[Perfect Human System — Online.]
[Host: Shin]
[Race: Human (?)]
[Remaining Evolution Points: 167]
[Special Items: Great Rune of the Unborn, Godrick's Great Rune]
[Bloodlines: Pillar Man, First Witch, Lands Between Demigod (Vestige)]
[Available Evolution Branches: Scarlet Sea (Lv.0) / Defiled Temple (Lv.0) / Pillar Limbs (Lv.1) / Spinal Dragon (Lv.2) / Spirit Bastion (Lv.1)]
He still remembered stepping into the Lands Between — Marika had handed him a Great Rune right out of the gate, netting him a full 200 evolution points on the spot.
And now coming back out, the Great Rune he'd lifted off a certain someone had yielded exactly zero evolution points. Probably because it was a duplicate acquisition.
If Shin recalled correctly, the Great Rune of the Unborn corresponded to the power of "reshaping," while the one he'd taken — tied to "gravity" as its core concept — corresponded to "redistribution."
These kinds of domain-level powers were abstract and esoteric. Shin obviously couldn't just pick them up and use them on the spot — most of the powerhouses in the Lands Between derived their strength from themselves, with Great Runes functioning more like divine endorsements than direct power boosts.
He'd have to wait until Marika came back online to ask her how to actually unlock and develop a Great Rune's potential.
Looking at the system panel: Pillar Limbs corresponded to technique, Spinal Dragon to the body and raw strength, and Spirit Bastion to the mind.
Stat allocation was always a nuanced business, no matter what world you were in.
Unless you wanted to saddle yourself with a miserable mid-game grind running a jack-of-all-trades build — the early game was always better spent developing your strengths. Which was exactly why Shin planned to save up his points to 200 before spending them.
When you put points into skills, you go for the high-level ones first. Shin wasn't playing a spread-build — balanced stat distribution wasn't his style as a Pillar Man.
But right now, more pressing than tallying up the gains from his trip was the situation waiting for him to deal with.
"Alright, Meruru. I'm back, aren't I?"
Shin reached out and gently ran his hand through the slightly disheveled silver hair of the nun clinging to him. The softness against his palm was delicate and unmistakably real.
"Sob... big brother, I was so worried about you~!"
Meruru looked up at him, eyes red and swollen from crying, arms locked around his with absolutely no intention of letting go.
"Meruru doesn't want to be left behind. Please, wherever you go in the future, take me with you — please, I'm begging you... hic!"
Shin's eye twitched.
The gravitational pull of this girl was something else. It was almost suffocating — enough to make him seriously consider just coming clean to Meruru about the Great Witch's group chat business right then and there.
"Don't worry. I'll bring you along next time — as long as mother agrees."
While soothing the tearful jellyfish in his arms, Shin carefully extracted his arm from the... impressively cushioned grip around it.
He had to admit, Meruru was filling out more and more. He wasn't sure whether she'd been this well-developed in the original story timeline, but he'd be lying if he claimed his thoughts had been completely unaffected — if only for a moment.
Just then, the bedroom door was pushed open by an invisible, unhurried force.
"My, how heartbreaking~ Here I thought you'd forgotten all about your dear mother the moment your little sister was around, Shaya~"
"So touchy-feely with Meruru the second you walk back through the door — did the big bad world outside wear you out? Coming home to seek the warmth of family, are we~?"
A tiny, snow-white figure hovered in the doorway — weightless, like a slip of paper caught on a breeze, cheek resting in one hand.
The Great Witch, Snow, watched the two of them with her pale blue eyes curved into a smile. She made no immediate mention of the matchmaking results, whatever she was thinking behind that expression.
"Mother."
Shin gave Meruru a light pat on the shoulder, signaling her to stand up.
The girl did so with obvious reluctance, but even she couldn't ignore the Great Witch's quiet authority. She obediently stepped aside — though her small hands stayed clenched in the fabric of Shin's sleeve, like a pup terrified of being abandoned.
"You've worked hard, my Shaya."
The Great Witch drifted over to Shin, her little feet — wrapped in white silken stockings — swinging idly in the air.
She suddenly stretched out both arms, as naturally as a small child reaching up for a hug, and wrapped them around Shin's neck.
Shin smoothly caught her behind the knees and settled her into his arms in one practiced motion.
The "loli mom" dissonance of it never quite stopped feeling strange, no matter how many times it happened. But he knew — this was the Great Witch's particular way of being affectionate.
"Hmph. One trip outside and now you appreciate home, do you~"
The Great Witch tucked herself against the curve of his neck like a contented cat, voice going soft and just noticeably tinged with something close to jealousy.
"I saw everything, you know. That Ranni girl — not even a body to call her own, nothing but a cold puppet. What could you possibly see in that?"
"And that Malenia — covered in rot from head to toe. I can't believe Marika had the nerve to sell her as an option."
Shin let out a dry laugh. "Which is exactly why I didn't pick any of them."
"Exactly my point — the flower at home always blooms sweeter than the ones in the wild. Surely you've had a change of heart now, Shaya?"
The Great Witch laughed a little laugh of smug triumph, her small hand wandering over to pinch the chest muscle that had grown considerably more defined since Shin had leveled up [Spinal Dragon].
"Isn't it better when mom takes care of you? It's dangerous out there — and those women are no different. It's safe right here."
She tilted her head up. At this distance, that flawless face was almost too close — and if not for the quiet pressure of someone of her standing radiating from her, any observer would have sworn they were looking at a fourteen-year-old girl.
"So, Shaya..."
"Don't say I didn't give you options. You passed on all of them — so. When are you going to start having children with Meruru? Tell me."
"That girl — I hand-picked her for you, you know. She's really very well-suited for it~"
Off to the side, Meruru's cheeks flushed so red it looked like she might bleed from them. Her head dropped until her chin nearly touched her chest. And yet — just barely perceptibly, firmly — she nodded.
