Chapter 7 (1/2)

Red, pink, yellow and green. These small and vibrant beanbags were made from lots of small cloth pieces sewn together, and when you tossed them they would roll in a dizzying array of colours.

Normally, even simply playing with  beanbags would feel more difficult when you were sitting in a bath, with hot water up past your waist.

There were six hahanero beanbags. When Izumi had heard that they would prevent mould she eagerly chose them, but her shoulders were now drooped in realisation of her own thoughtlessness. Although the hahanero was dried, they were still ground spices. Izumi realised that a bathroom would immediately fill with moisture. She had considered preserving them in something airtight, but then that would be meaningless. Prepared for one of them to become ruined, she left it in a bucket, but fortunately, right now it still felt the same as always.

It was about time to try adding another one.

Just as she was about to put another beanbag in, the moment she reached out for the bucket, the window quietly opened.

On her seventh try, the shock had become weak.

Feeling something akin to ‘This again?’, Izumi looked towards the window.

Brown hair that reached past the shoulders, and mysteriously coloured purple-grey eyes; there stood a child with an androgyny that made them seem like both a boy and a girl.

A medallion that hung from the neck to the stomach now shone in reflection of the bathroom light.

The child surveyed the bathroom with terribly cold eyes, looked at Izumi, and then scoffed.

“A witch, huh. You are too far past your prime to tempt me. Try again.”

“HAHH!?”

With the beanbag in her hand, Izumi stood up.

“Who the heck is supposed to be a witch. Even if somebody begged me I wouldn’t tempt a cheeky brat like you.”

“A sore loser huh. What manner of being could invade this tower but a witch.”

“A company employee!”

Seeing the sneering child―――who was apparently a boy―――Izumi threw out her chest and answered. And then came back to her senses.

No matter how detestable child a he might have been, her appearance was unacceptable. Izumi looked down at her own body and paled.

The first time she had been in such shock at having her window connected to some strange world that she didn’t really feel embarra.s.sed. The second time she was wearing clothing, and as for the third time, although she felt a little self-conscious she immediately broke past it. After all, they were all people she would never see again. There wasn’t any real problem in being seen. That was how she had begun to feel. But when it came to a child, that was a different matter. As an adult who ought to be setting a role-model, it was embarra.s.sing to be standing chest high, legs apart in the nude.

“H-, Hang on a little.”

Leaving the beanbag on the windowsill, she headed into the changing room.

After wrapping a bath towel around her body and hurriedly heading back to the bathroom, she found that the boy had taken the beanbag in hand and was staring at it curiously.

“…Do you like it?”

The boy suddenly averted his gaze from the beanbag.

“Of course not.”

Really?

Even as he spat out “Who would like this kind of thing?” he still held onto it tightly.

“If you want it, I’ll give it to you. As an apology for surprising you.”

Saying that while sitting on the edge of the bathtub, she was glared at by the boy.

“I wasn’t surprised.”

It was true that when they saw each other, the boy hadn’t shown a surprised expression. Izumi inwardly praised the boy’s firm guts for not being surprised despite a naked woman suddenly appearing.

Although the boy’s navy jacket was a little dirty, it was finely embroidered. From that, you could tell at a glance that it was probably expensive. Even the s.h.i.+rt beneath was decently strong, and gleamed like silk. He was also wearing form-fitting beige pants, and high-laced leather boots. It was an outfit like that of a n.o.ble boy from long ago.

Izumi returned her gaze to the boy’s face.

“Well, isn’t it fine? I still have some, so I’ll give you that one.”

“And what do you want in exchange? My lifespan? My seed?”

Izumi winced at the boy’s scornful gaze.

“I told you that I wasn’t a witch, didn’t I. What the heck do you mean ‘seed’? Hurry up and drop that kind of idea already.”

“Look, I’m not even naked any more.” she said, as she pointed at the towel. The boy snorted again.

“Aren’t you only covering your breast and waist.”

“No, well, yeah you’re right but… I’m covering all the places that need covering, so isn’t it fine…”

Mumbling a reply, Izumi realised that she was a disadvantage, so her gaze loitered around behind the boy instead.

The first thing that entered her vision was the huge number of paper rolls around the room. Some stuffed in a basket, some leant against the wall, some laying on the floor. The boy’s room was filled with them.

