Chapter 92
At the Witch of Hitsugi's command, the servants in the garden bustled off to search for the fugitive.
More servants who seemed to have no idea what was going on came streaming out of the mansion, gathered in front of the Witch of Hitsugi, and received a briefing.
"Hey, what are you standing around for? We're going too!"
"Huh? Oh, right. Me too? Is there some kind of magic for finding people?"
"No. There is magic for tracking something that has been marked, but we didn't mark Tsugibi. Come on, hurry."
Prodded along by Hiyori, I cast self-enhancement magic and ran out of the Hitsugi estate with her. We searched the main road from end to end, but there was no sign of the figurine-sized fire fairy anywhere.
"She's vanished without a trace. How are we supposed to find someone that tiny? She'll stand out once it gets dark because she's on fire, but she won't be noticeable during the day."
"...To Tsugibi, this is the world eighty years later. The city has changed. Almost every view must be unfamiliar to her. She'll probably head somewhere familiar if she finds a building she recognizes."
"You mean we should look for old buildings?"
Hiyori nodded, and we started running around Shinagawa.
I had lived as a shut-in in Okutama, so I barely remembered what Shinagawa had been like in the first place. Even so, I knew the scenery must have changed beyond recognition.
Japan in the Reiwa era hadn't been full of brick buildings like this.
There hadn't been gas lamps.
It was an impossible sight: swallows and sparrows perched on tension rods beside a post-office window, chirping while squashed together in a bird-sized shoving match.
The pet shop was fantastical enough to have separate entrances for animals and magical beasts, yet the signs directing customers were written in Japanese. I was starting to lose track of whether this was Japan or another world.
Hiyori was examining a soot mark around ankle height on a yakiniku restaurant's standing sign, trying to determine whether it had been burned by a problem at the shop or by Tsugibi. I spoke to her.
"This is pretty inefficient. Shouldn't we split up and search separately?"
"You heard what she shouted before she ran. Something about hating men. Who knows what she'll do to you if you're alone, Dairi?"
"What...?"
Was Hiyori saying Tsugibi might kick me in the crotch out of spite? That sounded painful. I didn't want that.
As time passed, more and more people searching for something, just like us, appeared. Some peered beneath the belly of a tiger-shaped magical beast sitting dejectedly on the roadside with a no-parking ticket stuck to its forehead, while others showed a sketch to workers removing drainage covers and maintaining the waterways.
Apparently, the Hitsugi clan had the power and organization to mobilize a considerable number of people to search for someone. Adding the two of us didn't make much difference.
We discussed the matter and headed toward the district where the old metalworking factories had once stood. It was a place Tsugibi would surely have been familiar with, since she had once invested heavily in it to promote industry.
Our guess was that, with her family home transformed into enemy territory, that was about the only place Tsugibi could flee to.
Following Hiyori's directions, we reached the area where the metalworking factories had been. A gigantic factory now occupied an enormous tract of land, belching clouds of smoke from several thick, towering chimneys. The heavy rumble and vibration of massive machinery carried all the way to the road outside.
A magnificent sign hung over the factory's main gate. It read: Shinagawa Materials, Plant One.
There!
Trying not to meet the eyes of the gate guard staring suspiciously at us, I whispered to Hiyori.
"Hey, this factory is mine."
"What?"
"Shinagawa Materials. It's the factory whose deeds I received when Tsugibi was sealed. Let's use my owner's authority to have them send people out to search for Tsugibi."
"Oh, right, that place. But you were officially considered dead, so I don't know whether you still have any rights to it. The Spider Witch was supposed to be managing that, along with your cash assets."
"Spider-san...?"
I was deeply moved.
Right. Fuyou was a child, the fire lizards were infants, and Hiyori had gone traveling, so she was the only one who could have managed all that. Thank goodness. I had to thank her profusely when we met.
