Landing

After Tsugibi hit me with a filthy remark too obscene for the public airwaves, I was left speechless, unable to think of what to say, until Hiyori suddenly realized how it sounded and hurriedly corrected herself.

"S-sex—um, no, that's not it! Wait, maybe it is? No, it isn't! This isn't that sort of invitation! Look, Tsugibi tricked me into committing arson, and that's how all this happened, right? So I just want to set fire to the dirty memories with Dairi and paint over them. I don't mean that I want Dairi's child or anything like that. It's still too soon for that...!"

"O-oh, yeah. R-right, right?"

Her desperate explanation somehow made it sound even more genuine, but I nodded, convinced for the time being. We'd been boyfriend and girlfriend for less than a day. We hadn't even kissed or gone on a date yet, so jumping straight to mating would be downright animalistic.

That's right. We just mean committing arson together. Nothing else.

...Isn't arson with no ulterior motive simply a crime?

I was getting confused.

Tsugibi! This is because you keep adding weird meanings to the word "arson" in my mental dictionary! Don't corrupt my memories, you idiot!

"Um, setting fires together would be fine, but..."

"N-no, that's not okay! Not in broad daylight, right out in the open, committing something so obscene...!"

"Shut up, Witch of Lewdness."

Tsugibi tried to interrupt, but Hiyori's verbal spear pierced her, and she wilted and turned sooty in an instant. She'd only just reignited, and now she was about to become ash again. I didn't want to end up like that.

"Let me continue, okay? Actually, setting fires together would be fine, but it might be a little dangerous. We might end up making another fire lizard."

"That won't happen. Having children through arson is a trait of Tsugibi's species. It has nothing to do with you and me."

"Can't say that for sure. The Witch of Lewdness thought, 'There's no way a child could possibly result from this,' and made a move on Hiyori. The result is the family showdown we're having today."

"Hmm..."

Faced with that spectacular example of what not to do, Hiyori fell deep into thought.

That's right. Witches' biology is complex and bizarre. Stories about babies appearing after a kiss or being delivered by storks were supposed to be childish nonsense, but I couldn't laugh at them anymore.

"I have a fire-lizard Gremlin embedded in the back of my hand, and Hiyori is a witch. There is a possibility that setting fires together could produce a fire lizard. We have to avoid that. Having a child before we're even married would be far too irresponsible."

"Indeed. Letting momentary emotions get the better of you and doing something that could result in a child would be irresponsible to everyone involved. Isn't that right, Tsugibi?"

"Haaah, haaah...! Uuuh... I agree...!"

That witch was having a busy time of it, being told to shut up one moment and forced to agree the next. She looked like she was about to hyperventilate.

But I didn't feel sorry for her at all. You need to repent a lot more!

"But I understand wanting to erase the memory Tsugibi sullied. It can't compare with what actually happened to Hiyori, but someone scribbled something filthy in the 'arson' entry of my mental dictionary too.

So... Hmm. How about lighting the candles on a cake together next time? We could stick two candles into a cake: I'd light one, and Hiyori the other. The flames wouldn't mix, so it wouldn't become arson sex, but it would still be like setting a fire together."

"Something like a birthday cake? Hmm. It does seem different from arson, though..."

"Not a birthday cake—a cake for an anniversary. It'll be our eighty-sixth anniversary soon, won't it? Let's celebrate it that way."

"? ... ...!? Dairi, you...!"

Hiyori took a few beats to understand, then threw her arms around me in delight.

The first time Hiyori and I met was April 13, 2025.

Today was April 8, 2111, so our eighty-sixth anniversary was just around the corner.

From my perspective, I'd only given her a present for our sixth anniversary last month, but for Hiyori, it had been eighty years.

Sorry we couldn't celebrate every year. I was dead, so cut me some slack. I'll make a cake this year, and we'll eat it together!

As Hiyori nuzzled her head against me, filling me with a warm, fuzzy feeling, Tsugibi had burned down into a pile of ash, like a boxer who had been thoroughly beaten from head to toe over twelve rounds before losing. She was slumped against the leg of the writing desk in the study, her soul apparently gone.

After hugging me at length until she was satisfied, Hiyori had calmed down considerably. The family showdown was over, and we moved on to the cleanup.

