The first step in the plan the [Fraxinus] crew had squeezed out in order to take care of the younger Hieta.
First, they were going to play with Hieta.
"Hai?"
"Yeah! What is it?"
The one small mercy was that the name he himself had given this world, Higakieta Hai, still seemed to be lodged in his memory. If they called it, he would respond.
If he had forgotten even that, everyone thought, this would have been a little awkward.
"Hai...!"
"Yeah! What is it, Yoshino-sister?"
"Haaah...!"
Yoshino had been the one to call his name, and the moment she heard him call her sister, she practically melted.
Still, her reaction wasn’t all that strange.
"H-Hai! Come here and play with your sister!"
"Okay, Mayuri-sister!"
"Kyaaaah!"
Every time he called them sister, they either screamed with joy...
"C-come over here!"
"Yeah! Miku-sister!"
"Kh...!"
"Huh! Sister, you’re bleeding!"
...or got nosebleeds.
"Hng... Hai?"
"What is it, Natsumi-sister?"
"......"
"Hm?"
"...You’re too cute. I can’t look at you."
Some of them even called him over and then refused to meet his eyes at all.
Of all those reactions, the worst one was from someone nobody had expected.
"Hai! Come on! Copy me! I proclaim your end, and equal doom shall fall upon all! Destiny Dees!!!"
"I proclaim your end! Equal doom shall fall upon all! Destiny Dees!"
"......"
"Kaguya-sister?"
"Regret. She fainted standing up."
Kaguya, who had been teaching the younger Hieta something weird, had passed out.
Seeing that, Kotori realized the situation was going in a very strange direction.
"No, their reactions are way too intense."
"Counterpoint. No, they’re not. If Kotori saw Shido looking like this, she’d be the same."
"Oh, come on. There’s no way Kotori would do that."
"......"
Shido was sure that the Kotori he knew would never act like that.
But for some reason, Kotori avoided his gaze and blushed.
Anyone could tell from that reaction that she absolutely would.
"Kotori!?"
"Shut up! Stop saying weird things!"
Unable to admit it, Kotori shrieked and denied Shido’s suspicion.
But that only made it more suspicious, and Shido felt the image he had of Kotori crack all over again.
"Kotori-sister!"
"...Ugh!"
"Play with me too!"
Before anyone noticed, Hieta had passed Kaguya and reached Kotori, tugging on her collar and demanding she play too.
"Hng... Hiki? I mean..."
"You won’t?"
"...No, let’s play."
Kotori had originally planned to refuse and just watch from the back, but when Hieta looked at her with those sparkling eyes like a rain-soaked kitten, she had no choice but to give in and play along.
"What are we doing...?"
"Obviously, house play!"
"House play...?"
"Yep!"
The moment she heard that, cold sweat started running down Kotori’s back. For a second she worried he might make her the wife and Hieta the husband, but what came out of his mouth was a word that had very little to do with house play.
"Kotori-sister is the villain!"
"...Huh?"
"And Shido big brother is the hero!"
"E-eh? Me too?"
"Yep! And I’m the hero’s partner!"
The role assignment was closer to a role-play than house play. Kotori was momentarily dumbfounded at being called the villain, but at least it wasn’t a wife role, so she took that as a consolation and tied her black ribbon even tighter to get into character.
"Fine. I’ll show you exactly what a villain is."
"Let’s go, Shido big brother! Transformation!"
"O-okay!"
Suddenly made into a hero, Shido copied Hieta’s pose exactly and shouted.
"We are! Heroes who protect the city from villains!"
"W-we are! Heroes who protect the city from villains!"
Cross both arms, then swing one arm in a big circular motion.
Then curl both hands into fists and take a stance like you’re boxing.
"I’m Red!"
"I-I’m Blue! W-wait a second! This is Power Rangers!?"
"That’s not important, big brother! Hurry!"
"R-right!"
"Come at me, villain! I’ll wipe out some fire-breathing lizard like you in no time!"
"W-what do you mean, fire-breathing... What on earth did you grow up watching!?"
Shido, who had been repeating Hieta’s lines word for word, couldn’t possibly bring himself to finish.
What exactly had he watched growing up to make lines like that come so naturally?
And of all things, his opponent was Kotori, who wielded an angel that used fire, which made the line even more absurd.
"Hee~? A fire-breathing lizard?"
"W-wait, Kotori! Calm down! He’s a kid!"