However, eighty years after my death was certainly long enough for even copyrights to have expired. When Hiyori asked the guard for the owner's name, it was someone completely different, so she showed him that silver card, and we were escorted to a reception room in the office building attached to the factory.
That card is ridiculously powerful. It's a free pass everywhere.
Hiyori sat down on a plush sofa, while I pretended to be fascinated by the wooden mountain-bear carving in the corner of the reception room and stationed myself there. I was just an ordinary passerby interested in art. Hiyori could handle the entire conversation.
After we waited for a few minutes, a frail old man leaning on a cane entered the reception room. His hair had gone beyond white and was mostly gone, and his entire body was covered in age spots and wrinkles. His steps were short and slow, perhaps because his legs and back had grown weak.
Even so, his back was perfectly straight, and he possessed the composure to say nothing to the suspicious man in the corner who was pretending not to care while paying far too much attention to the inlay work on the wooden mountain bear.
This old man is formidable...!
The old man carefully lowered himself onto the sofa, mindful of his back, then spoke in a crisp voice.
"It has been a long time, Blue Witch-sama. My name is Tetsui Yuma, and I currently serve as the fourth-generation owner of Shinagawa Materials."
"Uh... Sorry, have we met before?"
Tetsui-san smiled at the Blue Witch, who awkwardly scratched her cheek, making his deeply wrinkled face even more wrinkled.
"It's only natural that you don't remember. I was merely one of the many people who came to pay my respects at the funeral of the Witch of Eyes."
"Oh, you were there. I don't remember the details, but I do recall that I didn't treat you very well."
"That was a long time ago. What brings you here today?"
Tetsui-san quickly dispensed with the small talk and turned his attention to Hiyori.
Hiyori gave a small nod and began to speak.
"I'd like to keep this confidential. About two hours ago, we released the seal on the Witch of Tsugibi at the Hitsugi estate, but she panicked and fled. She may have escaped into one of the factories around here. This request is outside my authority, but I would like you to search the grounds and, if possible, send people to join the search."
"The Witch of Tsugibi...?"
"You don't know what she looks like? Do you have something I can write on? I'll draw a picture."
"No. I know what the first owner looked like. I even met her in person."
As he said that, Tetsui-san looked over Hiyori's shoulder toward the upper part of the wall. I followed his gaze and saw portraits of the successive owners hanging there.
The first was the Witch of Tsugibi, with the build of a middle-school student.
The second was represented only by the number 0933.
The third was holding a Himorino Staff, so they were probably a member of the Hitsugi clan.
And the fourth was Tetsui-san.
If he had met Tsugibi in person, he had to be in his nineties, or perhaps even over a hundred. No wonder he was so frail. Actually, he was probably remarkably energetic for his age.
Most of the young people who had lived through that era were already dead, and those who remained were great-grandparents. Of course everything had changed.
"The Witch of Tsugibi-sama helped me tremendously on a personal level. She was the one who hired me, after all. I'll have my employees search for her immediately... You won't harm her if we find her, will you?"
"............ Right. I suppose. I won't kill her. I'll simply make her do what she must."
"Then I will trust you. Someone!"
Tetsui-san called out to someone beyond the reception room, summoned an employee, gave him the message, and sent him away.
The matter was settled quickly. We had no reason to linger, so we were about to leave when Tetsui-san called out to me.
"Excuse me, you there."
"Wh...!? Y-yes...?"
Apparently, I had failed to look like an uninvolved passerby.
I answered in the smallest voice I could manage while staring intently at the soft, expensive-looking carpet beneath my feet. Tetsui-san asked in a voice even softer than the carpet.
"I heard from the guard. He said you asked whether the owner was still 0933. Are you 0933? Did some kind of magic bring you back to this world?"
"Th... Ah... N-no, um... That's not it. My name is Dairi. I mean, I..."
"Then are you acquainted with him?"
I raised my head a little and checked Hiyori's expression. She gave a small shake of her head.
Maybe I should keep quiet. Yeah, probably.