Hiyori called over the fourth-generation Witch of Hitsugi and carefully explained how everything had begun and how it had ended.

After hearing the whole story, the Witch of Hitsugi thrust the opened old letter at Tsugibi—the one I'd written long ago—and made Tsugibi prostrate herself before Hiyori as instructed by its contents. Then, looking somewhat satisfied, she helped clean up the aftermath of the family showdown.

After a discussion among everyone but me, it was unanimously agreed that Dairi Kenji would receive custody of the three fire lizards.

If I hadn't stopped her, Hiyori would have mistaken the fire lizards for wild monsters and killed them. A terrifying future in which Hiyori, knowing nothing, murdered her own daughters had been entirely possible. Their biological mothers, Hiyori and Tsugibi, once again expressed their gratitude to me.

Sekitan's full name would now be Dairi Sekitan Eraizo.

The other two would probably be Dairi Tsubaki Sugoizo and Dairi Mokutan Kawaiina. I had no idea what Tsubaki considered her own name after setting off on her long journey, but when I got home, I planned to ask Mokutan how she regarded her full name.

Until now, Hiyori had treated the fire lizards as a friend's pets.

It was far too late for her to come forward as their mother, and doing so would only trouble the fire lizards, so their blood relationship was kept secret. In other words, Hiyori would continue doting on them as she always had.

As Hiyori had ordered, Tsugibi would henceforth support and help the fire lizards in every way she could. She was granted permission to stay at the Hitsugi estate and would provide species-specific education to Sekitan and Mokutan while they remained in Tokyo.

After the Gremlin disaster, the Witch of Tsugibi had struggled greatly to master control over her flames. Passing on that knowledge would be extremely useful to the newly hatched fire lizards. When the opportunity arose, Tsugibi would also provide sex education covering species-specific sensations.

Eventually, she would track down Tsubaki and instruct her as well.

As with Hiyori, the three fire lizards would not be told about their blood relationship.

The fourth-generation Witch of Hitsugi, whose ancestor's scandal had been exposed in such a commotion, brought up the subject of succession and inheritance rights.

We had already vaguely realized it from the gigantic mansion in the middle of an industrial zone and the large number of servants, but the Hitsugi clan was filthy rich. Matters involving wealth and rights were extremely important.

The Hitsugi clan—the Himori family—controlled nearly all the interests tied to the factories throughout Shinagawa Ward, and its enormous assets amounted to 2.4 percent of the nation's gross domestic product.

That figure didn't mean much to me, but it was best understood as equivalent to an oil tycoon or real-estate tycoon from the previous era. They were on an entirely different level from a mere nouveau riche or small-time millionaire—the genuine article, with global influence.

The family business was metalworking. In earlier times, it had mainly involved melting down useless metal artifacts from the previous era and remaking them into new products suited to the times.

However, with the introduction of magical writing, they began manufacturing magical alloys, and the business expanded.

When magical metals such as Abyss Gold and Hollow Silver were invented, they also took on their production and began earning staggering profits.

Through corporate acquisitions and partnerships with the Dragon Witch, they vertically integrated the entire chain, from mining and metal refining through processing, manufacturing, and sales. They also invested in magical universities and never neglected funding their own research and development institutes.

In recent years, technological innovation at a plankton plant that produces petroleum on Lake Biwa had increased oil output, lowering the barriers to operating steam engines. In response, they had begun focusing on the production and operation of steam engines, while plans to acquire petroleum plants were also being discussed. Even greater growth was expected.

Eighty years ago, the Witch of Hitsugi had been nothing more than one mage who, despite not being a Transcender, had joined the lowest ranks of the Tokyo Witches' Coven thanks to her bloodline and special magic staff.

Now, however, she was a global billionaire with influence far greater than that of an ordinary Transcender. It was incredible.

And that was precisely why the family showdown caused by the Witch of Tsugibi had been an insanely serious incident that could have shaken the very foundations of the clan.

To Hiyori and me, it had been a melodramatic daytime soap opera. To the Hitsugi clan, it was the Lehman Shock. A deterioration in their relationship with the Blue Witch and the spread of the scandal could have dealt enormous damage to the clan's affiliated companies, created mass unemployment, and thrown the industry's balance into disarray, leaving no one happy.