The next thing she noticed was the light that illuminated those papers. When she bent forward and looked up to find the source of it, she found that about three meters up the wall were countless 10cm rectangular holes. Turning her gaze even further up, she saw a dome-shaped ceiling.

When she looked back down again, Izumi sighed in wonder. The entire room, ceiling included, had been built from stone. The stone became larger and larger the further down they were, and by the time it reached the floor, the stones were easily larger than a person could hold.

There was a large, thick desk in the middle of the room, as well as chests and benches lined up by the wall. Beneath their feet was a rug of complicated and detailed designs, and although it was showy, it brought about a solid sense of dignity to the room.

There was a large black hole at the edge of the carpet. Looking closely, Izumi realised that they were stairs that led to the lower floors.

Izumi’s heart danced with excitement at this room that gave the feeling of being in an ancient castle.

“What are you thinking, smirking like that, you d.a.m.ned witch.”

Izumi looked at the boy who had sunk her exhilarated heart to ground with just his one line.

Catching sight of the beanbag in his hand, Izumi snickered.

Stretching her hand into the bucket, she picked up two beanbags.

“I got these beanbags the other day. Do you know how to play with them?”

“I don’t.” brusquely replied the boy. In her mind, Izumi pumped her fist in victory.

“Big sis will show you how.”

Like this, showed Izumi, as she tossed the beanbag above her head. While the beanbag was in the air, she moved the other beanbag from her left hand to her right, before throwing that in the air as well. After Izumi repeated this a number of times, she called out to the boy.

“I wonder if you can do it too,” she said in a babying voice. “It looks easy, but it’s difficult until you know the trick to it, you know.”

The boy turned sullen, and looked at the beanbag resting on his palm.

“Aren’t you just tossing it. I can do that much.”

Just as he said, the boy tossed the beanbag into the air. Despite that, or perhaps just as expected, the beanbag went too high, and while the boy was focused on catching it, he did nothing with the beanbag in his left hand.

“Hohohohoho,” resounded Izumi’s laughter. “You really are just tossing it huh. There’s no point in having two of them in that case.”

The boy wordlessly tossed the beanbag into the air again. This time to a good height. But when he tried to move the beanbag from his left hand to his right, it fell.

“Seee? It’s difficult, isn’t it. Shall I tell you the trick to it?”

Izumi crossed her arms, and leant on the windowsill.

“Unnecessary.”

The boy once again tossed the beanbag. He managed both the right height, and the move from his left hand to his right. He managed to catch the falling beanbag in his left hand too. But he stopped there.

“Oh? you did it. But there’s no point if you stop there.” said Izumi sarcastically.

“I’ll show you this time.”

The boy had completely taken it seriously.

He tossed a beanbag, and changed another from his left hand to his right. Catching the first in his left hand, he tossed up the one in his right. After clumsily repeating it a number of times, in no time, his movements began to become smooth.

“How’s this.”

Seeing the boy declare so triumphantly, Izumi bore with the urge to burst into laughter.

“Still a long way to go. Next is doing it with one hand.”

Izumi tossed and caught two beanbags with her right hand.

The boy tried imitating her, and tossed the beanbag.

Although it took more time than last time, the boy had mastered it one-handed, and was now tossing them easily.

Izumi began adding beanbags from the bucket.

“Next is three.”

Izumi tossed them carefully so that they wouldn’t fall in the bath. The beanbags flew into the air, one by one. Just how many years had it been since she had enjoyed herself by doing this seriously? She recalled how as a child she became frustrated with it, and single-mindedly practising.

Seeing the sore loser of a boy struggle with three beanbags, Izumi was finally unable to bear it, and burst into laughter.

A beanbag flew from the hand of the surprised boy, and fell into the table.

He glared at Izumi.

“What’s so amusing?”

“No, it’s just that at first I thought you weren’t like a child at all, but when you’re playing like that, you really are a child, huh.”

For a moment, the boy’s glare intensified. But then he immediately looked towards the fallen beanbag, and suddenly laughed.

“Witches sure have a lot of spare time, huh. You came all the way here to play with me? What’s fun about playing with children?”

His words were harsh, but his tone had softened quite a bit.

“It seems like the third will take a while for me.”

The boy picked up the beanbag from atop the table. In that moment, a paper that had been spread over the table fell to the ground.