Beautiful Daydream: Volume 1 (eBook)

Quadrilian (Autor)

TJ Ferentini (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: EPUB

2026
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-9439-1 (ISBN)

Infos

'What do you Want?' Matsuda Akio is your typical high schooler. He loves his little sister and his favorite mobile game. He loves light novels, and wants to try writing his own. And he loves girls. Like, really, really loves girls-he just can't figure out how to talk to them. So when he goes to his first shrine visit of the New Year, he sees it as the perfect opportunity to make a wish to turn over a new leaf. But following a strange encounter with a mysterious woman at the shrine, Akio suddenly finds himself interacting with all the girls he could never bring himself to talk to: his little sister's shy best friend, the one at the train station who plays the same game as him, a fellow bookworm from homeroom, a strange blonde who insists they've met before-even his favorite pop idol! But despite all the attention, something still doesn't feel right. Because what Akio really wants is...

A First Prize winner in the first-ever J-Novel Club Original LN Contest!

Textauszug

Part 2 - First Meetings

1 - Dawn Attack

So warm...

I don’t want to go back to school...

I just want to sleep forever...

I had my arms wrapped around a second pillow.

I promise I wasn’t trying to emulate what it was like to sleep with someone else in the bed. It’s just comfy!

My internal clock was telling me that it was about time for my little sister to come wake me up, but I hadn’t heard anything to indicate that she was coming...

Whatever. More sleep for me.

I rolled over.

Wait...why’s my door open? I always sleep with it closed—

“SNEAK ATTACK!”

I rolled off the bed before I could even begin to process what was happening, the pillow still clutched in my arms. I knew instinctively that I was in danger. Although, the forewarning certainly helped.

A fraction of a second later, my little sister crashed into my bed at unbelievable speed. The bedframe creaked and groaned like it was going to burst apart due to the sheer force of the impact. Fuyuko flew back up into the air from the recoil, almost colliding with the ceiling.

“Hey!”

Seriously, I could have died there! Is she trying to kill me?!

“DOUBLE JEOPARDY!!!”

I don’t think you’re using that phrase correctly!

Without thinking, I extended the pillow towards my little sister like it was a shield. She kicked off of the ceiling and shot through the air, springing towards where I was lying on the floor. Her body collided headfirst with the outstretched pillow, and my arms nearly crumpled from the force. She was little, but she was still heavy!

Luckily, she can’t read minds, or else she would have clobbered me for thinking that.

Somehow, she managed to do a perfectly balanced headstand on the pillow in my hands. From there, she gave her usual morning greeting.

“I love you, Onii-chan! Breakfast is ready!”

She then shifted her weight to fall over and land softly on her feet, posing like she was an Olympic gymnast who had just completed an incredibly difficult routine.

I pushed myself up off the floor and greeted her back.

“Good morning to you too, Fuyuko.”

She spun around to look at me, her eyes shining.

“Hey, Onii-chan, how were you able to respond to my sneak attack so quickly? Even though I tried my best to be as quiet as possible too! Can you read minds? Did you sense my killing intent?”

You were trying to kill me!

“Next time, try not shouting ‘sneak attack’ right before you strike.”

“Hmm...did I really do that? I really was trying to be quiet...”

She was scratching her head with a puzzled look on her face. It really seemed like she had no idea she had said anything.

“Yes, you did. I heard it loud and clear.”

The confusion on her face completely vanished and was replaced by a giant grin.

“Well, if you say so, Onii-chan! A big brother would never lie to his little sister!”

I think it’s probably pretty common for big brothers to lie to their little sisters...but I don’t want to ruin her image of ideal sibling relationships.

I placed my hand on her head and ruffled her hair.

“Now get out of here. Your big brother needs to get changed. Make sure to close the door behind you.”

“Sir, yes, sir!”

She accompanied her response with an exaggerated salute before rushing out the door.

I let out a sigh and sat down on the edge of my bed, looking at the door my little sister had just left from.

She really trusts you, huh?

2 - Double Jeopardy

Fuyuko and I were on our way to the first school day of the new trimester. It was now solidly winter, so it was quite cold out. We hadn’t been outside that long and my hands were already starting to get cold.

I rubbed my hands together to try and generate a little warmth.

“I can’t wait for spring.”

“I like the winter.”

“Of course you do.”

Not only was Fuyuko’s birthday in December, but the first character of her name was also the character for winter.

