The sky was clear on the third of January and the sun shone brightly down on everyone.
“Smack! Smack! Flatten it good! Flatten it to make it tasty!”
“Smack! Smack! Flatten it good! Flatten it to make it tasty!”
In the backyard of the Nagumo house, Shea and Myu were pounding away on a large vintage mochi mortar that Shu had managed to procure from somewhere. Shea’s rabbit ears flopped back and forth each time she brought the hammer down, as did the bunny ears on the hairband Myu was wearing each time she brought her hammer down. The two of them looked like sisters as they pounded away. A steaming ball of mochi sat inside the mortar they were smacking.
The two of them were taking part in the traditional New Year’s event of pounding mochi.
“C-Calm down, you two! It’s good that you’re in sync, but you’re going too fast. Look at all the times you’ve hit my poor hands!” Tio exclaimed, holding her hands out in front of the two of them with a pained expression on her face. She was in charge of flipping the mochi between hammer swings. However, seeing as there was a hint of excitement in her expression as well, she was probably enjoying getting pounded.
“Don’t just stand there, Tio-san, hurry up and flip the mochi again!” Shea said, ignoring Tio’s protests.
“Yeah! Time is of the essence when it comes to mochi pounding! No dawdling, Tio-oneechan!”
“Y-Yes, ma’am!”
Surprised by how forceful Myu sounded, Tio hurriedly stuck her hands into the mochi ball once again.
“Flatten it!”
“Ah! Shea, you’re aiming for me on purpose, aren’t—?!”
“Flatten it!”
“Ack! Myu?! Why are you attacking me too?!”
Shea and Myu kept swinging their hammers one after another, expertly aiming for Tio’s hands each time. Both the mochi and Tio’s hands were being flattened into a nice, even circle. Tio’s screams of pain and pleasure could be heard between Myu and Shea’s rhythmical singing.
“Shea really looks at home pounding mochi. And Myu looks really cute in bunny ears!” Shu said, sipping tea on the porch.
“Definitely. If it wasn’t for the pervert getting off to having her hands pounded, I’d want to take a video of this,” Hajime replied, taking a sip of his own tea.
Incidentally, there was no real reason Shea and Myu were going after Tio’s hands. They just knew she’d enjoy it, so they were kind enough to reward her. They were, after all, bunnies that brought happiness and fortune to people. And honestly, Tio was also going out of her way to put her hands somewhere that made them easy to hit. Her expression wasn’t one that could be aired on PG TV.
Meanwhile, in another corner of the yard, Yue and Kaori were playing Japanese badminton, another New Year’s staple event.
“Hey! You just used gravity magic on the shuttlecock, didn’t you, Yue?! That’s cheating!”
“Where’s your proof? Besides, dual-wielding rackets is cheating too.”
It seemed like their game was getting quite heated...to the point where it wasn’t really something you could call badminton anymore.
“There’s no rule that bans dual-wielding rackets, but magic’s definitely not allowed!”
“Rules are something you enforce with strength! Without strength, rules hold no meaning!”
“That’s not a good philosophy to have! Don’t sound so proud of yourself!”
Kaori served, sending her shuttlecock flying with such speed that a regular human wouldn’t be able to react. Though, even if they had, the angle she’d sent it flying was so perfect that they’d struggle to reach it in time. However, it slowed down considerably as it reached Yue, almost as if the world were suddenly moving in slow motion.
“You’ve entered my territory. Let’s see if you can withstand my snake shot!”
“Stop using gravity magic! Fine, I won’t hold back either, then! Take this, Lightning Shot!”
Yue was using gravity magic to power up her shots, while it seemed Kaori was now using restoration magic to compress the passage of time for the shuttlecock and speed it up considerably.
There was a flash of light as the shuttlecock flew past Yue’s hair, then Kaori smiled triumphantly. But of course, Yue wasn’t about to let herself get beaten that easily.
“I have no blind spots!”
“Okay, using Heavenstep is definitely cheating!”
Heavenstep was Yue’s special ability that let her warp without using spatial magic to create a portal. Yue managed to send the shuttlecock back over the net, but Kaori jumped up high and smashed the shuttlecock back over to Yue’s side like a pouncing eagle. At the same time, she used Binding Chains of Light to hold Yue in place.
“Hmph! As if that can stop me! Lightning Dragon Shot!”
Yue had discovered the truth that players of badminton past had failed to realize. The racket was just a decoration. She summoned a mini lightning dragon and had it eat the shuttlecock. It then made a U-turn and started flying over to Kaori’s side. After that, it let out a mighty roar, and the sound of thunder reverberated throughout the backyard even though the sky was clear.
“You’re underestimating me again! Disintegration Shot!”
A silver beam shot out of Kaori’s paddle, obliterating the lightning dragon. There was no longer a need to distinguish Kaori from other apostles, so her disintegration beams had gone back to being silver instead of black. Of course, the beam also disintegrated the shuttlecock. And so Kaori spread her wings wide and created a new shuttlecock—one that would disintegrate anything it touched—and launched it back.
At this point, the two of them were just having a magic duel. After a few more exchanges, they even tossed their paddles aside and started directly blasting each other with magic. Both of them were moving too fast for anyone to see, but everyone could occasionally hear Yue shout, “Kaori, you moron!” and Kaori shout, “Yue, you idiot!”
“The two of them really are good friends, huh?” Shu said with a smile.
“They do say you have to be close to someone to be able to fight with them. You know sometimes they just go out together to go shopping or eat food and stuff,” Hajime replied. At this point, he’d just come to accept that fighting was how the two of them communicated best.
Incidentally, while there were occasional flashes and explosions, Hajime had erected a barrier around the house with an Artifact so that none of the neighbors noticed.
As father and son enjoyed their tea on the porch, they heard Sumire and Liliana from inside the living room.
“Ha ha ha, looks like my mercenary troop succeeded in its surprise attack! I get thrice the reward from this plunder event!”
“H-How do you keep getting so lucky, mom? I’ve lost my house even though I’m a princess...”
“Poor Lily-san. You got to start as a princess and things are still this bad for you.”
“Meanwhile, Remia-san’s succeeding way more than she should, considering she started as a merchant. Since when did you get even more money than me?”
“Oh my, it looks like I’ve had another child. And they’re twins this time. I guess this means all of you need to give me celebratory gifts. Ufu fu.”
Sumire, Liliana, Aiko, Shizuku, and Remia were all playing a variant of the Life board game. It was one of the gifts Hajime had given Liliana to take back home.
He had, in fact, made a bunch of board games that he’d given her. They were all takes on classic Earth board games that had been modified to be a cultural fit for Tortus. He was actually planning on testing to see how well they’d sell in Tortus, using his merchant connections. If they sold well, he was planning on making Artifact-tier board games that no one else could craft and open up another side business selling games. It was one of the many business opportunities he’d come up with to support his family. Liliana and More, the merchant he’d be working with, would be making a lot of money as the middlemen selling his games so they’d win out as well.
Indeed, Hajime and Liliana had been laughing gleefully last night as they ironed out the details of this plan. It had been quite something, seeing the Demon Lord and a princess laughing maniacally.