That made asking her opinion pointless, but I wanted to know what people thought of 0933 after my death.
Had I become a forgotten relic of the past, lost to the passage of time?
Or was I a historical great figure whose name appeared in textbooks?
Or perhaps people involved in the wand industry had heard my name, while I occupied a moderately obscure position far removed from ordinary people?
I gathered my courage and nodded, hoping to hear Tetsui-san's assessment.
"We're acquaintances, in a manner of speaking. From your perspective, Tetsui-san, what was 0933 like...? A general impression is fine."
"He was my benefactor."
Tetsui-san answered simply.
My benefactor? I had no idea what he was talking about.
While I stood there bewildered by this debt of gratitude I didn't remember incurring, Tetsui-san continued earnestly.
"If you have the opportunity, please tell him directly. If you ever visit his grave, tell him there. Please pass along this message: Tetsui Yuma was deeply grateful. Again and again, he gave generously to me, even when I was only a lowly errand boy. Thanks to him, I had a wonderful life. Please, I beg you to deliver that message."
"Oh. Sure."
Actually, I did remember.
I remembered it very clearly.
Since I had no use for the money, I had poured eighty or ninety percent of what I earned from selling wands into this factory.
I had done it casually, thinking, Everyone's happy when they get a bonus, right? Work hard and stay healthy wherever you are, even if I never show my face there! I never imagined that casually slapping the factory with stacks of cash would still be remembered eighty years later.
Grandpa, you have a pretty good memory, don't you? I think I once received service coupons from an auction website during the online-auction era, but I don't remember what they were for at all.
"Oh, and one more thing."
Tetsui-san continued speaking to Hiyori, who was nodding with a satisfied, knowing expression.
"If you're searching for the Witch of Tsugibi-sama, a fire demonkin we picked up last month may know something. She appeared to be the same kind of creature as the Witch of Tsugibi-sama.
She said she was a stray magical beast with no parents, but since she could speak, we assumed she was a demonkin orphan.
She called herself 'Sekitan.'"
Inside the huge factory, heavy machinery rumbled as it operated at full capacity in every direction. Employees in work clothes bustled about, lowering and tilting enormous crucibles of molten metal suspended from chains to pour the contents into molds, or inspecting ore delivered by suppliers. Everyone was busy at work.
Sekitan was soaking half her body in a thick channel carrying molten golden metal. Every so often, she would wiggle one hand, making powerful magical flames roar up inside a furnace. There were quite a few other magical beasts performing fire-related work in the factory, just like Sekitan. Burning birds. Burning boars.
I had thought, Anyone could tell she was descended from Hiyori or Tsugibi just by looking at her! But after meeting her in person, I understood why they couldn't.
Sekitan's features looked nothing like either of her parents.
"Ah, Sekitan takes after her grandfather. She resembles my father."
"I see. So that's how it works."
I suppose that made sense. Things like that happened. Children didn't necessarily resemble either of their parents. It was only natural, really.
Sekitan was in charge of adjusting the flames in a huge furnace and was nodding off, but when she noticed us, she blinked rapidly and woke up.
"Oh, it's Oori. Good morning, Oori. You slept too much. You're a sleepyhead."
"Sorry, sorry. Have you been doing well, Sekitan?"
"Yeah. Oori's talking. I missed that. Hey, Oori, polish my scales again? ...I don't have scales."
Sekitan tried to stand up from the channel of searing molten metal, but remembered that she had become humanoid and sat down dejectedly.
Hmm. She was cute even in human form.
But when her face looked like that, it was kind of... well, it was something.
Of course, Sekitan was a beloved member of the Dairi family, cute no matter what she looked like. But unlike Mokutan, who resembled Hiyori, she had changed into a completely unfamiliar-looking girl. I'd make her a heat-resistant mask and send it to her next time. If she wore a mask, I could lavish her with affection.
"Do you work here? Do they give you enough to eat?"
