Episode 5: “The Steamy Hot Spring Romance Case Files ⑤ ~My Brother-in-Law’s Mistake~”

With dinner time approaching, we finished our hot spring hopping and headed back to the inn. On the way back, we met up with the girls who had parted ways with us at the second spring, Tsuru-no-yu. I was grateful that they acted as if nothing had happened regarding the earlier ‘Ni-no-yu Incident,’ treating us normally as always, but Akira alone was looking down with a somewhat grim expression.

Something about that bothered me, and when I was about to call out to her, Akira came trotting over with a clatter of her geta, sticking close to my back. While feeling something was off, I called out to her.

“Akira, did you enjoy the hot springs?”

“Yeah…” Her reaction was faint—or so I thought, but then her face gradually started turning red. I found it a little hard to look at her face too, but I tried to maintain my composure.

“Your face is red, huh? Did you get overheated?”

“No, I’m fine…”

“I see. Looking forward to dinner?”

“Yeah…”

“Dad and the others should already be back at the inn.”

“Yeah…”

“…Akira, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing…”

Even though she said it was nothing, Akira’s behavior was strange. However, I knew this state Akira was in. It seemed like her “borrowed cat mode” had activated again after a long time. It had been lying dormant recently, but Akira was originally shy around strangers. Usually, she was as lively as a little brother, but in front of others she became this kind of demure and reserved girl—until about a month ago, anyway.

Still, why had “borrowed cat mode” activated now? Had she suddenly gotten embarrassed after seeing strangers while bathing with the other girls at the hot spring?

Seeing her like this, Hinata looked worried too. “What’s wrong, Akira?”

“No, it’s nothing…”

When Hinata sent me a look that said, “What’s wrong with Akira?” I just tilted my head with a “Beats me?” expression. In the end, Akira gripped my haori tightly and stayed silent all the way to the inn.

＊　＊　＊

We returned to our room and decided to kill time until dinner, but being in the same room as Akira made things awkward, as expected. As soon as we entered the room, Akira threw herself face-down on the bed by the window and buried her face in the pillow.

I sat on the neighboring bed with my back to Akira. I fiddled with my phone for a while, but Akira showed no signs of moving from that position. Something was wrong.

Akira had said “it’s nothing” earlier, so I should just leave her alone, but if I left her alone, it felt like our feelings would drift apart, and I got the sense that I needed to say something. This urge to fill silence with words was a bad habit of mine. But I was terribly anxious, so I decided to try talking to her casually.

“Akira, aren’t you hungry?”

“Just a little…”

“Just a little, huh. Then again, you had those meat skewers around three o’clock, didn’t you?”

“Yeah…”

“Fujimi no Saki is an even better place than I thought, isn’t it? I’m glad we came, right?”

“Yeah…”

Something was definitely wrong. When we were alone like this, she should have switched to “home mode” by now, but she wasn’t switching at all.

Maybe I was misunderstanding something again?

Earlier, I’d thought her “borrowed cat mode” had activated after a long time, but maybe she’d switched to some entirely      different mode instead. Maybe Akira felt uncomfortable being with me right now.

“Akira, about our plans after dinner—”

“Aniki.”

“—Yeah? What is it?”

“Come here.”

“Ah, okay…”

I approached the bed where Akira was lying, but as expected, there was no sign of her jumping at me like usual. I quietly sat down next to Akira. But Akira didn’t say anything and just kept her face buried in the pillow.

What am I supposed to do about this…?

I glanced at the window where nightfall was approaching. I wondered if I’d screwed up again somehow, but I could only think of the ‘Ni-no-yu’ incident. Should I wait for Akira to say something?

While remained      quiet     , the room became completely dark. When I tried to get up to turn on the lights, I felt something      on my yukata. Akira was pulling on it. As if she were      saying, ‘D     on’t go.’

“What’s wrong? You’ve been acting strange since earlier.”

Akira said, “Yeah,” then started talking in a voice muffled by the pillow.

“I’m having an internal struggle with how greedy I’m getting.”

“Greedy?”

Akira let out a big sigh.

“I want Aniki to spoil me so much. I want to be spoiled so badly…”

“Um… wouldn’t it be fine if you let me spoil you?”

I was startled after saying that. She meant she wanted to be spoiled but couldn’t—that was the situation Akira was describing.