Of course, the shock and disappointment of learning that the ancestor they revered had been involved in arson sex must have been bad enough to make their stomachs churn, but the anguish of nearly leaving tens of thousands of affiliated employees with nowhere to go was more than I could imagine.

I would have died from stress all over again. The Witch of Hitsugi was the greatest victim of this whole commotion.

Following the Witch of Hitsugi's explanation and request, Tsubaki, Sekitan, and Mokutan were deemed to possess none of the rights or interests connected to the Hitsugi clan.

I felt bad that they weren't being told. But they'd traded away intelligence for cuteness. Being folded into the Hitsugi clan and raised as members who had received an elite education from childhood would only be a burden to them.

In exchange for giving up those interests, however, the Hitsugi clan established a new Demonfolk Support Association. They promised to provide generous support for the lives of the three girls.

Living freely with a reasonable amount of support would surely suit the three of them better than living with enormous rights and the obligations that came with them. They were children of the Dairi family, even if they were adopted.

As for the Witch of Tsugibi, the first-generation witch's will stipulated that once she was revived, all the rights the clan had gained through her were to be transferred—or returned—to her. What a dutiful little sister.

After all, during the early days of the Gremlin disaster, her older sister had saved her life. Her sister's position as a leading figure in the Witches' Coven had allowed her to live comfortably, and her sister's remaining legacy and powerful connections had helped her tremendously even after she was sealed away. It was only natural that she would respect and honor her.

Hmm. It was difficult to believe that the Witch of Tsugibi and the Witch of Lewdness were the same person. She could have been a spotless historical figure if she hadn't disgraced herself in her later years...

The Witch of Tsugibi, who had failed to become that spotless historical figure, declared that she was entrusting the fourth-generation Witch of Hitsugi with full authority.

Taking her real younger sister's feelings into account, she properly accepted the rights that had been given to her. Then she entrusted them back to her, placing her faith in her once again.

Since the rights had been received and then handed back, their ownership ultimately hadn't changed at all. Apparently, however, the procedure had been necessary for appearances.

Her record of surviving the upheaval after the Gremlin disaster and building the foundations of the industry was genuine, and Tsugibi negotiated a series of intricate arrangements with the Hitsugi family that I couldn't begin to understand.

As the Witch of Tsugibi looked through the documents, occasionally asking questions about the language of eighty years in the future, she looked genuinely serious and sincere—nothing like the disgraceful figure she'd been just an hour earlier.

I wanted her to stay in that meek-and-innocent mode forever.

If she caused another incident, I might have to make a castration device instead of a sealing device. Please, seriously.

The discussion between Tsugibi and Hitsugi looked like it would continue for quite some time, so Hiyori and I asked permission to leave.

We ate the light sandwiches we'd received as a parting gift from a butler-like man while making our way through the evening streets back to Okutama.

It had been a dizzyingly hard day.

I came back to life.

I learned what eighty years had brought.

Hiyori became my girlfriend.

Mokutan hatched.

I broke the Witch of Tsugibi's seal.

We had a family showdown...

But in the end, everything somehow settled peacefully. I'm seriously glad it worked out. I was done for the day. Completely exhausted.

"Dairi, what will you do when we get home? Take a bath? Eat dinner first? Or..."

"Sleep! I'm going straight to bed. By my reckoning, it hasn't even been twenty-four hours since the zombie panic incident. I feel like I've used up every bit of energy my body had."

Calling it an eventful day doesn't even begin to cover it.

From Hiyori's perspective, it was an absurdly long eighty-year interval since the Iruma incident. From my perspective, Tsugibi's family showdown had come immediately afterward.

Both had been serious incidents, but the emotional whiplash could give me a cold. I needed a long, deep rest. I was truly exhausted.

"...I'm sorry. You only just came back to life, and I dragged you all over the place."

"Honestly, I wish we'd put this off until tomorrow. But Tsugibi is entirely to blame, so Hiyori, don't worry about it. I got used to the feel of this era all at once, and it wasn't all bad."

Once I got home today, I was going to sleep and rest as much as possible.

I'd meet the Spider Witch and Professor Ohinata after that.

Hiyori hadn't changed even after eighty years.

Shinagawa had changed completely.

What about Spider-san and the stoat?

I was looking forward to seeing them, though part of me was a little hesitant too.

Whatever the case, I'd find out what the passage of time had wrought when I saw them.