You Said We'd Take Things Slowly, Remember? That Was a Lie

At last, the day had arrived.

On the day of our date, Hiyori showed up at my front door in an SSR stylish early-summer outfit she had put real effort into. I cleared my throat and launched into a declaration of principles.

"Before we go on our date, there's one thing I want to make perfectly clear.

I despise people who let romance distract them from their real work.

You see it sometimes in movies and anime, right? Stories where the world or their friends are in desperate danger, but the characters waste time chatting or kissing their lover. Watching that makes me angry. Is this really the time for that? Do it later! Save the world first, as quickly as possible! Once you've saved whatever needs saving, you can flirt to your heart's content. That's only right.

Look at Mamono-kun and Professor Ohinata! Even after being cheated on or having their engagements broken off, they continue to devote themselves to magic linguistics and monster studies. They don't let romance make them stop. Admirable, really. They have the firm will—the conviction—to devote themselves to their true work! They're not like those fickle fools who lose their way, led astray by romance.

I want to be like that, too. Got it? Today, we're going on a date. I'm looking forward to it. However! Once today is over, things will go back to normal. I absolutely will not neglect my wandmaking because I'm prioritizing lovey-dovey time with you, Hiyori! That is my declaration!"

Upon hearing my declaration, Hiyori leaned close to my ear with a smirk and whispered.

"No matter what you say, today's conclusion won't change.

At the end of today's date, you're going to kiss me."

"Gaaah...!"

My desperate preemptive strike had failed.

Hit by a powerful counterattack, I buckled at the knees.

"I'm going to use my tongue, too."

"Uwaaah...!"

I took the lethal follow-up attack and trembled in terror.

This is an unblockable, guaranteed-hit attack! No! No way! I can't win! You witch!

"That's cheating. If you say something like that, then I can't look at you normally for the rest of today!"

"That's exactly how it should be. Now, what's with those sunglasses?"

"I-I get embarrassed when my eyes meet Hiyori's."

"I won't allow it. Take them off."

"Aah...!"

My last line of defense, the sunglasses, were ripped away, forcing me to stare defenselessly at Hiyori's dazzling date outfit.

Noooo! Her neckline is way too low! Her back is way too exposed! There's nowhere to rest my eyes, yet I can't look away! What kind of paranormal phenomenon is this?!

"Hey! You used Charm magic, didn't you?! That's cheating! Go on a date fair and square!"

"I didn't, I didn't."

"Liar! Hiyori's cuteness should already be at the absolute limit the world can tolerate. There's no explaining how she's exceeded today's limit of cuteness without some trick! This isn't in the data! Gyaaaah, I can't take it, I'm suffering from cute aggression...!"

"Calm down. Want me to give you a big hug?"

"Agh!? Don't try to finish me off aaaaah!"

After receiving a demonic hug from Hiyori disguised as an angel, I felt her body heat against my skin—her abnormal cuteness overwhelming everything—and thrashed around in a half-mad panic.

My heart and brain were glitching in ways they never had before, and I had no idea what was happening anymore.

This is violence, Hiyori! Violence by cuteness! No violence!

Our date stumbled right out of the gate.

It took me a considerable amount of time to get my mind and body accustomed to SSR Date-Outfit Hiyori, and by the time I finally returned to my senses, our date itinerary was badly behind schedule.

There was nothing for it, so I dragged the bicycle out of the shed, hurriedly tuned it up, and set off with Hiyori riding on the back. We couldn't make up the lost time on foot. Running would have ruined the atmosphere. So I split the difference and chose a bicycle.

With Hiyori riding behind me, I wouldn't have to look directly at her inhumanly attractive self. I thought it was a brilliant idea for that reason alone, but I was naive.

To my surprise, Hiyori wrapped her arms around my waist from behind and pressed herself against me.

I nearly lost control of the handlebars and crashed into a tree.

"That was close! Show some restraint, Hiyori. Your cuteness is a weapon. Know that, you idiot!"

"Your words are pretty sharp too, you know? You should be aware of that."

I could tell from her voice that Hiyori was laughing as she tossed back the quip.

She was being cutely mischievous, and it was cute, and I couldn't forgive her for being so cute, and she was cute...!