"Yeah, Shido. I know. My opponent is a kid. So don’t worry. I’ll go easy on him. Easy."
Provoked again, Kotori declared she would take it easy, then immediately acted like she was about to get serious, and Shido ended up caught between the younger Hieta and Kotori, suffering in the middle.
"...This is a total mess."
Watching all that, Reine muttered it while sipping her coffee.
*
"Huff...! Huff...!"
"I-I’m exhausted..."
After playing with Hieta and losing a ton of stamina, everyone was sprawled on the sofa or the floor, panting.
"W-what in the world happened here...?"
Mana, who had come to visit the spirit mansion after a long time, felt a nameless terror at the scene of devastation in front of her.
Shido and the others were spirits, so they should have plenty of stamina. And yet they were this worn out.
What on earth had done this to them?
"M-Mana... run..."
While Mana was looking around in confusion, Kaguya stretched out an arm and said that.
The sight was so shocking that Mana hurried over to Kaguya and asked what was going on.
"W-what happened!?"
"Run away... t-there’s a monster here..."
"Kaguya!?"
With that, Kaguya collapsed face-first.
That only made Mana even more frightened, and she quietly backed away.
But once she had stepped into the spirit mansion, there was no escaping it.
"Oh? A new sister!"
"...Huh? Hai...’s child?"
The younger Hieta smiled brightly at the new arrival and trotted right up to Mana.
"Sister! Who are you?"
"S-sister...? First of all, who are you...?"
"Me? Hmm... I’m Higakieta Hai!"
"W-what!?"
Mana jumped back in surprise at the boy introducing himself as Higakieta Hai.
As she reacted, Hieta tilted his head in confusion, and then a tired female voice came from behind him.
"...Ah, Mana. What’s wrong?"
"R-Reine! W-who is that child!?"
As soon as Murasame Reine appeared, Mana rushed straight over to her and asked about the boy’s identity.
Reine answered flatly, looking annoyed.
"...Hiki."
"Huh?"
"To be exact, a younger Hiki."
"No, younger!? That’s possible!?"
"...Somehow."
"That’s not something you can just say somehow!"
Mana couldn’t make sense of the current situation at all.
What had happened to make Hieta younger? Why had everyone else become so mentally drained? And why were they all sprawled out like that?
She couldn’t understand any of it, but there was one thing she did understand.
"So your name is Mana, Sister!"
"S-sister..."
At the very least, Hieta was adorable now that he had gotten younger.
"Y-yeah! I’m Mana-sister! Call me sister all you want!"
"Yep! Yep! Mana-sister! Hehe, your name is pretty!"
"...!"
Words Hieta in his usual adult form would never have said were pouring out of him, and Mana’s eyes sparkled.
"How can he say such cute things!"
"Uuugh...!"
Mana hugged Hieta tightly and rubbed her cheek against him, making Hieta uncomfortable enough to push her away a little.
But even that only made him look cuter to Mana now that he was younger.
"S-sis! I can’t... breathe...!"
"Ah, I’m sorry!"
Only after Hieta tapped her several times and said that he was being squeezed too tightly to breathe did Mana finally let go.
She quickly released him and stared at him intently.
Maybe, just maybe, if it was the younger Hieta, she could turn the tables on him for once.
While Mana was thinking about what to do with the younger Hieta, Hieta tugged on her collar and said,
"Sister! Play with me too!"
"Y-yeah? What do you want to play?"
"Hmm... this time, tag!"
"Tag...?"
"Yep! It’s way bigger than our house, so we can do it here!"
Since the spirit mansion was so huge, the living room was far larger than an ordinary house, more than enough for tag with a little kid.
The only problem for Mana was that her opponent was a child, while she herself was a Wizard whose magically enhanced physical abilities far exceeded those of a normal person.
"Th-that’s..."
"Mana-sister is it first! Catch me if you can~!"
What Mana had forgotten, however, was that Hieta’s physical abilities themselves had not dropped at all, which meant he was incredibly fast.
The moment Hieta vanished from in front of her, Mana stood there blankly for a moment, then quickly snapped to her senses and started looking for him.
*
Several hours later, after Mana had been playing with Hieta, she too ended up as one of the people sprawled across the living room.
"H-how does he have that much stamina...?"
With that, Mana retired.
Current time: 11:30 a.m.
Not even half the day had passed yet.
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