Is It Okay If I Don't Want to Try Anymore? [3]

Higashino Suzu was pondering something.

If her memory wasn’t playing tricks on her, she was pretty sure… she had a big brother.

“Where’s Onii-chan?”

Suzu looked around the empty classroom, then peered through the corridor window toward the equally deserted school gate.

Where had her brother gone? Where had Onee-chan Konata gone?

Leaning against the classroom door, Suzu looked confused.

They weren’t in the classroom. They weren’t at the school gate. Not even in the staff office—usually, when you couldn’t find them in either of those places, you could bet they’d be in the office getting scolded by a teacher.

“Who even forgets their own little sister at school?”

“You did.”

“What does this have to do with me?”

“If you hadn’t ruined my manga draft, I wouldn’t have been so pissed I forgot Suzu.”

Just as Suzu was debating whether she should wander around to look for someone, two figures—one black-haired, one blue—appeared at the end of the corridor.

And she definitely overheard something outrageous.

The little white ahoge on Suzu’s head perked up like an antenna.

“Suzu, Suzu! You’ll never believe this—your brother totally left you—mmph mmph mmph!”

“Shut up!”

Konata tried to tattle, but Kanade rushed forward to clamp a hand over her mouth.

“I already heard it,” Suzu said flatly.

Arms crossed, her expression screamed I’m very upset.

She had thought her brother and Konata-oneechan had been dragged to the office by a teacher again. She’d even worried for a whole three seconds. But turns out, nope—she’d overthought it. They just straight-up forgot about her. Her! The super ultra adorable her! Left behind at school!

Unbelievable!

“What did you hear?” Kanade tried to play dumb, ruffling his sister’s hair. “Come on, let’s head home.”

“You forgot your adorable little sister at school.”

Suzu puffed air from her nose like an angry bull. She was not happy about being left behind.

“No, we’d never forget our adorable Suzu. You misheard.”

Kanade lied with a straight face.

“Yeah, yeah, you misheard! It wasn’t we, it was him! I totally didn’t forget Suzu. If I hadn’t reminded him, he might’ve just—ow!”

Konata’s attempt to throw Kanade under the bus was cut short with a bonk to the head.

Unbelievable. She’d just washed her hands of the whole thing like she wasn’t involved. They’d both forgotten Suzu—no way was she getting to play the innocent bystander.

That said, a second-grade little sister was pretty easy to cheer up. Even if she got mad, you just had to promise to buy her ice cream, and poof—anger gone.

In September, ice cream was still fine. The problem was the wallet.

Kanade was a grade schooler. He didn’t have a wallet—or money, really.

He wasn’t some rich kid either. Sure, he was a member of the post-2000s generation, but not all Gen Zs were created equal. Some of them were “the rising tide.” He? He was more like a stagnant pond. You know the kind: small, shallow, found behind universities. Frozen over in winter, crossable in three steps.

Used to be the ‘90s kids, he thought, now it’s Gen Z. One day, is it gonna be the 2010s kids ruling the world?

Kanade bit into his popsicle and looked up at the sky. His heart felt cold. As cold as the few coins left in his pocket. Cold like Yamada Ryo. Cold like Natsukawa Masuzu. Cold like... himself. Just plain cold.

“Hey.”

“What? (slurp slurp)”

“Why am I buying you ice cream?”

“Don’t sweat the small stuff, or you’ll turn into an idiot. (slurp slurp)”

“Can you not eat like that?”

“How else am I supposed to eat it? (slurp slurp)”

Kanade ate his popsicle by biting it—crunch crunch like instant ramen. Konata, meanwhile, was licking hers like a dog drinking water—prprprpr.

“Three-Hour Rule, duh.”

Kanade spewed nonsense with a straight face.

“That’s not even a thing! It’s the Three-Second Rule! And I seriously question the validity of even that.”

Konata wasn’t a strict believer in the Three-Second Rule. For her, it depended on the environment.

If the food fell on the tatami floor at home? Fine. But if it was in the bathroom? Hard pass. If it was somewhere with cockroaches? Even if it hadn’t touched the ground, as long as it left her sight for a second, she’d never put it in her mouth again.

Honestly, transmigrating felt like a dream. Like winning the most impossible lottery imaginable. From overworked, dead-eyed office drone to protagonist of an isekai light novel.

Probably the protagonist, anyway.

Kanade glanced to his left—Konata with her prprpr tongue action, happily licking her ice pop. Then to his right—his little sister Suzu, munching on her cone.

If this were a regular romcom, I’d marry Konata.
If this were an eroge… no thanks. No siscon stuff, please.

Only people without little sisters romanticized having one. Real little sisters? They were cute when they were small. But when they got older? The rebellion started. First came arguments, then full-on fights. Later on, the only interaction would be about money—either you’re giving her money, or… yeah, you’re giving her money.

What could you do? You worried she’d turn to the dark side without it.

On the way back, even though they’d forgotten Suzu at school, neither Kanade nor Konata had forgotten the three boys still in the river—or the two girls who’d been bullied.

Before running back to campus, Kanade had told the girls to keep an eye on the bullies. He also gave the boys a firm warning: if they weren’t still searching when he got back, or if they bailed without finding the hearing aid, then from the next day on, every time he saw them, he’d beat them up. Didn’t matter if they ratted him out to teachers or parents. If he got scolded at home, he’d just go even harder next time.

Violence can’t solve everything.
But it can definitely solve the people who cause problems.

That said, it wasn’t just the three boys in the river. One of the girls—the slightly older, brown-haired one—was also down there, wading through the water searching for the hearing aid.

“You found it yet, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo?”

Seeing the girl, Kanade wasn’t surprised. Just quietly impressed.

She’s too kind, he thought. Too much kindness always ends up getting hurt.

“What are you talking about?”

Konata squinted at him, trying to figure out what reference he was making. She came up blank.

“Probably best you don’t know.”

Kanade smiled but didn’t explain.

“Ohh?”

Konata was pretty sure whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

“You two…”

A voice interrupted her train of thought. Slightly husky, a little androgynous—almost boyish.

“Nya?”

Konata made a weird little cat sound and turned to see a black-haired girl with wide, earnest eyes staring at them.

No—staring at Kanade.

“Th-thank you. Thank you so much. My sister and I—we really appreciate what you did. I’m Nishimiya Yuzuru. Can I know your names?”

The girl—Nishimiya Yuzuru—clutched the strap of her backpack tightly and looked up at Kanade, Konata, and Suzu with complete seriousness.

“Whoa—fated encounter!”

“You’ve been playing too many dating sims.”

“???”

Of the three, Suzu had no idea what was going on.

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T/N: T-Tokyo?!?

This is a fan translation of 不想努力可以吗？by 优的布丁 All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!