The Great Moving Adventure - 3
The Chaotic Moving Operation - 3
"Hikari-chan! I'm so excited for Ichika's housewarming party today!"
"Yeah. Ichika and Kyoko will be happy if Hana-chan comes, too."
"What? Those freeloaders finally found a place of their own?"
Master, who had been wiping down the shelves behind us, seemed quite surprised when he heard the news.
I had seen him click his tongue at the sight of Ichika and Kyoko camping out in the cafe throughout July, when business was slow, but I guess he had been calling them freeloaders in his head all along.
"It's the apartment next to mine."
"Oh, that bleak, dreary apartment?"
Master, who had a surprisingly refined taste, didn't seem capable of understanding the practical aesthetic or the philosophy embodied by our apartment.
"The location is perfect, too. It's in Shibuya."
"Tch. What's so great about a neighborhood crawling with Yankees and flashy girls?"
"People stare at me in other neighborhoods because I look foreign, but Shibuya has so many actual foreigners living there that nobody really pays attention to me."
"You'd have to have an appearance that attracts attention, wouldn't you?"
"That's right! Hikari-chan looks like a princess from a movie!"
I remembered the posts Ichika had shown me in that community last time.
They didn't seem to know what I actually looked like because of the perception-blocking mask created by my Unique Armament, but they mostly mentioned the obvious features that clearly made me stand out—my breasts and silver hair.
There are plenty of actual foreigners who look like me, so I never really thought much about it.
As I thought that, I gently stroked Hana's hair, and perhaps because she liked it, she immediately jumped into my arms.
"What are you doing when you're supposed to be working?"
"Exchanging friendship between friends."
"I'm asking why you're doing that during your designated working hours."
"Beee~ Bad grandpa!"
Hana poked her head out from my arms and stuck out her tongue.
"Hana-chan, if you want to make a bad old man happy, you should call him a bad uncle instead of a bad grandpa."
"But a grandpa is a grandpa, so why is it strange to call a grandpa a grandpa?"
"Because being called a grandpa makes me feel like I've been left behind and makes me lonely. But being called an uncle makes me feel like I'm still a member of society, so I feel reassured."
"I see! Hikari-chan, you're so kind! Baaa~ Bad uncle!"
After answering energetically, Hana raised her head again and stuck out her tongue. Master watched her with an exasperated expression, shook his head, and left.
"Did I make him sulk?"
"Cigarettes."
"My dad and that bad uncle both smoke. I hate the smell of cigarettes because it's so awful!"
Hearing that made me feel a little guilty.
I had actually been a smoker in my previous life, too. If I had smoked here as well, how would Hana have seen me?
At the very least, she probably wouldn't have acted this affectionately toward me like such a cute niece.
"Yeah. The smell of cigarettes really is awful."
"Right? Hikari-chan and I really think alike~"
My mother used to tell me to cut back on smoking, too.
"Hehe, Hikari-chan! Let's buy some delicious cake later!"
"...Yeah, let's do that, Hana-chan."
Hana said that with a smile to me as I stood there frozen for a moment.
If it weren't for this little kid, wouldn't I already be sitting in my room taking antidepressants?
For now, I decided to look forward to the delivery sushi Ichika had so confidently promised would be delicious, and buy some cake with Hana.
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"Ichika-chan~ It's been so long~"
"Boss! Good to see you!"
"Momo! Yuzuki! Welcome, everyone!"
Ichika, who had been setting the plates with me in the room, heard the girls arriving and hurried down the stairs barefoot, then pulled all four of them into a hug.
"Have you been well?"
"Yeah! Our boss is such a wonderful person, and the five of us even went to the summer festival together this time!"
"Saitama was seriously insanely hot~"
Watching Ichika head out, I followed her as well, but I didn't want to get in the way, so I leaned against the railing and watched.
"We even caught a turtle in the river, and we're raising it at our place! Want to see a picture?"
"Heh, a turtle? It's not as big as I thought."
"Oh, now that you mention it, who fed Aka-kun before we came?"
"Didn't A-chan feed him?"
"Wasn't it Momo-chan's turn?"
The two girls suddenly cried out in alarm and hurried off, saying they were going to call their boss.
"What? You guys forget things even over there!"
"Ahahahahaha! That's right! Momo-chan, you kept forgetting to bring the bread you were supposed to pick up every day, A-chan!"
After chatting for quite a while, the girls finally noticed that Ichika was barefoot and started laughing about that, too.
Ichika gave an awkward laugh and went to wash her feet at the faucet, while Kyoko brought her a pair of slippers.
"Shirogane-san! Hello!"
"Hello."
"Wow, it's so nice to see Shirogane-san's room again after so long!"
"How about all thirteen of us sleep here again, just like back then?"
"Ahahaha! We can't do that anymore!"
"Who's that behind you?"
The girls asked after discovering Hana, who had been hiding behind me.
Hana was shy around strangers, only raising her head to look at the girls.
Hana was shy around strangers unless she was in a situation where she could give someone unsolicited advice.
So she got used to Ichika and Kyoko because they'd been around the cafe throughout July during business hours.
I gently placed a hand on Hana's shoulder.
As the warmth of my hand reached her shoulder, the tension that had caused it to rise gradually faded.
"She's my friend, Sato Hana-chan. I got to know her at the place where I work, so she came along to visit."
