"Little Sisters Are Hard Work"
“What’s she even doing up this late…?” Tomoe mumbles to herself, wrapping her fists against Ako’s bedroom door. All she hears is laughter of a rising and falling pitch.
“Ako, I’m respecting your privacy by knocking, but asserting my authority by coming in anyway—oh, I should’ve brought my battering ram… hm.” Tomoe slaps Ako’s door. The entire frame goes careening into Ako’s room, causing the ceiling to cave-in over
her bed.
“Ako, what are you up to?” Tomoe asks, crushing debris beneath her feet while entering the room.
“Help me, Mr. Red Strawberry… it looks like all of my life savings are gone… oh no, teehee…” Ako screeches with glee as she types away on a keyboard, hunched at her computer desk.
“Ako?” Tomoe places a hand on Ako’s shoulder, peering at the very same computer screen.
“O-Onee-chan!” Ako jumps and smothers the screen with her hands. Even so, the outer frame of a man—in a strawberry costume that reveals only his head, hands, and feet—can be seen dancing around.
“Ako, it’s too late. I can still see the donation message. Why did you give your life savings away to this guy, some… some random strawberry?”
“I’m sorry, onee-chan…” Ako hangs her head in shame. “It’s Mr. Red Strawberry, he’s… he’s a red strawberry who dances while streaming and… I just wanted to see him thrive, but now…” Her eyes well with tears.
“It’s okay, Ako. But you know what happens next.”
Tomoe pats Ako on the hand before picking Ako up over her shoulder. She walks over to Ako’s closet and opens it, where a swirling abyss of saturated purple rages. A thousand tormented wails spill out from within, and stray bolts of lightning miss Tomoe by a hair.
Tomoe throws Ako inside and closes the closet, dusting her hands off.
“That’s the fifth one to malfunction this month... huh. Well, the backup unit should be here sooner or later, I guess.” Tomoe slaps the caved-in ceiling off of Ako’s bed, upon which she then sleeps for the night.