"Yeah. Lots and lots of coke from America every day. I live here forever. Everyone's nice, and my motivation burns hot."
With that, Sekitan puffed out her chest.
I felt as though I was nitpicking her wording, but it made me a little nervous.
Her motivation burns? That wasn't the same kind of thing as Tsugibi being horny, was it?
She wasn't going to inherit her mother's bad proclivities and start having arson sex, was she?
What if I woke up one morning to find the entire factory burned down and a hundred or so fire lizards born inside?
Apparently, Hiyori had been thinking the same thing, because she whispered in my ear.
"Don't worry, Dairi. Basically, Transcendents don't have children in the grandchild generation."
"Huh? Really?"
"It's what they call a genetic hybrid. I'm not an expert, but you know how a mule is born from a horse and a donkey? Mules can't reproduce. According to the Mutation Department's view, it seems to work on the same principle."
"Huh...?"
So children born between different species were genetically bugged, meaning reproduction, which depended closely on genes, was a no-go because of the bug. Probably.
"Then when Tetsui-san said demonkin, he meant the child of a Transcendent?"
"More or less. A demonkin is someone who can control mana, is born with a Gremlin, and has a human bloodline... I think. That's the technical definition."
"Oori, what are you here for? A walk? Sunbathing?"
Even after hatching eighty years later, easygoing Sekitan remained as laid-back as ever. She showed no sign of caring about my dramatic resurrection and treated me as normally as if we'd seen each other only yesterday.
She looked healthy and didn't seem stressed. If she had become independent and was doing well, then that was probably what made her happy.
Yes, I hoped Sekitan would continue living here in good health.
"One reason we're here is to see you. The other is that we're searching for the Witch of Tsugibi. Do you know where she is? She's about this big, kind of like a miniature version of you."
When I explained the reason for our visit as a last-ditch effort, Sekitan nodded readily.
"I know."
Then Sekitan plunged her hand into the river of molten metal and pulled out a tiny fire fairy.
The Witch of Tsugibi thrashed about in Sekitan's grip, held by the scruff of her neck. She looked terrified and tried to run when she saw Hiyori, whose temple was bulging with anger.
There you are, you pervert! No wonder we couldn't find you if you were hiding in a place like that.
"Hey! You said you wouldn't tell anyone!"
"I did. But I said Oori was looking for you. Here, take her."
"No, no, no! Nooo!"
Hiyori caught the lightly tossed fire fairy in ice chains conjured without an incantation, wrapping her up tightly.
Tsugibi was already weakened and burning at a low temperature, so the ice chains neither melted nor broke. She quickly gave up and went limp with a resigned expression.
It would be wrong to stage a family showdown in front of a child, even if she didn't know what was happening. I gestured to Hiyori that we should go outside, but she turned back before leaving.
"Uh, Sekitan?"
"What?"
"Did she tell you anything?"
"Hmm. She suddenly said, 'Sorry,' and I said, 'I don't know, but okay.' Then she asked if there was anything I wanted her to do, so I said, 'Let's take a bath together!' Then she told me to keep it secret that the little one was hiding here, and we played hide-and-seek."
"...I see. You're a good girl, Sekitan."
"Yeah. I'm great. My real name is Sekitan Eraizo. Keep it secret."
"Oh, crap..."
She had learned it wrong! I'd kept praising her by telling her, Sekitan, you're great! She thought that was her full name.
She looked so proud that I couldn't bring myself to correct her. I kept my mouth shut, waved goodbye, and left.
Tsugibi behaved herself on the way back, tightly wrapped in ice chains. Out of consideration for the hearts of the people of Shinagawa Ward, who would probably suffer from seeing a local historical figure dragged through the streets in chains, Hiyori showed mercy. She transformed the Abyss Gold into a box, put Tsugibi inside, and returned to the Hitsugi estate in secret.