“If you spoil me too much, I’ll end up liking Aniki more and more…”

“That’s not the ‘like’ between siblings you’re talking about, is it?”

“Yeah. I like you as a guy. I love you. When I found out we’d be sharing a room today, I totally started feeling like we were a couple, Aniki. And I got carried away…”

“I see…”

“Even though I know everyone else is here, I wanted to do couple-y things with you, and I was getting all fidgety—but really, I want Aniki to spoil me lots even in front of everyone…”

So she’d been patiently restraining herself from being spoiled out of consideration for me…

I found her so endearing that I gently stroked Akira’s head.

“Could you give me just a little squeeze, Aniki?”

“I-it’s fine, but while you’re lying down—”

“Lie down next to me.”

“A-ah, okay…”

I quietly lay down and put my arm around Akira’s body. At that moment, Akira showed me her face just a little. Her eyes were moist. With her face completely flushed, she stared at me as if seeking something.

Whether it was because she still had residual heat from the hot spring, or because her circulation had improved, I was breaking out in a sweat.

“H-how’s that? Satisfied now? Isn’t it about time we—”

“Just a little more…”

“Um, I’m embarrassed though…”

“Just a little more…”

What a spoiled girl. Not my step-brother or step-sister, but the pampered expression of a girlfriend that she only showed when we were alone together. This was probably “super-sweet girlfriend mode,” a further evolution from “home mode.” I was disgusted with my own terrible sense of naming     , but that was probably what it was.

“Ah, no good, I can’t anymore, I can’t hold back—”

“H-hey! You can’t hold back, you say…”

I was terribly flustered. In this situation, “can’t hold back” had to mean—that, right?

“There’s only one way to calm these feelings.”

“What are you going to do?”

“You know, don’t you? What I want to do with Aniki—”

Akira looked at me with yearning eyes.

“—I was planning to wait until tonight, but I can’t take it anymore.”

“So what are you—”

“Aniki, let’s do it now?”

“…?! No, but Akira, that’s…”

“Is it no good? Will the inn staff get mad?”

“No, I don’t think they’d get angry…”

“Then please, just once is fine, okay?”

“But Akira, it’s almost dinner time. —We only have thirty minutes left.”

“Thirty minutes is enough for once or twice—”

“No, if I allow it even once, it’ll definitely be a slippery slope after that. We probably won’t be able to go back, you know?”

“I think so too, probably—”

Akira closed her eyes.

“—But I really want to do it with Aniki no matter what.”

When she opened her eyes again, they held the look of someone who had made up their mind. I’d seen these eyes before. Serious, direct, clear and beautiful eyes without a hint of cloudiness.

Thinking about it, I’d always avoided these eyes. I thought I was bad at dealing with them. I even thought they were frightening. I felt like these eyes could see straight through to my heart, and I’d always hesitated to meet them directly. But it seemed the time had come for me to steel my resolve as well.

“Since you’re not saying anything, that means it’s okay, right?”

Akira smoothly slipped off the bed and headed toward the carry-on case she’d left in the corner of the room. She opened the zipper and started rummaging through it.

“I’m glad I brought it.”

“You came prepared? You knew this would happen today…”

“Just had a feeling. I wasn’t sure if I’d actually use it or not…”

Akira turned toward me, her face red like a child caught in mischief.

“Since you heard my embarrassing voice at the hot spring, next I’m going to make Aniki let out pathetic sounds, okay?”

I found Akira, who was putting on a brave front with her playful tone, unbearably adorable.

“I’ll pamper you real good, Aniki…”

—Twenty minutes later.

“—Man~, playing with Aniki really feels great!”

“Eh, ah, yeah…”

“Aniki, ready to surrender yet?”

“Eh, ah, yeah…”

“But nope! We still have time, so let’s go another round!”

“Eh, ah, yeah…”

“Come on, Aniki, put more effort into it! You’re being too half-hearted, and it’s no challenge!”

“Eh, ah, yeah…”

“Aniki, you’ve only been saying ‘eh, ah, yeah…’ for a while now, what’s wrong?”

“Eh, ah, yeah…”

“Your reactions are so weak! Put more spirit into it!”