"Ohh, hello, Sato-san~"
"Sato-san, are you perhaps...?"
"That's right. She's a Magical Girl."
"Wow! Everyone here is a Magical Girl!"
Hana seemed to have gotten a little more comfortable by then, and she hesitantly bowed her head in greeting.
"N-Nice to meet you. I'm Sato Hana."
"Aww! She's so cute!"
"How old are you, Sato-san?"
"What grade are you in?"
Hana, who had taken a break from school, seemed to freeze the moment she heard those questions.
I quickly pulled the flustered Hana into my arms and explained.
"Hana-chan also has some circumstances, 'like us,' so she's taking a temporary break from school."
"Ah..."
"I see..."
The atmosphere briefly fell silent, and Hana became even more apologetic and unsure of what to do, clutching the hem of my clothes.
"Hana-chan."
"Yes, Hikari-chan."
"Those girls are the friends I met after meeting you."
"Yeah."
"They're asking because they want to become friends with Hana-chan."
"Yeah."
"We're friends, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then that means everyone here is a friend, doesn't it?"
"Yeah."
Hana finally relaxed and looked properly at the girls.
The girls seemed to feel a sense of kinship as Magical Girls, so they smiled kindly at her.
Hana smiled bashfully when she saw their smiles.
"Hehe."
"Sato-san! We brought some felt dolls from the factory. Want to take a look?"
"I was wondering what we'd do since Ichika-chan isn't really interested in things like that, but now we've got Sato-san!"
"Dolls... dolls! I want to see them!"
I told Hana, who was laughing with the two girls carrying large bags, to go to my room and play at her leisure.
"Ooh, I really think the Leader favors Sato way too much."
"Shut up."
I gave Kyoko, who had somehow approached without me noticing, a curt response before finishing setting the plates with Ichika, who had finished washing up.
By the time I had taken the drinks out of the refrigerator and was pouring them into paper cups, the delivery arrived.
"Whoa, this is way more impressive than I expected."
"Heh. That's what working three shifts of part-time jobs for a while was for."
It was some pretty impressive delivery sushi.
The colorful ingredients created an appetizing array of colors, and the sheen radiating from the thickly sliced sashimi was something you simply couldn't find on the discounted evening sushi sold at department stores or discount supermarkets.
"Thank you, Ichika-chan~"
"Boss, I'll enjoy the meal!"
"Boss, congratulations on the move!"
"Kyoko-chan, congratulations on the move!"
We started by exchanging words of congratulations each time we received a drink or a pair of chopsticks, and then we began devouring the sushi.
"Uuugh, Hikari-chan, I can't eat wasabi."
"Yeah. I set yours aside separately, Hana-chan."
"Thank you, Hikari-chan!"
For Hana, who couldn't handle wasabi well, I removed the wasabi from one piece of each type of sushi and set them aside. Then I fed a piece to Hana as she opened her mouth wide.
"Mmm! It's delicious!"
"I'm glad, Hana-chan."
Seeing that, Kyoko whispered to the girls.
"No matter how I look at it, they're not friends. They're parent and child."
"I can hear you, you know."
Smack!
I used Blink to appear behind Kyoko, lifted the back of her T-shirt, gave her a smack on the back, and returned to Hana's side.
"Eek?!"
"Ahahahahaha!"
"Pfft, does Kyoko-chan always get beaten up?"
"She can't do anything against Shirogane-san! Hahaha!"
The laughter grew louder, and after we finished all the sushi, the night deepened while we talked and shared the cake.
The girls all decided to spend the night in Ichika's room.
"Mom! It's so much fun here!"
"That's good~ Don't forget to brush your teeth before bed, Hana-chan, okay?"
"Sato-san, I'll go to the cafe with Hana-chan tomorrow morning."
"Hoho, thank you, Shirogane-san!"
The day came to an end with the video call from Mrs. Sato, who sounded a little tipsy, perhaps because she and her husband had enjoyed some quality time together while Hana was out visiting.
"Hikari-chan."
"Hm?"
While the girls' quiet chatter could be heard from the room next door, Hana, who had changed into her pajamas in my room, called out to me softly.
"This is the first time I've ever slept at a friend's house."
"Really? I wish it could've been a nicer place."
To think that the memory of her first pajama party would be this dreary one-room apartment. As an adult, I felt a little sorry about that.
But Hana shook her head.
"No. I'm happy because it's Hikari-chan's house."
"I see. That's a relief."
"Yeah. It's a relief."
We slowly drifted off to sleep, using the laughter from the room next door as our lullaby.
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[The Magical Girl Alliance, as a central organization commanding the existing small-scale certified Magical Girl organizations...]
[Functioning as a de facto second government, separately handling the legislation, administration, and judiciary of Magical Girls...]
[With Magical Girls representing various corporations and institutions exercising equal rights...]
[The interim representative of the Alliance is Sumire Fujimoto, the representative of the nation's Magical Girls and head of the Fujimoto Group.]
"We solemnly swear that we will carry out our duties with a profound sense of responsibility in exercising supernatural abilities."
"As the entity responsible for protecting the nation, society, and furthermore, the people of Japan, we will faithfully fulfill our obligations."
"And the Magical Girl of [Beginning], the person who opened the age of Magical Girls and personally fulfilled her public duties as a supernatural ability user..."
"...we wish to entrust her with the chairmanship of the Magical Girl Alliance Council."