Perhaps even the incarnation of cuteness herself was afraid of causing an accident while I was riding, because until we passed through Okutama and Ome and left the urban area behind, she gave me little tidbits of trivia unrelated to romance, bringing peace to my mind.

Okutama City and Ome City are exempt under the Blue Witch's authority, but apparently the reclamation of the human sphere has been progressing little by little for the past eighty years.

Municipalities have gradually multiplied, either in rings around large communities throughout the country or as post towns along trade routes, and they are protected by magicians and magical beasts. Outlying enclaves are sometimes established in places that are easy to defend or suitable for agriculture, forestry, and fishing. Inevitably, new cities end up being built atop the rubble of former metropolises.

However, simply reclaiming land and multiplying empty, uninhabited cities would only increase the cost of maintenance. The expansion of the human sphere is planned in step with population growth.

On this subject,

"Should we relocate surplus population after preparing a city?"

"Or should we develop a city after confirming that there is surplus population?"

"Should tax reductions for the pioneer teams developing new cities be based on the number of years they've been doing so, or on their generations?"

"How should we close the economic and medical gap between newly developed areas and old cities dating back to the previous era?"

and so on, apparently tend to become political flashpoints.

There are also various factions among the pioneer teams that clear abandoned villages and dead cities swallowed by forests and turned into monster territories. Families with abundant mana generally send members of their clan to join pioneer teams, and the Flower Witch clan and the Alraune clan, among others, are welcomed as key forces in development despite certain problems.

Fuyou, the Flower Witch's second child, rules the Okutama area and has established formidable defenses. She can hunt a Class A-3 on her own, and can defeat a Class A-2 in cooperation with Spider Witch. Her mana and stamina are lower than those of Transcendents, and her frail body makes consecutive battles difficult, but depending on the circumstances, she can rival the weakest Transcendents.

Fuyou's younger sisters are about as strong as she is. Any land where the Alraune have taken root will be safe if it can be protected until they have properly established themselves and grown.

In fact, in Hokkaido, the Alraune have taken root across most of the populous plains, creating an extremely solid foundation. This is the result of a contract with the Foresight Wizard.

When the Foresight Wizard retired to Hokkaido, the contract he had made with the Flower Witch was renewed. A new agreement was reached: he could move to Hokkaido, as long as he looked after the daughters she sent there. The Foresight Wizard honored the contract until he died of old age.

That's why Hokkaido has so many Alraune. The Alraune have also expanded into America and India, but Hokkaido has the most of them by far. The clan's holy ground is Tokyo, where the original mother plant resides, though.

While the Alraune have contributed greatly to expanding and maintaining humanity's sphere of survival, they also cause problems.

For example, they can't take root just anywhere.

The fertility and breadth of the land, as well as the abundance of water, have a major effect on their growth. Alraune whose territories consist of poor, cramped land are weak. If Fuyou is upper-tier Class A-3, then the Alraune rooted in the clan's least favorable land are only about Class B-2.

They are vulnerable to salt, so they can't take root on small islands or along coasts where the groundwater contains salt.

They avoid regions with abundant insects that feed on Alraune leaves and roots.

Another controversial issue is the granddaughter plants.

The daughter plants born from the Flower Witch can maintain a reasonable distance from humanity thanks to their mothers' education. For the most part, they claim exclusive rights to all corpses within their territory and use both monster and human corpses as nutrients.

But they generally make no demands beyond that.

Some Alraune are respected as guardians of cities, some sing and dance as idols while basking in adoration, and some live quiet, secluded lives in botanical gardens. There are all kinds of Alraune, and they manage to get along well.

However, the granddaughter plants born from daughter plants have a major gap in their sense of ethics compared with humanity.

In other words, they are more monstrous, more instinct-driven, and more prone to conflict with humans.

They might strangle a solitary old man and drain him for nutrients, or catch a Pouch Sparrow while it's making a delivery and use it as feed. They may grow jealous of beautiful women and become aggressive, or set fire to private homes to make ash for adjusting soil acidity.

Apparently, an incident caused by a granddaughter plant once nearly sparked a conflict between the Alraune clan and humanity, so ever since, it has been agreed that granddaughter plants will take root in places where no human settlements are planned.

There was talk of settling Alraune in Ome City at the Flower Witch's suggestion, but Hiyori apparently refused.

