Reine, looking at the group sprawled out in the living room, turned her head and checked the clock.
The time was just about to roll over from 11 to 12.
The younger Hieta was starting to get sleepy too, and he blinked drowsily as he made his way over to Reine.
"Murasame auntie..."
"Auntie..."
Under normal circumstances, Hieta would have said Murasame-san. But now that he was younger, he called her auntie with those innocent eyes, and Reine’s body stiffened as her trembling eyes locked onto him.
"...I’m not an auntie."
Reine carefully searched for the right words before finally forcing them out.
Hieta tilted his head at that.
"Then are you a grandma?"
"......"
Why was that even worse than auntie?
Unable to make sense of Hieta’s thought process at all, Reine felt blood rising in her chest from the internal damage.
Still, she couldn’t exactly spit blood in front of a child, so she barely held it back and stood up, walking over to the group collapsed in the living room.
"...Everyone, get up. Stop pretending to sleep."
"Oh, we’ve been found out."
Kotori was the first to sit up at her words.
Kotori had already recovered her energy and been wide awake ever since Mana had started playing with Hieta.
She was just lying there pretending to be out because if she admitted she was awake, it felt like she’d get dragged back into the labor of entertaining Hieta again.
"Come on, everyone, get up. Hiki looks sleepy now."
"R-really?"
"That’s great news."
At Kotori’s words to the others, one by one they began to rise.
Hieta stared blankly at the scene with a dazed expression, then, unable to fight off the drowsiness washing over him, started looking for somewhere to lean.
"Mm..."
"Eep!"
The place he ended up at was the Fire Keeper.
Hieta leaned against her and fell sound asleep.
"G-gentleman...?"
"Kuuu..."
As the others marveled inwardly at how deeply Hieta had fallen asleep in such a short moment, Kaguya came back with the pillow and blanket from Hiki’s room.
"Let’s put him here."
"Y-yeah, that’d be best."
Honestly, the Fire Keeper wanted to let him sleep in her arms, but that felt like it might cross a line that should not be crossed, so she used superhuman restraint to lift Hieta and move him under the blanket.
"Haa... Even if he got younger, I didn’t think he’d have that much stamina."
As Kotori said that with a sigh, everyone nodded.
Especially Mana, who had used up all her energy by the time she arrived last, and could only lie there and nod her head.
"They say a child’s stamina is endless. I didn’t think it was actually true."
"No, it’s probably because of Hiki’s special nature."
"Special nature?"
"Explanation. Hiki’s physical abilities already go beyond normal humans. In fact, he’s even stronger than a spirit, so it’s only natural that he doesn’t get tired."
At Yuzuru’s explanation, Shido ran a hand over his face and started thinking about what to do when Hieta woke up again.
If he had to play with him again, there was no way he could handle that overflowing stamina, so he’d need to think of another method.
At the very least, something that wouldn’t burn much energy, like assembling something that could be done while sitting still.
"By the way, where did Rinne, Rio, and Tohka go?"
Mayuri, leaning against the sofa, asked Shido that, and he scratched his cheek before answering.
"They probably went to the department store by now... Honestly, I keep thinking it would’ve been nice if they’d been here."
Tohka, who always had endless stamina, and Rinne and Rio, who had been revived by Hieta’s power.
The thought that they might have been able to somehow withstand Hieta’s infinite stamina wouldn’t leave Shido’s head.
Rio especially was around the same age as the younger Hieta, which made her the only person who could probably handle him alone.
"That is unfortunate. Still, this guy really does sleep well."
Kotori pressed and poked at the sleeping Hieta’s cheek as she spoke.
Since he had gotten younger, his cheeks had filled out and become soft and springy, and pressing them gave her a strangely calming feeling.
"Ah! Kotori! Don’t monopolize Hiki all by yourself!"
"W-when did I monopolize him? I was just poking his cheek!"
Kotori backed away and protested at Kaguya’s words.
Watching them, Shido just gave an awkward smile and pressed Hieta’s cheek too.
"Oh, wow. This really does feel like mochi."
"Let me try too..."
Curious about Shido’s impression, Mayuri pressed the other cheek.
It sank in, then popped right back out, making it look exactly like mochi.
After that, the others each started touching Hieta’s cheeks once.
"Ooh..."
"This is completely..."
"So soft..."
After so many people kept touching his cheeks, Hieta let out a low groan as if uncomfortable and rolled over onto his side.
"Ah, he turned over."
"Looks like we touched his cheeks too much."
"Well, we did keep messing with them."
