Chapter 27: Reward

After appeasing Aya-chan, we left the mountain.

But that doesn’t mean we left without doing anything.

We checked to see if there were any other monsters that had been hidden and then left the mountain. If we had missed any, it would have been a big problem.

Fortunately, there were no other monsters.

By the time we arrived home, it was almost dawn and Aya-chan was fast asleep, so I headed home with a strong feeling of sleepiness.

Seeing that I kept falling asleep, my father and Renji-san told me that I should sleep, but to my surprise, I couldn’t sleep. No, I was sleepy. But my mind was strangely clear, and even when I meditated, I couldn’t stop thinking about the fight.

It was a strong opponent.

At least, it was the strongest opponent I had ever fought.

I don’t mean to say that it was a miracle or luck that I won.

Without a doubt, it was my own strength.

Still, it’s true that it wasn’t an opponent that I could let my guard down against.

The fact that I had fought such an opponent and survived was burned into the marrow of my brain and wouldn’t let go.

However, it wasn’t that I wanted to bask in the afterglow of victory.

On the contrary, it was the opposite. In the car on the way home, I was reflecting on my victory.

I had a lot to reflect on in my fight.

To give a brief list, it would have been dangerous if I had been brought into a close combat.

It would have been dangerous if my opponent had a “true eye” and noticed my attack.

Moreover, if the acorn bomb had a more indiscriminate range attack, I would have died.

I found myself reflecting on the situation.

It was a department store of unexpected reflections.

But still, looking back on it like this, even though I was trying to save Aya-chan, I was being reckless.

“Itsuki, are you awake?”

“Yes, I am. What’s wrong papa?”

“We’re home.”

Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I answered my father and found myself in front of the main gate.

It seemed that Renji-san had made sure we got home.

“Itsuki-kun, you’ve had a long day. Get a good night’s rest.”

“Okay Renji-san. Thanks for the ride.”

“Don’t worry about it. Thank you for protecting Aya-chan. We’ll practice magic together again next time.”

With that promise, I got out of Renji-san car.

By the way, Aya-chan, unlike me, was sleeping soundly.

I got out of the car, saw them off, and my father and I walked through the gate.

The house was completely dark, and I could see that both mother and Hina were asleep.

I rubbed my sleepy eyes and my father who was standing next to me asked.

“Did you sleep? Huh Itsuki.”

“….Yeah. just a little. My eyes are clear now.”

“I see. It was your first fight. Let me sing you a lullaby.”

“Uh-yeah. It’s okay….”

Papa’s singing isn’t good. I won’t push it.

But I have good memories of crying when people played lullabies to me as a baby. I learned that when people are that far out of tune, I am beyond amused and start to get anxious. I didn’t want to learn that.

When I said no, my father put his hand on my head and gently stroked it.

“Really, you did well, Itsuki.”

“Papa?”

I turned my head, not understanding what he meant, and he smiled at me.

“That’s not all. You sacrificed yourself to lure it in with your magic power so that ordinary people wouldn’t be harmed.”

I nodded in agreement when my father praised me for this.

“As a father, I can’t praise you enough for what you did. I know that an exorcist is required to make self-sacrificing decisions, but you’re only five years old. It is too, too early to sacrifice yourself. Too soon.”

Bending down, my father’s gaze pierces me.

One of his eyes is hidden by an eye patch, and even though he only has one eye, it had power in it.

It was almost the first time I had ever heard a sermon from my father.

They were words of love.

“But, what you did led to the protection of tens of thousands of people behind the scenes. As an exorcist and the head of the Kisaragi family, I would like to thank you for that. Thank you, Itsuki.”

“I just did what I could.”

“No, what you did wasn’t something anyone else could have done. It was something only you could do. Thank you so much.”

After saying that, my father hugged me.

The first thing I felt when he hugged me tightly was the warmth of the magic in my father’s body. The smell of my father reassured me. But what pierced my heart the deepest of all was what he said.

My previous life was a life of garbage.

I had never heard the word “irreplaceable” in my life. I was just an ordinary person, living an ordinary life. There was nothing that only I could do, nothing that I had to do.

I was just one of those parts, a cog in the wheel of society, a human being who could be replaced by someone else as soon as he or she broke down.

But when my father hugged me, I knew I could change from that.

That, more than anything else, stuck with me deeply.

What I had worked so hard to do for myself, to not die, turned out to help all kinds of people. There was no way I couldn’t be happy about that.

I was really happy that I was able to do something that only I could do, and that I was able to help someone.

“Itsuki, there has never been an exorcist who has exorcised a fifth-degree monster at the age of five. I’m really proud of you.”

“It’s because Papa taught me magic.”

“Wahahaha… you finally said it.”

He hugged me and patted my head roughly and messily.

But I didn’t feel bad.

Then my father said, “Yes,” and stood up.

“Since you’ve made it all the way to the first battlefield, is there anything you want? As a reward, Dad will buy you anything you want!”

“Anything I want?”

“Yes. Toys, candy…”

“Hmmm…..”

I groaned at my father’s sudden offer of a reward.

Of course, it’s not that there are no things that I want.

For example, I want something that can connect to the Internet, like a smart phone or a tablet.

But we don’t have Wi-Fi at home….

Yes, shockingly, Kisaragi house has no Wi-Fi environment, whether because it is an old house or because we’re exorcists, I do not know.

What about father and mother? Surprisingly, neither my father nor my mother watches YouTube or anything like that. So they are on the lowest capacity plan.

So, before I could get him to buy anything that would allow me to connect to the Internet, I first had to get him to get a line connection. But I don’t think it’s a good idea for a 5-year-old to answer, “A Wi-Fi connection,” when asked what he wants.

That’s why I’m groaning.

No, that’s right?

If it’s not limited to goods or services, there are things I want, right? But, can I say that this is something I want?

I asked my father.

“Papa, can I have anything I want?”

“Yes, it can be anything you want, Itsuki. How about a TV?”

Wow, that’s kind of tempting.

…… But that’s not what I mean.

I put my wavering mind back on track and told him what I wanted.

“I want some daddy time.”

“Wh-What?”

I continued to my father, whose eyes widened.

“I want to get better at physical art, swordsmanship, and other things.”

This was an issue that this battle had brought to light for me.

I had been keeping away from close combat training because I was athletically inept, because it was good enough to use magic, and because I only needed to be able to fight to the point of death, but this battle has made me understand the necessity of such training.

If the monster had closed the distance without hesitation at that moment, I might have died.

So I had to become stronger.

I had to crush my weak points in order to do so.

That’s why I told my father.

“Th-That’s what papa told me!!!!”

He was my father, and he turned on a weird switch.

Oh no. I pushed something weird.

“Okay! Papa’s going on vacation for a month! During that time, I’m going to teach Itsuki everything I know!”

“Eh? Are you sure it’s okay? Isn’t there shortage of workers for exorcist work?”

“What do you mean? It’s your wish. It’s my duty as your father to make it come true.”

“What about your duties as an exorcist?”

I tried my best to soothe my father and thought.

……This person sometimes flips a parental idiot switch in a strange place.

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