『You don’t have to force yourself to come to terms with what happened in the previous life. I’m sorry I forgot about it, but I’ll take responsibility for what I did.
…Once we’re both grown up, let’s get married, just like we promised.』
That was what I told her.
As I said it, I couldn’t help but think, “This really isn’t a conversation a six-month-old baby should be having, is it?”
From Suika and now this, my second life is getting way too eventful.
『Um, so…』
Mia squeezed the hand she’s holding a little tighter.
『I’m really happy to hear how you feel, Hero. My heart’s pounding right now. But… I think I’d like to put things like being lovers or getting married on hold for now.』
『Why?』
『I might change my mind after all. And even if it’s only by name, we’re still brother and sister…』
『If your feelings change, we can talk about it then. I’m only being entrusted to the Kirasawa family, after all. There’s nothing stopping us from getting married.』
Come to think of it, what happens to my last name?
Am I really being adopted? Or am I still going to be an Ishirogi?
『But, um…』
『What is it?』
『Well, you see… I, uh…』
Mia faltered, unable to get the words out.
What was it?
I was about to tell her that if it was something difficult to say, she could always tell me tomorrow—or some other day. But before I could get the words out—
『—Ah, forget it!』
Mia snapped.
『If you’re going to figure things out on your own, then figure it out properly, you half-baked hero!』
『Ow! Ow, ow, ow—wait a sec, calm down! Don’t dig your nails in—seriously, that actually hurts you know!』
『Shut up! I like you, Hero! And because I like you, I don’t want you to be with me just because you feel obligated or because you think it’s your responsibility!』
Her telepathic voice was blasting through my head at full volume.
This is bad. I’m starting to feel a little dizzy.
『Like me! For REAL! Really really like me! And then confess to me! Propose to me! Idiot! Stupid hero!』
I’m sorry. I sincerely apologize.
So, could you please let go of my left hand?
Because somehow, I’ve suddenly found myself trapped in an arm lock, and it hurts. It hurts so much. I’m going to die. I’m seriously going to die. For a baby, she sure knows an impressive number of joint locks. Although, I suppose this is quite literally a case of twisting a baby’s arm…
Anyway, it hurts like hell and I’m genuinely in danger here, so please, for the love of God, let me go.
Seriously.
『It’s on hold! Listen, I said it’s on hold—so it’s on hold! Until the Hero falls for me, we are absolutely nothing more than brother and sister! Get it!?』
Oh…oh… I understand.
No wait, aren’t I already being bossed around by her?
＊ ＊ ＊
And so, after everything that had happened, we eventually settled into the role of “siblings”—at least for the time being. Mia, in particular, seemed very conscious of keeping that boundary in place, so she never got overly clingy or affectionate with me.
Well, I suppose it would be pretty creepy for our parents if two babies, barely one or two years old, were already acting lovey-dovey with each other.
『Ho-holding hands while we sleep is normal, right?』
Still, we might have been a little closer than the average brother and sister.
And so, the days passed by in the Kirasawa household.
Mia picked up Japanese in no time at all, and by the time she turned one, she’s already capable of reading ordinary novels. She also watched a lot of television. Apparently, she was especially fond of a show about a hero with a face shaped like a certain red bean-paste bun.
『Just by replacing his face, he makes a full recovery… Humanity really has developed some terrifying undead creatures…』
『No, that’s fiction.』
Apparently, Mia had mistaken 『Sore ike! Anpanman』 for reality. Well, I suppose it wasn’t entirely impossible. She did come from a fantasy world, after all.
『Then that little black one isn’t a demon?』
『It’s just a germ.』
『So that means he’s one of Pazuzu’s minions.』
Pazuzu? The father who dies protecting the protagonist in the fifth installment of that famous national RPG series, right?
Sorry. That’s a lie. The name that came to mind just now really was Pazuzu. One of the Four Great Commanders of the Demon Lord’s army, he possessed the power to manipulate plagues. At some point, he disguised himself as a human and approached me, so, in an attempt to deepen our friendship, I took him to a public bath.
He died there.
I scrubbed his back nice and thoroughly with soap, and he immediately started foaming at the mouth before breathing his last. Well, what a way to go.
I wasn’t trying to kill him though. Seriously, I wasn’t.
In any case, it seems like I have to teach Mia the common sense and general rules of this world. You could say that’s simply part of a parent’s job, but I also owed a great deal to the people who were raising me.
On top of that, we decided to start training our magic. We had these powers, after all. It would be a waste not to develop them, right?
So, what exactly did our training involve?
『Go get him, Hikone-nyan! Beat up Oniisan!』
『Don’t lose, Capybara-kun-san! Knock him flying with a body slam!』
We each used our magic power to control stuffed animals, making them fight each other with little “bonk-bonk” noises.
It’s a rather pastoral, fairy-tale sort of scene, but it’s actually perfect for honing our magical control.
We would use precise movements to dodge each other’s attacks—
『Now, Capybara-kun-san! Flamethrower!』
『The house is going to burn down, you idiot!』
My apologies. For the record, we were also extremely careful to make sure neither Shuji-san nor Yuko-san ever found out about any of this.
I turned two. Mia and I had the same birthday, so our family celebrated the two of us together.
Our presents were Recoblocks. Yep! I used to love these too.
『Oniisan, look! I made the Demon Lord’s castle!』
『That’s actually pretty close…』
Between the two of us, we never ran out of things to build or ways to recreate the structures from the world we had come from.
『But these blocks are way too sturdy.』
『What’s wrong with that?』
『Hmm… If they were real buildings, they’d collapse when something hit them, right? Isn’t that kind of beautiful?』
—Destruction is my joy. Those who are doomed to die are the beautiful ones.
…That was something the Great Demon Lord said in the third installment of a certain beloved national RPG, but I am starting to sense a similar aesthetic in Mia. I suppose that was what you got when the Demon Lord’s daughter had a say in things.
Come to think of it, lately Mia had been watching almost nothing but anime and tokusatsu aimed at boys. Last Friday’s movie on Friday Roadshow had been Gamera 3, and she’d practically lit up when she saw the scene where Kyoto Station was destroyed.
＊ ＊ ＊
Another year passed, and we started kindergarten.
The day before the entrance ceremony, I woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. As I walked down the hall, I heard Shuji-san’s voice coming from the living room.
Apparently, he was on the phone with someone.
“…I told you about this a long time ago. The least you could do is come see them all dressed up for their entrance ceremony.”
His tone was as calm and matter-of-fact as ever. But there was something helpless about it, as though he didn’t know what else he could do.
“If tomorrow doesn’t work, then come another day. Just once, meet Yoshito and—hey, Naoki, wait. Don’t hang up. I’m not finished talking—”
Apparently, Shuji-san had been trying to invite my Old Man to our entrance ceremony.
It wasn’t as though I particularly wanted to see that man’s face, but I appreciated the thought.
Shuji-san really is a good guy. I honestly really couldn’t understand why someone like him is friends with my Old Man.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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