“I disguised myself by wrapping a scarf around me so strangers wouldn’t find out I’m a majin and make a big fuss!” said Loli Loli energetically. The ribbon the other two girls had gifted her a month ago still sat proudly on her head. “I will make no objections if you tell me that I’m amazing, of course!”
“And, well, I just finished another stage of my training, so I decided I’d come on back together with Loli Loli. I’ve gotten stronger, you know? I won’t lose to Loli Loli anymore!”
“What was that?! I’m not going to lose!” said Loli Loli.
“Ha ha, what about if I come at you with a coochy-coo tickling attack?!”
“Stop! That attack is super-effective! Ah ha ha! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!”
Loli Loli rolled around under Ashley’s tickling assault, giggling.
Staring at the both of them, Filia broke down in tears. “Yuri, what I’m seeing right now isn’t a hallucination created by my own desperate wishes, is it?”
“You can relax. Here.” I gently pinched Filia’s cheek.
“Ow! It’s…not a dream! Ooh, I’m so happy you two are back!”
“I’m happy too!”
“Jeez, Filia, you’re a crybaby! You’re like a kid!”
“Well, it’s been a whole month since I last saw you! Oh, I’ve been waiting for this day…!”
“I know, right?” I grinned. I’d been with Filia this whole month, so I knew exactly how she felt. With how terribly lonely she’d felt, it was no wonder she was overjoyed now.
“Oh, I’ll get you something to drink, so please just wait a minute!” Filia shot up and bounced off toward the kitchen, humming to herself as she went.
“Don’t bounce too much and take a tumble, okay?”
“Eh he he, I won’t do something like that! I am the transcendentally beautiful elf, Fili—bah!!”
Welp, I’d tried to tell her.
“Tee hee hee! But that didn’t even hurt. Because my girls are back!”
I gave Filia a wry look, but she smiled back at me warmly. She really didn’t seem to feel any pain, even though her nose had turned red from the fall. Maybe she was so delighted that her pain receptors had short-circuited. I did understand how she felt, though.
“I’m really happy you two came back,” I told the girls. “You must have missed my muscles so much.”
“Uh, we didn’t, though?” said Ashley.
“What are you saying, Yuri?” asked Loli Loli. “Let’s think before we speak, okay?”
Wow, harsh. It’d been a month now, so couldn’t they be a little nicer? That being said, I was genuinely happy. In fact, I was so overwhelmed with joy that I couldn’t help but start doing push-ups.
“Y-Yuri? What are you doing now?” Filia, having just finished pouring the drinks, gave me a puzzled look.
“I’m just so happy that my body started moving on its own and working out!”
Her look changed from one of confusion to exasperation. “What kind of mechanism is that, exactly?”
More importantly, just doing regular push-ups on their own was too easy, so it wasn’t really worth it—wait a minute!
“Everyone, to celebrate our reunion, get on top of me!” I exclaimed, pointing to my back.
“Yay!” Loli Loli instantly jumped onto my back.
An immediate response, just as I’d expect from Loli Loli! She was the same as ever.
Ashley, by contrast, seemed less than enthusiastic about the idea.
“What in the…?”
“Ashley. Don’t think. Feel. You’ve trained in the mountains. You should know what I mean.”
“I don’t understand you at all, though?”
Hm. That method wasn’t gonna fly. She was pretty tough. Well, then, maybe I could get her riled up?
“Oh, well, I suppose there really is a big difference between someone who can jump in without hesitation and someone who can’t, right, Ashley?”
“What? What kinda cheap provocation is that? Do you think that I’ll take it seriously? …Well, then, maybe I will get on your back!”
But…she just had taken me seriously, right? Like, completely?
In any case, Ashley sat on my back. The only one left was Filia.
“Come on—you too, Filia. Hop on up.”
“I know, I know. No matter what I say now, you’re not going to listen to me when you’re in one of these moods, hmm?”
Filia, the person who knew me best of all, sat on my back with a thud. With all three of them weighing down on me, I could at least get a somewhat proper workout in!
“HOOAH!”
I started doing push-ups. In terms of physical weight, it wasn’t all that much, really. For someone like me, who sometimes did push-ups while carrying boulders many times my height, the three of them were terribly light, even all together.
But I felt a different kind of weight on me. It was a weight I didn’t feel when I was carrying boulders. Yes, this was surely…“the weight of friendship”! I didn’t really know why, but it made me feel something. For some reason, it brought back memories of those long, long days I’d spent living alone in the forest.
When I lived in the forest, I’d never imagined I would have so many friends. I’d left the forest to become stronger, and I was pretty sure I had. I didn’t really know if I’d managed to grow as a person, but…
“Don’t worry, Yuri,” said Filia from atop my back. “You are growing.”
Clairvoyance again, huh? Or…no, wait. I bet she didn’t even need to use it. She’d said she could read me perfectly well without it. Which was fine by me, because the important thing was what she’d just said.
“Filia…thanks.”
“No need to thank me!” she replied in her usual carefree manner. That was exactly how I knew she wasn’t lying.
I’m glad Filia is my partner. I smiled, though no one could see it on account of how they were all on my back.
“Thanks to that, Filia, I’m just bursting with confidence! So, as my way of saying thanks, I’m gonna show you just how much I’ve grown. I’m gonna do push-ups ten times faster!”
“I—I might have said a bit too much. Yuri, I would like you to reconsider—”
“Here I go!”
“Ah, he’s not listening!”
I amped up my speed by a power of ten. Seen from the side, I was definitely leaving afterimages. The three girls on my back were no doubt having the time of their lives, like they were on a ride at an amusement park! Working out is fun, after all!
“Wait, you’re going too fast!” wailed Filia. “Yuri, you’re going too fasht—ah, I jush bid my tongue!”
“Eeeek! I’m not good at handling scary rides!” shouted Ashley. “Save me, Big Sis!”
“Ah ha ha ha! Up and down, up and down! This is fun!”
Screams and cheers of delight echoed throughout the room, melding together. Things always got pretty lively when we were together.
And so, I continued doing push-ups with a satisfied smile on my face.