Chapter 17
“Ruri the Witch?”
Ever since then,
Ruri had been undergoing special training under the fairies’ guidance.
She pushed her aging body to the limit,
fought off presbyopia and muscle pain,
and gave it everything she had.
At her age, doing something like this…
if anyone saw her,
they’d definitely think she’d lost her mind.
With her mouth set in a grim line,
Ruri was forced to train almost every day.
Thanks to that, after about a month,
she’d somehow learned to use magic—at least a little.
At work, she’d started stretching her body more often,
so Mitsuko asked her,
“Have you started working out lately?”
“Well, since I switched to driving to work,
I thought I should move around a bit,
or I’ll get out of shape.”
“That makes sense,”
Haruki agreed, glancing up from his computer
and stretching his arms overhead.
A few days earlier, after visiting the real estate agent,
Ruri had discovered her apartment lease was up for renewal.
So she decided to end the contract,
asked the agent to find her a monthly parking spot,
and, while at it, got introduced to a used-car dealer.
She bought a car that fit her budget,
completely emptied her savings,
and moved into her late grandmother’s house—
practically penniless.
Her moving luggage was only clothes and personal items.
Everything else she disposed of.
Haruki drove the moving van,
and even the company president, Midori, and Mitsuko came along—
inspecting Ruri’s new home like appraisers.
“It’s a bit far, but not too far,” Midori said,
looking out toward the terrace from the living room.
“It didn’t even take an hour to get here,
and if you avoid rush hour,
you could probably make it in forty or fifty minutes.”
“Right? This house is filled with my grandmother’s memories,” Ruri replied.
“I couldn’t spend much time with her when she was alive,
so I thought I’d reconnect with her little by little,
through this house and her things.”
Taichi tilted his head curiously.
“But if your grandmother knew about you,
why didn’t she ever try to meet you?
If she lived alone,
you’d think she’d want to see her granddaughter even more.”
“I don’t know,” Ruri admitted.
“My father never talked about her, either,
so maybe… there was some kind of reason he couldn’t.”
“I see…”
Taichi nodded deeply.
After that, Ruri said, “Thanks for helping,”
and brought out the moving soba she’d bought earlier—
a traditional meal to mark moving into a new home.
“Sorry to trouble you,” Mitsuko said with a smile,
“but I’ll gladly take some lunch even though I didn’t do anything.”
She opened the lid and exclaimed, “Oh, this looks delicious!”
Ruri had already made her rounds in the neighborhood,
handing out long-lasting Japanese sweets
to the three houses across the street and the two next door.
Living here meant joining the local community association—
and she was already starting to feel the weight
of maintaining a detached house.
“They say rural areas are laid-back,”
Taichi said between bites of soba,
“but this place doesn’t feel much different from Tokyo.”
“True,” Ruri replied.
“Apparently, a lot of families move here from the city.
Some of my grandmother’s old acquaintances still live nearby,
so that’s kind of reassuring.”
“Yeah, it’s not like you’re surrounded by total strangers,”
Haruki added, gazing out at the garden.
“Actually,” he said after a pause, “my wife’s been saying
she wants us to buy a house, too.
Seeing this place makes me think a detached house really is nice.”
“Then why not just take out a mortgage and buy one?”
Midori suggested.
“You’re in a condo now, right, Haruki?”
“Yeah. My wife and I are both only children,
and both our parents live in condos in Tokyo.
So eventually, I figure we’ll end up living with one of them.”
He turned to Ruri.
“If that happens, we won’t really need a house of our own.”
As they chatted, Ruri suddenly caught sight of Phos running by.
Even if he was invisible to others,
what if rumors started spreading about a zashiki-warashi—
a house spirit—living here?
“What’s wrong?” Mitsuko asked,
noticing Ruri staring at an empty room.
“Oh, sorry—nothing,” Ruri said quickly.
“I just spaced out for a second.”
She smiled and went back to eating her soba.