Hiyori only occasionally visits her family grave in Ome now and no longer feels strongly attached to the place. But apparently she also didn't think it was right to let the Alraune do whatever they pleased there.

That's why Ome City is slowly decaying as nature takes its course. Hiyori said, with the patience of a long-lived species, that by the time even the last traces of the city had disappeared, nature and her memories would have sorted themselves out as well.

Huh. My thinking is starting to sound like that of a long-lived species. Well, after living this long, I suppose that's inevitable. I'm also being made to drink Lifespan-Gets-Longer-and-Longer (I don't know its official name), so before long, my sense of time will probably come to match Hiyori's.

While I was getting sentimental, we left Ome and entered the urban area. I parked the bicycle in the lot of the restaurant where we'd reserved lunch, then got off and turned around.

Then I was shocked to find an astonishingly beautiful girl in a very revealing outfit right in front of me and nearly toppled over.

It was a trap!

My brain had been reset into serious mode by the discussion of academic matters and political dynamics, so despite thinking I'd gotten used to her, I was blindsided by the shock of seeing her anew.

Right. At the end of today's date, I was going to kiss this dressed-up Hiyori.

She was going to use her tongue, too.

Gwaaah! Since I'd forgotten it once, remembering it again was twice as embarrassing.

"What's wrong, Dairi? Your face is red."

"Gnh...!"

"Come on, let's get inside. There's a couples' discount, right? Couples. Discount."

Hiyori linked her arm with mine, grinning and giddy, and dragged my rigid body into the restaurant.

Damn her! What happened to the plan for me to escort her? She had seized control of both my pace and my heart and was shaking me violently like a washing machine. Stop switching between extremes!

Hiyori seemed determined to beat my emotions to a pulp over the course of the day, and by the end of the date, my heart had been thoroughly destroyed. I felt like my total number of heartbeats today had been ten days' worth crammed into one. How had my blood vessels not burst?

I couldn't taste the lunch I ate while gazing at Hiyori's happy face.

I don't remember a single thing about the movie we watched that afternoon, either. All I remember is Hiyori's profile beside me, her expression changing from tears to anger to laughter.

Even the magic-item shop we stopped at after the movie left no impression on me. I vividly remember plucking a mosquito that tried to land on Hiyori's shoulder out of the air and crushing it between my fingers, but I don't even remember what items the shop carried.

When the date ended, I was limp, ragged, and gasping for breath as I rode the bicycle back to Okutama with Hiyori riding behind me.

I rode the bicycle with her on the back along a country road through rice paddies at sunset.

The early-summer breeze was cool and refreshing as it swept through the lush green rice fields, making it feel like a page from our youth.

But for a page from our youth, it was awfully lewd. Because after I finish pedaling this bicycle and get off, I'm going to give Hiyori a deep kiss, you know? What kind of page from our youth is that? A hundred pages wouldn't be enough. Give me a break!

Before long, the bicycle came to a stop in front of the Dairi residence.

My heart nearly stopped, too.

I got off the bicycle. Hiyori stared intently at me, her cheeks flushed, waiting for "something," and I was so nervous I could barely stand it.

My mouth went completely dry.

I could hear the chirping of insects, the croaking of frogs, and the rustling of the trees—or at least I should have been able to—but none of it reached my ears.

Amid dizzying tension, I tried to step toward Hiyori, but I couldn't move forward and came to a stop.

It was pathetic, but a weak complaint escaped my mouth.

"H-Hiyori. Maybe we should call off the kiss after all."

"...Is it still too soon?"

Hiyori looked unable to hide her disappointment, but she asked gently.

I shook my head.

No. It was the opposite.

You know? You're too good at seducing me.

Your overwhelming assault is too much for my utterly wrecked sensibilities; my heart is already in dire straits.

"You said you were going to use your tongue when we kissed, right?"

"Yes."

"If we do that now, I won't be able to stop. I'd push you down, Hiyori. Going that far wouldn't be what we agreed to, would it?"

As I squeezed out those words, lamenting how weak my self-control was, Hiyori slipped into my arms as if exploiting a gap in my awareness.

In my arms, Hiyori looked up at me passionately.

Every word and scrap of reason inside me was blown away, and Hiyori filled the entire resulting void.

My last shred of reason was torn away, and I pulled Hiyori tightly against me.

Then the distance between us became zero.