Chapter 14
The streetlights below the apartment building were already on, casting warm yellow light through the cool air of the April evening. Eriri pushed her bicycle onto the familiar street and saw a figure standing in front of her house from a distance.
Purple twin tails swayed gently in the evening breeze. Her slender figure was wrapped in light home clothes, and she stood on tiptoe, looking eager. It was Sayuri Sawamura—Eriri's mother, who looked twenty-eight years old despite being old enough to have a teenage daughter. Her main hobbies were matching twin tails with her daughter and being mistaken for sisters, and secretly collecting various BL doujinshi.
"Mom?" Eriri quickened her pace, her golden twin tails flying behind her. "Why are you standing outside the door?"
Sayuri turned her head, and a smile immediately appeared on her face. She ran over and naturally took the school bag from Eriri's hand—as smooth as always.
"Eriri's home~" Sayuri's voice was girlish and excited. "Mommy missed you and couldn't wait, so she came out to see."
"We saw each other this morning…" Eriri muttered quietly, but she still let her mother take the school bag. She noticed that Sayuri was wearing the same twin tails as her today, but with a light purple hairband, and with her baby face, she really did look more like a sister than a mother.
Genji floated behind Eriri, his gaze lingering on Sayuri for a moment. He commented quietly, "Your mother… looks very young."
The corners of Eriri's mouth twitched, and she replied in a voice that only the two of them could hear: "She has a more girlish mindset than I do."
Mother and daughter entered the entrance together. As Eriri bent down to change her shoes, Sayuri had already walked into the living room with the school bag, humming an unknown anime theme song—Eriri recognized it as the ending song of a recently popular BL show.
"Where's Dad?" Eriri asked casually, neatly arranging her sneakers in the shoe cabinet.
"In his study," Sayuri's voice came from the living room. "He seemed to have some trouble today. He was frowning when he came home. Eriri, don't bother him later~"
"Trouble?" Eriri froze. Her father, Spencer Sawamura, as a British diplomat stationed in Japan, was always busy with work. But for Sayuri to consciously remind her not to bother him… it probably wasn't an ordinary work matter.
"Got it," she replied, picked up her indoor shoes, and walked toward her room.
As she passed the study, Eriri instinctively lightened her steps. The heavy solid wood door was closed, but light seeped out from the crack underneath. She could vaguely hear her father's low voice—he was on the phone, his tone serious, mixed with words like "unexplained" and "on-site inspection."
Eriri didn't pay much attention. A diplomat's work was always full of secrets and problems. She had grown up accustomed to her father's occasional worries.
Back in her room, she locked the door behind her with her backhand—a gesture that now carried new meaning. After putting down her school bag, she whispered into the air, "You can come out."
Shadows seeped out from the corners of the wall, coalescing into Genji's figure. Today, he had changed his posture—no longer standing, but floating cross-legged in the air, holding a book. Eriri stared at it. It was the light novel she had tossed onto her nightstand yesterday.
"You…" Eriri was stunned for a moment. "Where did you get that?"
"The storage closet," Genji didn't look up, turning a page. "I found it while organizing things. The novels from your era… they're interesting."
Eriri leaned over and glanced at the cover—After Reincarnating as the Demon King's Daughter, I Became the Entire Team's Favorite. Her cheeks flushed, and she reached for it. "Don't read that trash!"
Genji turned his wrist, and the book easily dodged her hand. "Why? The writing is acceptable, and the setting is interesting too. However, the portrayal of the 'Demon King' is too romanticized. In my time, real Demon Kings were much cooler."
"There were Demon Kings in your era?" Eriri stopped trying to take the book and started changing her clothes—she turned her back to Genji, quickly took off her school uniform, and changed into a home t-shirt.
"There were similar things," Genji finally looked up from the book, his gaze naturally avoiding Eriri as she changed, looking out the window instead. "The King of Curses, great demons, evil gods… different names, but the essence is the same—powerful beings, enemies of humanity. But…"
He paused, a hint of nostalgia in his voice. "Most of them had real martial honor. They would send a challenge letter in advance. If they lost, they admitted it. They didn't do petty things like sneak attacks. That's much more honorable than the 'Demon Kings' in your novels who spend all day scheming against the protagonist."
Eriri finished changing, turned around, and happened to see Genji's face wearing an expression of "nostalgia for the good old days." She couldn't help but laugh. "You make it sound like you've fought Demon Kings yourself."
"I have," Genji said lightly. "A few of them."
The smile froze on Eriri's face.
"You…"
"Just kidding," Genji suddenly smiled, a mischievous joke in his smile. "Are you scared?"
"No!" Eriri flared up, but the base of her ears was slightly red. She walked over to her desk, sat down, turned on her computer, and prepared for today's drawing work—although the deadline was still far away, Eiri Kashiwagi's schedule was always packed.
The room was quiet, only the clicking of the keyboard and mouse. Genji opened the light novel again, occasionally laughing very softly—usually when he came across an especially absurd plot twist.
Time passed in silence. The sky outside the window had completely darkened. The lights of Tokyo Tower in the distance lit up, outlining an orange-red silhouette against the night sky.
Around eight o'clock, Eriri's stomach growled in protest. She saved her files and stretched. "I'm going downstairs to heat up dinner. Do you want… um, do you need to eat?"
"No," Genji put down the book. "But if you don't mind, I can 'taste' a little. A shikigami's sense of taste still exists, but it doesn't need food to sustain itself."
Eriri thought for a moment. "Then what do you want to eat? Actually, never mind. It's just leftover bento heated in the microwave."
"That's fine," Genji floated upward. "I'm curious about the food of this era."
The two—one human, one ghost—went downstairs together. In the kitchen, Sayuri had already prepared dinner: curry rice, miso soup, and a small plate of pickled cucumbers. She was sitting at the dining table herself, a doujinshi spread out in front of her, reading it with enjoyment, occasionally letting out a strange laugh: "Hehe."
"Mom…" Eriri pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Ah, Eriri's here~" Sayuri quickly closed the doujinshi and pushed it aside as if nothing had happened. "The rice is in the pot, the curry is in the fridge. Heat them up yourself. Daddy is still busy. We don't need to wait for him."
Eriri nodded and skillfully began heating up the food. Genji floated over to the dining table, looking curiously at the cover of the book Sayuri had just been reading—two handsome men gazing tenderly at each other under a cherry blossom tree.
"Your mother's interests… are unique," he commented.
"Shut up," Eriri didn't turn around, the roots of her ears reddening again.
After heating the rice, Eriri sat down at the table with her plate. She also served a bowl for Sayuri, and mother and daughter ate quietly—if you ignored the occasional glances Sayuri threw at Eriri and "that place."