The current Witch of Hitsugi had grown haggard in just those few hours after learning that her perverted ancestor had returned safely. She looked deeply relieved when she realized the commotion probably wouldn't spread throughout Shinagawa Ward.
Apparently, she had no energy left to defend Tsugibi after the scandal she had caused. She merely gave us permission to use the study freely, then collapsed into a chair herself.
S-sorry. You must be exhausted. We're sorry for causing such an enormous commotion through the fallout from our family showdown.
Gratefully accepting her consideration, we borrowed the study, closed the curtains and door tightly, and began the trial.
Defendant, the Witch of Tsugibi. Do you have anything to say in your defense?
After being taken out of the box and placed neatly on a chair, the Witch of Tsugibi wilted and apologized to Hiyori.
"I'm sorry, Ao-chan-san. I lost my temper and did something terrible..."
"............"
"I want to disappear. I wish I could vanish completely. If Ao-chan-san hates me, I won't be able to go on living..."
"............"
"I wish for Ao-chan-san's h-h-happiness... Uuuh... I hope you and Artisan-san will be happy too... Waaah, waaaaah...!"
She was crying.
She seemed pretty unhappy about Hiyori and me dating, didn't she? It felt as though she was forcing the words out with tremendous effort.
I could probably forgive her. Life with the fire lizards had been fun in its own way. The chance to live with adorable magical pets was a rare experience.
But even if I forgave her, would Hiyori? That was the real question.
Even the verdict of Hell depended on Hiyori.
I watched the judge's expression. She let out a long, long sigh, took a small bottle from inside her clothes, and made the defenseless Tsugibi drink its contents.
At once, the flames of Tsugibi, which had shriveled to a tiny flicker, grew stronger. Her indistinct outline became clear, and a gust of warm air swept through the study.
The Witch of Tsugibi looked up at Hiyori in surprise.
"Ao-chan-san!?"
"You didn't tell Sekitan that you were her parent. You didn't tell her the truth just to satisfy yourself and burden the child. You considered her feelings instead. You lose your reason sometimes, but most of the time, you are rational and compassionate."
"Ao-chan-san...!"
"Live and atone for what you did. From now on, live for your daughters."
The Witch of Tsugibi began crying tears of gratitude this time.
Hmm.
This is a moving moment, but can I point something out?
Tsugibi was nearing the end of her lifespan, right?
And it looks like Fuyou's nectar restored her lifespan.
If so, does that mean my lifespan has been extended too, since I drank the same nectar?
That's what this means, right?
I see. This is a nasty secret.
A medicine that extends lifespans would be guaranteed to cause a bloody, all-out disaster.
Hiyori, if you're going to hide this from me, could you at least hide it completely?
Even with my catastrophically poor ability to read social cues, I'd figure it out if you put on a show like this right in front of me!
You're underestimating me way too much. You think I'm so oblivious that I won't notice no matter what you do right in front of me, don't you? That's not true!
...Probably!
"If possible, I'd like to live for your sake too, Ao-chan-san. I swear I'll never do anything like this again. Please give me a chance to atone."
The Witch of Tsugibi bowed earnestly in her own way, but Hiyori's answer was cold.
"The stain you put on me can't be erased by you. It would only be painted over with another stain."
"I see... I'm sorry..."
"That's why I want you to paint over it, Dairi."
"Huh? Me? Why me?"
What had been a conversation between the two of them suddenly turned toward me.
What? Paint over it? What was she talking about?
Hiyori sometimes acted strangely, but this was even stranger than usual.
I stared at her suspiciously, wondering what she was about to say. Hiyori quickly looked away.
"I want you to overwrite the hateful memories this woman left me with. In other words..."
Hiyori cleared her throat, then blushed shyly and spoke.
"Dairi. Will you commit arson with me?"
"Ao-chan-san!?"
"H-Hiyori!?"
Tsugibi and I were equally stunned by those outrageously shameless words.
That was way too lewd!
What happened!? Tsugibi's the only one allowed to make remarks that lewd!