became noisy all at once.
    “Hey, Satomi? I’m coming in.” Just as he heard the voice outside the door, there was the sound of the spare key being inserted roughly into the lock, and Kisara appeared in her black sailor school uniform, looking angry with a hand on her hip. “All right, I’ll have you return Tina now.”
    Rentaro pleaded as he smoothed the stray hairs from his bedhead. “What do you mean, ‘return’? It’s not like I stole her.”
    “You might as well have. Yesterday, I was lonely sleeping bymyself. Recently, I haven’t been able to sleep without cuddling Tina. So return her immediately. Besides, I’m worried that you’ll do something weird to her.”
    “I wouldn’t do anything like that.”
    “By the way, where is Tina?” Enju asked.
    At the question, Rentaro and Kisara looked around, but they saw no sign of the girl anywhere in the eight-tatami-mat room. Just then, something shifted in Rentaro’s blankets near his groin. Rentaro looked up at the ceiling and prayed.
No way, give me a break here.
    But his prayer was in vain, and Tina crawled out from under his blankets, rubbing her eyes sleepily. The sweatpants she had been wearing had come off along with her underwear, and all she wore was the dress shirt he had lent her as pajamas.
    Not noticing Enju and Kisara, who had been stunned speechless, Tina looked at Rentaro’s face and tried earnestly to smile with her sleepy eyes. “Good morning, Big Brother. Last night was fun. You were so desperate, and there were scary parts, too, but I’m glad you taught me a lot of different things.”
    Kisara paled and looked at Rentaro, pulling out her cell phone with shaking hands. “I-I’m going to report you…to the police…”
    “Wait! Wait a minute! I just talked to the night version of Tina! That’s all!” Rentaro said.
    “What do you mean, ‘night version of Tina,’ you perv! You’re the worst! I can’t believe you! Tina is only ten years old!”
    Enju screamed, looking like she was about to cry. “Tina got ahead of me!”
    Kisara pushed some buttons on her cell phone and yelled, “Oh, hello? Is this the police?”
    Just as it seemed like Rentaro was about to start a life on the run, from behind them they heard someone say with a sigh, “
The Cursed Children have finally started even this, huh?
” and everyone stopped in their tracks.
    Behind them was the TV that had been left on. But because hissenses were honed to expect biased news about the Cursed Children based on what was regularly broadcast, it was