While Akira complained, I was completely spaced out. Spaced out—no, this might be closer to ‘outer space.’ My consciousness had long since departed my body, and my physical form had become a fully automated “eh, ah, yeah” response machine.

I see, this might be what they call the state of enlightenment.

Now, why had I ended up in this state? The thing I was doing with Akira right now was—

“Next, I’ll try using Commodore Perry. He became a regular character from a hidden character in 3, right?”

—That’s right, Ensamu 3. We had connected a game console to the room’s TV and were playing versus matches. Yes, that’s right.

Amazingly, Akira had brought the game console itself along with Ensamu 3 and several other games from home. She’d even thoughtfully brought her ‘Nakazawa Koto figure’ in the case so she wouldn’t get lonely. Good grief, what an admirable step-sister. What she was doing was exactly like the boys who bring game consoles on school trips.

“Aniki, you’ve only been using the monk character this whole time!”

“That’s just the mood I’m in right now…”

Gesshou. A militant monk of the sonnō jōi faction who was also close to      Yoshida Shōin. He argued that “a new military system should be established with people of ambition regardless of social status.” He was called the “sea defense monk” for being early to preach the importance of coastal defense… not “sea monster.”

Alt     hough he appeared to have a gentle nature and loved poetry, he apparently also had a fiery side. When debating with people, he wouldn’t give an inch, and when he drank, things would escalate to the point where he’d sometimes wave around swords and spears.

No wait, none of that’s relevant right now.

“What kind of mood is ‘monk mood’?”

“I feel like I might reach enlightenment. Actually, maybe I already have.”

“Hmm~, I have no idea what you’re talking about, but whatever. Let’s go one more time ♪”

“Eh, ah, yeah…”

I’d almost committed another massive misunderstanding. In a way, it was a huge letdown, but if it hadn’t been a misunderstanding or letdown, what would’ve happened by now… I reflected on how the liberating atmosphere of the tourist destination had gotten to me.

No, really—

That was way too clooooose~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~…

While letting out a long sigh in my heart that was equal parts relief and lamentation, I continued being Akira’s opponent—but before I knew it, my life gauge had dropped to about a third.

“—There’s your opening!”

The moment Akira said that, a cut-in of Commodore Perry, beautified to Hollywood actor levels, appeared on screen—

‘—Can you hear it? This is the sound of civilization’s dawn.’

After that, a fleet of black ships suddenly appeared at the edge of the screen, opened their gun ports all at once, and fired. The multitude of cannonballs that were released exploded like fireworks and filled the screen. This was Commodore Perry’s super special move, ‘Rapid-Fire Cannon Barrage (Starmine) · Opening of the Country Special.’

The monk who had advocated coastal defense was shown the overwhelming disparity in power from across the sea and collapsed pathetically to the ground.

‘Isolation is utterly ridiculous. A frog in a well knows not the great ocean. But does it know the blue of the sky? Learn the vastness of the world.’

Commodore Perry’s victory quote—thrillingly cool. But are you really the same Commodore Perry from our textbooks?

“Perry-sama is wonderful! After Koto-chan, I’ll use Perry-sama next!”

“Perry-sama, huh…”

“Aniki, one more time! Just one more round!”

“Eh, ah, yeah…”

And so, running about five minutes past our meeting time, we finally headed to the main hall where Dad and the others were waiting.

“Super-sweet girlfriend mode”?

I wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere for thinking up something so embarrassing.

“Aniki.”

“What?”

“Were you maybe expecting something else?”

“Fugyuh————?!”

Correction. Somebody please dig a hole and bury me…

＊　＊　＊

With our awkward dynamic finally back to normal, we made our way to the main hall for dinner. This inn’s style wasn’t to have meals in individual rooms, but to use the main hall as the dining area where you’d eat the food prepared there.

Even from the hallway, we could already smell the delicious aromas, and upon entering      the main hall, there were already several groups of guests, including the drama club members like Nishiyama.

“Ah, you two! We’re already digging in ahead of you!”

“Don’t get too carried away, alright?”

“We’re totally fine! We might not look it, but we’re actually pretty ladylike, you know?”

“Everyone except you…”

After exchanging banter with Nishiyama, I turned to talk to Hinata.

“Hinata-chan, is the food delicious?”

“Yes, very much so!” she replied with enthusiasm. “I keep thinking how nice it would be if I could make these flavors at home! It’s a good learning experience!”

