The Pet Girl of Sakura Hall

Episode 8

Sorata had been anxiously awaiting Golden Week (1), but he didn't go anywhere fun. Nor did he go to visit his family in Fukuoka. Rather, he helped Misaki with her sound recording, helped take care of Mashiro, and before he knew it the last day of the break had come.

May fifth. Children's Day. (2)

The time was already ten in the evening.

Sorata was sunk in a hot bath, pondering the pointlessness of human existence. And when he got up out of the tub, he saw a cabbage farm in front of him.

Like the guiding lights on a runway, both sides of the hallway were lined with juicy-looking green spheres.

"I must be tired."

Sorata shut his eyes tight and shook his head.

It was still way too early to be hallucinating.

But, his prayers weren't answered, and when Sorata opened his eyes again, the cabbages were still there.

"Are we being invaded by aliens? The Earth is done for."

Yes, and apparently, these aliens chose to start their invasion in a surprisingly boring way, by harassing the Earth like this.

Maybe the aliens were the cabbage people from planet cabbage.

But no, being serious, Sorata knew that no matter how wide the universe was, there was only one person who could do something as absurd as this.

It was obvious that the one to blame was Sakurasou's resident weirdo, Kamiigusa Misaki.

She had done similar things last year.

Halloween. Sorata had no idea where Misaki had gotten them, but she had decorated Sakurasou all over with orange pumpkins, and was living day by day fully in costume. She even went to school dressed as a witch, and argued with her guidance counselor like she always did.

Christmas. Misaki placed a huge fir tree in the front garden and covered it with decorative lighting. The senior citizens in the neighborhood complained, but it was a huge hit with the children. On Christmas Day, she dressed up as Santa Claus (the miniskirt version) and went traipsing out into the town in high spirits, giving out gifts to friends and strangers alike.

Plenty of unpleasant memories started to surface in Sorata's mind.

Whether it was New Years or Hinamatsuri (3), the culture festival or the sports festival, she didn't pay any mind to the trouble she was causing and just raised a ruckus by herself, leaving Sorata to clean up the mess.

"But... why cabbage?"

As far as Sorata knew, you didn't celebrate Children's Day with cabbage.

The trail of cabbages led to Jin's room.

Sorata knocked, but there was no response.

"I'm coming in~~."

The door wasn't locked.

Sorata opened the door.

He found himself in the cabbage kingdom. There were even more cabbages piled in the room than in the hallway, and the smell of fresh vegetables attacked Sorata's senses.

On the bed, the desk, the bookshelf... Sorata couldn't see even a shadow of the chic black theme that he was used to seeing in Jin's room. The entire space had fallen to the cabbage invasion, and the Kingdom of Jin had fallen.

"This is quite something."

And the culprit who had constructed this green paradise was nowhere to be found.