Shin rubbed his temple.
"Mother. I'd like to get to the bottom of at least one thing first."
He let out a sigh, hoisted the impossibly light snow-haired little figure a little higher in his arms, and — unusually for him — let his expression turn genuinely serious.
"Why are you so set on rushing me to have children with someone?"
"We're not human, after all. We're long-lived — longevity isn't something we need to worry about, and reproduction isn't the sort of thing that usually needs to be pressed."
"So can you tell me the answer, mother?"
The air in the room seemed to freeze for just a moment.
Meruru — still clutching the corner of Shin's sleeve and quietly sniffling — froze too. She looked up through red-rimmed eyes, glancing uncertainly between her brother and the Great Witch who had taken them both in.
The Great Witch didn't answer right away.
Those pale blue eyes of hers — usually alive with mischief and teasing — went strangely deep in that moment. It reminded Shin of the look he'd seen in the Earth Witch's eyes, that time outside the manor.
She kept the same pose — cradled in Shin's arms — but those little feet in their white stockings stilled in the air.
The air of easy nonchalance she habitually wore — that slightly performative calm — vanished entirely. In its place was a silence that Shin had never seen from her before.
It was a long moment before the Great Witch spoke. Her voice was very quiet, as though she were afraid of disturbing something.
"Shaya... are you afraid of loneliness?"
Shin blinked.
He had anticipated many possible answers.
Things like "Witch Island has a serious aging population problem," or "this is about carrying on some forbidden magical lineage," or even something flippant like "I just want to see you build a harem." He had run through quite a few scenarios.
But this — this sudden, out-of-nowhere question — was not one he had prepared for. And in the silence that followed, Shin found himself thinking through far more possibilities than he'd expected.
"Loneliness?"
He furrowed his brow. His mind moved through the memories of his first life as an ordinary person, and then the brief, blood-soaked early months of his second life after being reborn into the world of JoJo.
As a Pillar Man by physiology, his mind and capacity for thought had long since transcended the limits of ordinary humans.
In a life that stretched across ages, loneliness should by all rights have been the default companion of any being like him.
"I'm not afraid."
Shin shook his head. His voice was calm and certain.
"I have you. I have Meruru. And there are all the witches of the island, even if I can barely make out their faces. Why would I be afraid of loneliness?"
He looked at the face so close to his and continued:
"The other witches and I are different, that's true. But in these sixteen years, I've never once felt lonely."
"And if you're worried about me getting bored in the future — having a pile of children would probably just make me feel like it's too loud, not less lonely."
The Great Witch looked at him.
In the clarity of her eyes, she took in the reflection of that face — so handsome it bordered on something otherworldly — and those dark eyes that held a maturity that had no business belonging to someone his age.
"...Is that so…"
She let out a soft, low laugh. There was something in it — a warmth Shin couldn't quite read, and beneath it, a loneliness so deep it had no bottom.
In that instant, Shin's instincts — sharpened far beyond any ordinary human's — almost immediately caught hold of something.
"Mother. Is there something you've been keeping from me?"
Drawing on her earlier messages in the group and the account name [Spreading Witch Factor], Shin pressed her, and found himself unconsciously tightening his hold on her.
"Ow, ow, ow—"
The Great Witch's expression flipped in an instant. Every trace of that deep, melancholy weight evaporated, replaced by an absurdly exaggerated wince of pain.
"Shaya, are you trying to murder your own mother? That's so strong—"
Before she finished the sentence, she twisted nimbly in his arms, and with magic behind the movement she slipped free like a sheet of paper caught in a draft, landing on the windowsill.
The little feet in their white stockings looked almost translucent in the slant of evening sunlight coming through the window.
"Since Shaya isn't afraid of loneliness, let's leave it at that."
She crossed her arms, and the languid, unhurried composure settled back into place like she'd never dropped it.
"Shaya really has grown up. Not fun at all anymore."
"Mother—!"
Shin moved to press further, but the Great Witch clapped her hands together once — sharp, clean — and cut right through his train of thought.
"Alright! We're putting the matchmaking on hold for now. You're home, and there is one thing that matters more than making babies!"
She drifted to the door like a butterfly landing on air, turned back, and gave the still-dazed pair a smile so brilliant it was almost blinding.
"Meruru, stop crying — it's time to start dinner~ You've gotten quite a bit stronger from this trip, haven't you, Shaya~"
At the mention of a big meal, Meruru's tears stopped with a speed that defied all reason.
"Yes, Great Witch! I'll go get started right away!"
She turned to look at Shin, gray eyes shimmering with some strange, private light.
"Big brother — I've been practicing a new mystery recipe tonight... You have to finish every last bite~!"
With that, she gathered up her nun's skirts and practically sprinted toward the kitchen, her retreating figure practically bouncing with energy.
Shin watched her go. Then he looked over at the "loli mom" lounging in the doorway, making pointed eyes at him, and felt a headache building behind his eyes.
"...So what, exactly, are we having for dinner?"
The Great Witch leaned against the doorframe and tipped her head to one side with a smile:
"How would I know? Meruru learned everything from you, Shaya — why don't you go check?"
"Oh, right — I just remembered. A day or two ago she went to ask [Flower] for quite a lot of specially cultivated pink flowers. I have no idea what effect they have~"
Shin: "..."
...
P.S. The Great Witches' names are Wind, Flower (the Earth Witch — Goddess of Conception), Snow, and Moon.
The system does not fuse the Great Runes — it holds them. They'll be needed later. Also, Great Runes don't translate directly into power; they function more like potential and recognition. Didn't want anyone thinking picking up a Great Rune automatically means gaining strength.
To be continued…