After that, Hinata took a little sip of the hot pot broth. “I wonder how they make this broth? Maybe I could ask them to teach me later…” she murmured.

That’s our domestic Hinata for you. You can tell she cooks properly on a regular basis. I’d like Akira to learn from her, but since I’m not that great at cooking myself, I can’t really talk.

“Ah, you just thought ‘You should learn from her,’ didn’t you, Aniki?”

Akira glared at me.

“How’d you know? No, I was actually thinking I need to improve my cooking skills too.”

“I can cook better than you, Aniki!”

“You mean that thing where you don’t use a knife at all? I don’t think you should be proud of calling it ‘cooking’ when you only use the microwave, stove, and kettle.”

“Don’t you know, Aniki? Top-class head chefs don’t even use knives—they only taste-test.”

“Hey, those people worked their way up with their cooking skills, including proper knife work. Don’t compare them to poison testers from the Edo period.”

Well, poison testers also had the noble duty of protecting their lord with their lives, so I can’t really make fun of them.

Hearing our exchange, Hinata giggled. “Now, now, you two. Also, Ryouta-senpai, you’re wrong about one thing.”

“Eh?”

“What’s important in cooking is ‘love.’ If you think of someone you care deeply about while you cook, it’s proper cooking even without using a knife.”

When Hinata says it, it sounds strangely convincing. And lovely. However, I knew that principle didn’t apply in all situations.

“What Hinata-chan says is perfectly reasonable, but with that logic, I know someone who’d probably insist ‘I put love into it, so it counts as cooking’ just for pouring hot water into cup noodles—”

“Let’s hear it, Aniki. I’m all ready to discuss this.”

“I never said it was you, Akira.”

“Ahaha… This is troubling…” Hinata smiled wryly.

“Anyway, I’ll study cooking that actually uses knives.”

“Then I’ll sharpen knives while imagining the face of someone I love~”

Are you a yandere?

Then Ito, who’d been listening silently, quietly spoke up. “You two sound like a couple who just started living together, having a domestic spat…”

Both Akira and I blushed furiously.

＊　＊　＊

After our brief exchange with the drama club, I headed to the table where Dad and the others were sitting. However, only Miyuki-san was there. She’d been seriously typing something on her phone, but when we approached she broke into a smile.

“Oh my, you two finally made it.”

“Sorry for keeping you waiting, Miyuki-san.”

“Sorry, Mom. —Huh? Where’s Taichi-san?”

“Taichi-san got an urgent call from work. He should still be in his room.”

The Majima family was used to this sort of thing. It wasn’t unusual for work calls or LINE messages to come right during family time. Not just Dad, but Miyuki-san also sometimes got sudden work contacts, and apparently Akira had gotten used to it even before the remarriage. She’d probably been dealing with work on her phone right up until we arrived.

However, Miyuki-san made a point of not looking at her phone at all during meals or family time. She made an effort to prioritize time with her family, which       was different from Dad. Dad would answer the phone even during meals, and sometimes say things like “I need to go to the site for a bit” and head out.

At first glance, he might seem like a father who doesn’t value his family, but I understood that wasn’t the case, so it didn’t bother me. But what about these two who’d newly become family? Didn’t they mind seeing Dad like that?

“Should we wait for Dad?”

“He said to go ahead and eat.”

“But is that okay? If we eat first, Taichi-san will…”

“It’ll be fine. Come on, let’s eat Dad’s portion too.”

The two of them seemed a little apologetic, but once they started eating, talk of Dad gradually faded. Instead, Miyuki-san asked me this:

“So, Ryouta-kun, is there anyone you like?”

That’s the same pattern as Dad.

“No, I don’t—Hig?!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Ah, no, it’s nothing, ahahaha…”

Under the table, Akira had pinched my thigh. When Miyuki-san looked away and I glared at Akira, she was eating her food with an innocent expression. This girl.

“But surely there’s someone you’re interested in, right? Isn’t there anyone like that among the drama club girls?”

“No, not at all…”

“Oh, what about Hinata-chan? That girl is so domestic, she’ll definitely make a wonderful wife someday.”

“What a coincidence, I was thinking the same thing—Higy?!”

My thigh got pinched again.

“Oh my, was there a bone in the sashimi?”