“Not just because it’s my name, but also because of this!”

Fuyuko grabbed my right hand with her left.

“Hey.”

“If your hands are cold, we just need to warm them up!”

Holding hands with a girl.

It should have been exciting, and yet...

Fuyuko’s not a girl. She’s my little sister, you know? It’s different. Conceptually, she lies on a different plane than ‘girl.’ Yep. Basically, she’s not a girl at all, to me. Right now, she’s just a glorified hand-warmer.

We continued holding hands until just before we arrived at the intersection where Yuriko was waiting.

“Onii-chan, you go on ahead.”

Fuyuko took off down a side street.

Where was she going?

Whatever.

I spotted Yuriko and raised my hand in greeting.

“Good morning, Akio-san.”

“Good morning, Yuriko-san.”

It had been a while since Fuyuko enacted ‘Operation Buddy Buddy,’ so we were pretty used to calling each other by our first names by now.

“Did Fuuko catch a cold or something?”

“Nah, she was with me until just a moment ago. I don’t know where she ran off to.”

“I see. How very like her.”

“True.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

The conversation quickly fizzled out, leaving an awkward silence between us. Yuriko’s eyes wandered around, seemingly unsure of where to look, eventually settling on some point behind me. I also avoided looking at her, and instead looked up at the distant gray sky.

We only ever interact with each other because of Fuyuko. Without her here, we don’t have anything to talk about.

After a while, I spoke up.

“This doesn’t happen too often, does it? Just you and me without Fuyuko, I mean.”

“No, it doesn’t. You could probably count the number of times it’s happened on one hand...not that I’ve kept track.”

Wasn’t that a kind of tsundere-ish line? If she had put a bit more emotion into it and tacked an ‘or anything’ onto the end, you could definitely see that comment coming out of a tsundere’s mouth. Maybe Yuriko is kind of cute after all, and her cold side is just a front...

Or maybe you watch too much anime.

“So, uhm...I guess we should just wait for Fuyuko? Although, I might need to get going soon, or I’ll miss my train...”

“Don’t worry. She’ll be here soon.”

Surprised by the confidence with which she said that, I took my gaze off the sky and looked down at Yuriko. As I did so, I noticed Fuyuko sneaking up behind her. When Fuyuko realized I was looking at her, she held her finger up to her lips, silently shushing me.

I see. She went in a different direction to try and get the jump on Yuriko. She was planning a sneak attack like she did to me this morning.

Let’s see how this plays out.

Fuyuko continued her silent approach until she was directly behind Yuriko. She really was stealthy. Then, she raised up her arms, lowered her hips, and sprang into action.

Except Yuriko ducked in the nick of time.

Fuyuko sailed right over her target and crashed into me. I was knocked to the ground, but Fuyuko somehow managed to convert her fall into a handstand and flipped over me. She landed gracefully on her feet and spun around to confront Yuriko.

“How?! How did you respond to my sneak attack so quickly?! Can you read minds?! Did you sense my loving intent?! I made super sure not to accidentally say anything this time!”

“I could see you the entire time.”

Yuriko pointed up at one of the convex mirrors that you sometimes see in intersections to improve visibility around corners.

“Aghh. I should’ve checked my surroundings more. Onii-chan, this is all your fault!”

“Huh?! What did I do?”

I had stood back up from where I had fallen, only to be accused by my little sister of some nonsense.

“You looked at me, which made me distracted.”

“How’s that my fault?”

“Because if you weren’t there, it wouldn’t have happened!”

I still don’t think it makes it my fault though. I didn’t intend to distract you. Does intent not matter at all?

“Good morning, Fuuko.”

“Good morning, Yuuko.”

Fuyuko seemed to completely forget all about me, and returned the greeting.

Was that Yuriko’s intention with blurting out a greeting so suddenly? Maybe she’s a nice girl after all.

I should leave before Fuyuko remembers that she was arguing with me.

“Well, I don’t want to be late.”

“Where do you think you’re going, Onii-chan?”

Fuyuko’s voice was chillier than the winter air as she grabbed my right wrist with her left hand. It reminded me of when we held hands earlier that morning, except this time her left hand had a much more...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.1.2026
• Reihe/Serie: Beautiful Daydream
• Illustrationen: Ixy
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Schlagworte: Bittersweet • Coming of Age • Identity • magical realism • Modern • Siblings
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-9439-X / 171839439X
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-9439-1 / 9781718394391