It was a little disappointing, but they couldn’t keep poking the cheeks of a sleeping child forever, so the group left Hieta behind and started planning what to do next.
"How about this?"
"That’s a little..."
"Suggestion. How about something like this?"
"That might be good?"
"I-I’d prefer something like..."
"Yoshino, isn’t that a little too full of personal motives~?"
"U-uhh..."
As various opinions flew around and the plan was just about coming together, the sound of the spirit mansion’s front door opening stabbed into the group’s ears.
"Huh?"
"Sounds like someone’s here."
"I’ll go check."
As Shido said that and stood up to open the living room door, a girl with pink hair slammed her head into him.
"Papa~!"
"Ghk!"
"Oh my, Shido!"
"Shido! Are you all right!?"
Rinne, Rio, and Tohka, who had gone shopping, had returned.
"I-I’m fine..."
Shido said that while clutching his stomach, which Rio had rammed into.
"If you’re fine, that’s a relief. But who’s that child?"
Rinne pointed at Hieta, who was sleeping soundly on the blanket in the living room, and asked.
She still hadn’t been told that Hieta had gotten younger, so she had no idea the sleeping child was Hieta.
"Ah, that kid? That’s Hieta."
"Yes. I see... wait, what?"
Rinne nodded at Shido’s words, then seemed to realize she’d heard something strange and asked him back.
"So that child is Hieta?"
"Yeah."
"What are you talking about!?"
Rinne couldn’t make sense of Shido’s words.
The Hieta she knew clearly wasn’t a child, so how could that little kid be called Hieta? Something had to be wrong.
She wondered if he might have had a son with the same surname, but that couldn’t be it, because Hieta didn’t have a son.
"No, he does look a lot like him..."
"Here’s what happened..."
Shido explained to Rinne why Hieta had gotten younger.
How in the morning Natsumi had woken Hieta while wearing highly revealing lingerie, how Hieta had gotten up, touched Natsumi’s chest, then been so startled he toppled backward and slammed his head into the wall.
And how, during the regeneration process afterward, Natsumi’s spiritual power had flowed in, changing his appearance into that of a child, and because it wasn’t a normal regeneration, he’d temporarily lost his memory as well.
After hearing all of that, Rinne made a complicated face.
"So in the end, this is Natsumi’s fault, isn’t it?"
"Ahem."
At Rinne’s blunt statement, Natsumi cleared her throat and looked away.
While Rinne was shaking her head at that reaction, Rio was already beside the sleeping Hieta before anyone noticed.
"Rio?"
"Wow! Papa, Uncle got younger!"
Rio pressed Hieta’s cheek as she spoke, fascinated by how much younger he had become.
"He looks about the same age as me!"
"R-Rio? He’s asleep, so come over here for now."
At Shido’s words, Rio replied that she understood and stepped away from Hieta.
"Hmm. Then does that mean Hieta has to live forever as a child?"
"No, it’s not like that. They said he’ll be back to normal tomorrow."
"That’s a relief."
At the news that he’d return to normal tomorrow, Rinne let out a sigh of relief.
If Hieta had to stay like that forever, she would have felt a little uneasy.
To her, Hieta was a benefactor who had breathed life back into her fading existence, so of course she’d worry if he wasn’t in a normal state.
"Then as a mother, I suppose I should join in on taking care of Hieta too."
"That would be great. Honestly, Hieta’s stamina is so absurd that it’s been a problem."
At Rinne’s words, Shido felt relieved inside.
If Rinne joined in, then of course Rio would too, and if Rio was there, there was no doubt they could handle Hieta’s overflowing stamina.
It wasn’t something he should be thinking, but he couldn’t help the phrase mutual destruction from popping into his head.
"Haaam... By the way, maybe because we played with him so much? I’m getting a little tired too."
Mayuri, who had been watching the sleeping Hieta, said that as sleepiness began to creep in.
Since they’d played with him until they were drained, it was only natural that she’d feel sleepy too.
Seeing Mayuri like that, Yuzuru made a suggestion.
"Suggestion. How about we all sleep together in the living room?"
"Oh, that sounds nice."
"I-I like that too..."
Everyone seemed to be in favor, and Kotori felt like if she backed out here, the mood would get weird, so she reluctantly agreed with a stiff expression.
"Alright, then let’s all go get blankets and pillows."
At Mayuri’s words, everyone scattered to fetch pillows and blankets before lying down.
And so the spirit mansion’s living room was filled to the brim.
In that living room, they all drifted off to sleep.
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