“W-well, something like that…”

The culprit herself was still calmly eating her food. She’s quite skilled. I can’t figure out when she’s pinching my thigh while holding chopsticks and a small plate.

“Hinata-chan is a bit too good for me, or rather, someone like me wouldn’t be good enough for her, ahahaha…”

I subtly appealed to Akira that Hinata wasn’t someone to be jealous of.

“That’s not true at all. Ryouta-kun is wonderful. If I were in high school, I might have fallen for you.”

“No way, if you said that I’d feel bad toward Dad but would be hap—Igy?!”

“Oh my, was the hot pot too hot?”

“Y-yeah, a little…”

Akira, that pinch was definitely off. Miyuki-san was just being polite. Getting jealous of your mother, seriously…

“What does Akira think of Ryouta-kun—”

“I love him.”

Hey, immediate answer?! Also, is that response okay for that question?!

“But you know, Akira sticks to Ryouta-kun so much that maybe that’s why Ryouta-kun can’t get a girlfriend? You two always look so happy together as siblings, but romance during your student years is really important, you know? You should find yourself a boyfriend too.”

“I’m plenty happy being with Aniki.”

“Oh my, that’s what it seems like, Ryouta-kun. She’s completely taken with you.”

“Ah, yes. I’m very happy about that. Having a sister like Akira makes me…Ahya?!”

“What’s been wrong with you, Ryouta-kun? Did the tofu have bones too?”

“No, tofu is tofu… if it had bones that’d be harassment…”

Why did you stroke my thigh?! What happened to that straight face from before?! Also, don’t get all lovey-dovey!

“Oh right, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you, Ryouta-kun.”

“What is it?”

“You call Taichi-san ‘Dad,’ right? When did that start?”

“Um, I don’t remember exactly, but… when I was in elementary school. Why do you ask?”

“Well, you see, Akira stopped calling me ‘Mama’ after she entered middle school, and I’m lonely…”

When I looked at Akira, she had a face that said, ‘Well, obviously.’

“‘Mom’ is fine, isn’t it?”

“But Mama wants to be called ‘Mama’…”

“But it’s embarrassing! When everyone around me is saying ‘Mother’ or ‘Mom,’ saying ‘Mama’…”

“Apparently so. —Well, I used to call Dad ‘Father’ too, but I don’t plan to go back to that now…”

“Huh, Aniki, you used to call him ‘Father’? Why did you start calling him ‘Dad’?”

“…Well, because Dad likes it.”

Both Akira and Miyuki-san looked surprised.

“So Akira, you should call Taichi-san ‘Dad’ instead of ‘Taichi-san.’ He’d probably be happy.”

“Eh~, but calling him ‘Dad’ is a bit…”

“Having your daughter call you ‘old man’ would be pretty harsh…”

“There’s nothing wrong with it. He’s your dad, after all.”

While we were talking like that, speak of the devil, Dad finally showed up.

“Sorry, I kept you waiting!”

I finally felt relieved. Now I could finally change the subject.

“How was it, Taichi-san?”

“Looks like one of my subordinates screwed up. I gave instructions for now, but—”

Dad looked guilty.

“—I need to do some typing. Sorry, Miyuki-san, I’ll have to cancel our plans for later.”

Dad had said a laptop was unnecessary for this important family trip, but apparently he’d brought it just in case. I’d somehow expected this would happen. Previously, on a trip with just Dad and me, work calls came in, and we ended up shortening our planned two-night, three-day trip to just one night.

Seeing that he wasn’t cutting the schedule this time, I guess this was actually pretty good. While Dad looked terribly apologetic, Miyuki-san said, “That can’t be helped” cheerfully. Even though it was a situation where she had every right to be angry or exasperated, I could feel that Miyuki-san was making an effort to be understanding toward Dad.

I could somewhat understand why Dad had fallen for Miyuki-san. Understanding and empathy—no, more than that, she was someone who could properly concede and entrust things to others, which made being with her feel reassuring.

“I’ll make it up to you properly.”

“I understand. In that case, tomorrow I’ll buy lots of souvenirs for your work colleagues, so Taichi-san, you’ll be on luggage duty, okay?”

Miyuki-san said that with a smile. But the smile she showed for just an instant—

‘They’ll probably think it can’t be helped, right?’

