"Old scoundrel, I came to settle scores with you, not to avenge you..."
Akiba stared blankly at the black-clad girl who was standing with her back to her, having just punched and cracked the wall. She didn't know why, but even though she hadn't seen her face, just a back view, it gave her a sense of resonance, like a family member.
Is she the person Ritsu mentioned, the one who looks like my older sister?
This thought unconsciously arose in Akiba's mind.
Everyone present, except Akiba, was an actor in this play. Even Kohaku immediately held back Hisui, who seemed about to say something, and moved to the side.
The black-clad girl standing by the wall turned and walked towards "Tohno Shinkyu" with her head lowered. When Rin lifted her head, two beautiful faces of different age groups were simultaneously exposed to the gaze of the crowd. The Rose Group members who knew the "truth" gasped.
They were too alike!
Although the two faces, due to different ages, would not create a distorted illusion, the bone structure and framework hidden beneath the skin made them feel identical, as if different ornaments were placed on the same two frameworks. Even with obvious differences, it couldn't change their fundamental commonalities.
No wonder Big Sister had confidently said that as soon as she and the Tohno Family young lady met, everyone would believe they were sisters. If I hadn't seen how Big Sister so decisively dismembered and disemboweled Tohno Shinkyu just now, I would have believed it!
Akiba stared blankly at the girl before her, who was clearly a stranger yet made her feel incredibly familiar. In the girl's eyes as she looked at Akiba's father, there was a shimmering layer of water. Akiba immediately understood that those were tears, tears strongly held back in her eyes.
Rin, suppressing tears of "grief," "stupidly" stared at "Tohno Shinkyu's corpse." Orie Shiroi, standing at the side, opportunely leaned over and said to Rin, "Big Sister, the deceased is gone, don't be sad..."
"Who's sad for him!" Rin "lost control of her emotions" and "roared" at Orie Shiroi: "Do you think I would be sad for this scumbag?! Don't forget why I brought you all here!..."
What followed was a story: a young master from a prominent family seduces an innocent girl, then abandons her after treating it as a game, despite her deep affection. The kind girl unexpectedly becomes pregnant, and upon discovering it, she remains deeply devoted and gives birth to the child, enduring the world's cold stares to raise the child alone, finally passing away a few years ago... "The reason I gathered and led all of you was so that one day I could personally come before this old scoundrel and settle the score! I wanted to destroy this Tohno Family right before his eyes! Now I'm here, and he's dead! What the hell is this?!..."
In this era, before this third-rate melodrama exploded, Rin's series of tearful, incisive performances shocked everyone present! If Orie Shiroi and the others hadn't known their big sister was acting, they probably would have hugged Rin and cried with her.
So, according to the agreed-upon script: "Big sister, calm down. Now that the head of the Tohno Family has passed away, the Tohno Family is yours!"
"Who cares! Whoever wants this garbage can have it! Didn't that scumbag abandon my mother for these very things?! (Mama, forgive me.) This Tohno Family, just looking at it makes me sick."
Rin was currently playing the role of a furious, distraught, and uncontrollably grief-stricken illegitimate young miss seeking revenge on the noble family. However, her revenge failed, and not only was she preempted, but she also avenged her enemy. Orie Shiroi, on the other hand, played the role of a loyal, older maid who had endured hardships and was trying to persuade her young miss to calm down.
Orie Shiroi feigned helplessness, glancing left and right as if searching for something, and finally, as if just discovering Akiba, she said to Rin: "Don't you still have us? Don't you still have Miss Akiba? She should be your only remaining relative now (Tohno Shiki was automatically ignored—||)! You can't just sit by and do nothing."
"Akiba…" Rin also seemed to have just noticed Tohno Akiha, who had been kneeling beside "Tohno Shinkyu" and looking up at her. With a downward gaze from Rin and an upward gaze from Akiba, emerald green eyes met clear blue spring eyes. In their original destinies, they would never have met—two different individuals forged from the same mold, heroines from two different Nasuverse works, officially met.
Even though Rin had known this would happen, she was still inevitably affected by this fundamental emotion and felt pity for Akiba. The young Akiba was just a poor child who had only half an hour of playtime each day and was confined to her room all day, studying various subjects. Now, Rin had to act and deceive her for her own purposes.
Akiba looked up at this terrifying yet alluring black-clad young girl. The various knowledge she learned daily allowed her to understand the information conveyed in Rin's angry shouts: she should be her paternal half-sister. However, the family had only brought her hatred and anger, and now, as Rin's gaze fell upon her, Akiba instantly felt a chilling panic.
What was she going to do… What was she going to do? She was going to do you… Rin stared at Akiba for a moment, then walked over and picked her up. Rin, with the physique of a fifteen-year-old, had no difficulty holding five-year-old Akiba. The small body was light as air. Holding the trembling Akiba, Rin ascended the stairs to the second floor, and "coldly" looked back, saying: "Clean up. Prepare a funeral for that old man. Gather all the managers from the Tohno Group to attend."
"Yes."
After Rin and Akiba disappeared from view, the Rose Group gathered together, and a flurry of discussions immediately erupted.
"Damn, I never thought Big Sister's acting skills would be so perfect!"
"Right? It's truly incredible. Those eyes, that expression… if it weren't for Big Sister's previous methods, I almost believed it… Sigh! It seems the script wasn't like this when we arrived. Did Big Sister come up with that story on the fly?"
"But is it really necessary for Big Sister to go to such lengths, calling us to fool a five-year-old Little Girl?"
"You don't understand. Big Sister is doing this to perfectly integrate into the identity of Rin Tohno, to immerse herself as perfectly as possible. This way, she can operate more effectively within the power structure of the Tohno Family later on. After all, different identities have significant differences."
"But why did Big Sister say she wanted that Tohno Akiha to inherit the headship of the Tohno Family? Couldn't Big Sister just take it herself?"
"Fool, what can a five-year-old Little Girl do as the head? The Tohno Family, from inside out, will still be ours, Big Sister's. Big Sister's assumed identity is that of an illegitimate daughter, so all her actions in public would be very passive. In Big Sister's words, this is 'ruling from behind the curtains'!"
"Hmm, Kazuto, you're still the smartest. No wonder Big Sister thinks highly of you. I heard you and Asuna always had a good relationship before joining. When are you two going to take things to the next level?"
"It's over, for Big Sister."
"...You dumped Asuna for Big Sister?"
"No, Asuna dumped me for Big Sister… Don't you know Big Sister likes girls? Big Sister is the absolute goddess of our group, but unfortunately, for us men, Big Sister is just a dream, while women can still maintain a fantasy about Big Sister."
"So you got dumped…"
"Yes."
"I agreed very readily. In the group, anyone who doesn't see Big Sister as the perfect dream lover and fantasizes about other women definitely has twisted values and a warped mind."
"Well said. In the entire Rose Group, there are only two kinds of men: men who love Big Sister, and men who love men."
...No matter how you look at it, you guys have been psychologically twisted by a certain nefarious loli Rin, haven't you?
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