X NO SEI TO SHI: STEP 2
2. Kyoudai no Yakuwari
[The Roles of Siblings]

People are always saying "Kids should have a lot of siblings," and "someone who is an only child is lonely," and things like that, and I do not understand at all the reasoning of those people who say that.

Maybe there really is merit to it. However, even if everyone shares the same genes, there will be things that don't match up. Because you are siblings, it's unbelievable how many times you fight and then make up immediately afterwards. On the other hand, because "once a sibling, always a sibling," I think that you will continue to be dragged along by whatever the other person does.

As for me, I have a an older brother. He's different from me; he was an honor student. He was good at studying, really the stereotypical older brother.

Because I had this kind of a brother, I promised something to myself when I was still small.

"My brother competes with me for studying. So I'm going to play sports cause he's bad at them!"

What's more, I was thinking, "Good thing the Sawada family has an eldest son. It's best for me to leave everything to him."

Because of that, I was always at odds with my brother, and even though we would play together, I was always cold to him. So we never fought. What's more, I would have nothing to do with him.

Maybe it's that brothers and sisters carry that element of setting a bad example for each other.

However, it was entirely different with my younger sister. Masayo was really a great friend, and I loved her. When she would come home crying, no matter what I would face the person who made her cry and say, "What did you do to my beloved sister!?"

My little sister would cry "Oniichan, oniichan!" and I would think to myself, "I have to protect her!" and every day, I grew stronger so that I could do that.

At that time, what happened was that the stronger I grew, the more worried I got about her, and even when she would go out to play and came home late, I would scold her more than was necessary. I was just like a father who had an only daughter. Masayo also really loved music, and she would gather her friends together close to our house, and, getting up on a stage, would proudly mimic popular idols to applause, and she would have a satisfied look of joy on her face. That was just when she was 3 or 4 years old.

I'm bragging, but Masayo really is good at singing. Even now, she's active with her talent in a music unit called "Cybernation Network" and has put out 5 singles.

At that time, my strongest feeling was, "I have to protect those who are weaker than me, those who are important to me."

In order to do that, even to this day, my position is that if I see a weak person or someone who is being oppressed, I feel that I have to free them, and I'm filled with the energy to do something alongside those people.