—was exactly like the expression Akira had shown me on the bullet train. A reserved, resigned sort of smile. As expected of a blood-related mother and daughter, perhaps such expressions ran in the family.

Deep down, she probably thought this promise wouldn’t be kept. That it didn’t need to be kept. Meanwhile, I felt      that even if we weren’t blood-related, I really was Dad’s son.

‘So Aniki, feel free to break your promises with me without worry…’

This unfortunate tendency to make the people we want to cherish show such sad expressions was something I’d inherited far too well from Dad. Akira watched her parents with a somewhat worried expression on her face.

＊　＊　＊

As soon as we returned to our room after dinner, Akira let out a big sigh. Instead of heading straight to the game console, she sat down on her bed. I could kind of predict what Akira was thinking about.

“Aniki, I want to talk about something, is that okay?”

“About Dad?”

“No, about Taichi-san and Mom.”

Akira looked at me with a serious expression.

“Aniki, do you know why Mom and Dad divorced?”

“Well, I know the gist of it—”

I’d heard from Miyuki-san during summer vacation. The typical story of separating due to “differences in values.” Honestly, I couldn’t really say much about it. Since I knew both Miyuki-san and Takeru-san, I couldn’t take sides and say one was worse than the other.

That was probably because I always thought about things from Akira’s perspective. Both Miyuki-san and Takeru-san truly cared about Akira. As long as I had that fact, it was enough for me, and how the two of them felt about each other now, or in the past, didn’t really matter.

If they separated due to differences in values, then so be it. As long as Akira isn’t suffering now.

“—Well, I heard they separated due to differences in values.”

“I think the reason my parents didn’t work out was partly because their lives were so out of sync, but it was also about money and differences in their stances on life.”

Akira rephrased “differences in values” as “differences in their life stances.” Differences in position—it sounded like a spatial matter somehow. But for me, it was more concrete and understandable than the vague image of “values.”

“When Aniki first met me, you tried to shorten the distance between us, right?”

“After that, you also tried to close the distance from your side—”

Though I do think the way you shorten the distance is different between “siblings” and “a guy and a girl”… I see, maybe this is what they call a difference in values.

We’d slightly missed each other and traced parallel lines, but as a result of both of us making efforts to get closer, we have      what we have now.

“—Actually, while our distance has gotten much closer, I think it’s because my parents didn’t try to restore the distance that had once grown between them.”

“I see. So what you’re worried about is that Dad and Miyuki-san’s distance might grow apart?”

“Yeah. If things like today keep piling up, I wonder what’ll happen…”

“That’s… something I don’t want to think about. Well, from what I can see right now, I think they’ll be okay.”

But even so, Akira was probably still anxious. She seemed terribly worried about what would happen if we just left things alone, and a rift formed between the two of them.

“Isn’t there something we could do?”

“Something like what?”

“Something to help Mom and her husband get along even better on this trip.”

“The only thing we can do is create some time for just the two of them, right?”

“No, something with a bit more of a punch would be better.”

“Like what?”

“Hmm… Maybe take them somewhere that could become a special place for them?”

“I see, a special place…”

I thought about it a little. Things we could do to deepen a married couple’s bond, especially things we could do at a travel destination without time to prepare—what we could do was limited, but among the possible options, this might be the best method.

“In that case, let’s try going somewhere tomorrow with beautiful scenery that’s reachable from here. Let me look it up.”

“Yeah!”

We immediately started searching on our phones for places with beautiful scenery in the nearby area.

“As expected of a tourist area, there are a lot of options. Ferris wheels, aquariums—”

“Ah, here!”

“Hm? Did you find somewhere good?”

“Ah, never mind…”

“What’s wrong?”

“I know this place, but… maybe not.”

“Where is it?”

“This ‘Starfall Hill Observatory’…”

When Akira handed me her phone to look at, it seemed like a place where you could see beautiful starry skies. However, it said you needed a car to get there.

“It looks like a nice place, but this is a no-go. Not without a car…”

“Yeah, that’s right…”

Akira’s face clouded over with a hint of disappointment.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’ve… been to this place once before.”

“With Takeru-san?”

“Yeah… This is a special place to me. It’s where my name ‘Akira’ came from—”

Saying that, Akira began to tell me the story of her past, though somewhat hesitantly.