Kays Translations

Chapter 58: Peaceful River Fun in Okutama

By mid-August, summer was in full swing.

Hiyori, having just received her new robe the day before, was in high spirits as she arrived in Okutama for a day of fun. She carried a cooler, a beach umbrella, a barbecue set, a bag filled with swimsuits and sunscreen—all bundled together on her back—as she hummed a tune on the way to the riverside.

I followed behind her, carrying only a dip net, a diving mask, and a tin bucket.

As Hiyori set up the beach umbrella, I pulled a case of cola from the cooler and placed it in a slow-moving section of the stream, securing it with rocks so it wouldn’t be swept away.

Sure, I could just use a freezing spell to chill it, but that wouldn’t be the same. River outings are all about the atmosphere. If you don’t enjoy the little details, what’s the point?

“Clear skies today. Perfect weather for some river fun.”

“Crap, I forgot sunscreen. Hiyori, let me borrow some.”

Hiyori, looking satisfied as she gazed up at the cloudless sky after finishing with the umbrella, tossed me a bottle of sunscreen from her bag. Since I’d left the house already wearing nothing but swim trunks, I quickly slathered it on.

I was surprised that something as “pre-disaster” as sunscreen was still around. When I checked the label, I saw that it was manufactured by the Kita Ward Health Promotion Division.

Wow. This was made after the Gremlin Disaster! Humanity, which had been struggling with food shortages not long ago, had finally reached a point where it could worry about sun protection again.

Of course, the price tag on the label read 1,980 New Yen (19,800 Old Yen). That meant non-essential items like this were still considered luxuries. It had been years since I’d seen a price ending in “98.” It really felt like the economy was coming back.

As I stood there marveling at the sunscreen, Hiyori had already changed into her swimsuit.

She cast off her black robe, revealing a stunning figure clad in a sleek black bikini. Naturally, since she’d be going underwater, she had also removed her mask.

Her fair, translucent skin—so fitting for an ice-element witch—gleamed in the sunlight. In fact, the way the light reflected off her skin made it literally dazzling. Maybe I should’ve brought sunglasses.

As I stared in silent admiration at this fresh side of Hiyori, she, in turn, began scrutinizing me.

“You’re… more muscular than I thought?”

“Well, yeah? I do farm work. What did you expect? Don’t underestimate me.”

“No, I was just impressed… Huh.”

She eyed me from head to toe, making me fidget uncomfortably under her gaze.

I had told her she didn’t need to wear her mask today, but now I was regretting it. Without it, I could feel the full intensity of her stare, and it made my insides squirm.

But hey, two could play that game.

I stared back at her, and she, noticing my gaze, suddenly shrank back a little.

“D-Do I look weird? My body hasn’t changed much since high school.”

“Nah, you look great. The whole ‘former model’ thing makes sense now. If you were on a magazine cover, I bet it’d sell like crazy. You’re gorgeous.”

“Gorgeous, huh? Heh… Hehehe…”

“That said, there’s something I’ve been meaning to say for a while now. Can I?”

Hiyori, still grinning from my compliment, suddenly looked wary.

“I have a bad feeling about this… But go on.”

“Women’s swimsuits are basically underwear, aren’t they? Especially those bikini-type ones. Aren’t you embarrassed to wear them?”

“Huh?”

Her voice dropped, and her eyes turned ice-cold.

I knew she wasn’t actually thinking of it as underwear. Obviously.

But come on! It looks exactly the same! If someone told me to distinguish between a bikini and lingerie, I’d fail. I don’t know the difference in materials, and I don’t have experience with women’s swimwear or underwear!

“Of course it’s not underwear. It’s a swimsuit. Are you insane?”

“Yeah, but you’re practically naked! It makes me feel… I don’t know, unsettled. Like, is this really okay?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. Witches are sturdy, even with bare skin. I could shield you from an ambush just fine.”

“That’s not what I meant! I just mean it’s embarrassing to look at! Here, wear my hoodie.”

I pulled out a lightweight hoodie from my bag and tossed it to her.

She caught it and gave me a long, unreadable look.

“So… Dairi, you’re saying you got flustered seeing me in a swimsuit?”

“Uh… Probably? Yeah. It’s just… unsettling. And what if someone else sees you? Just put the hoodie on already.”

“Oh, I see. You’re flustered. Well, in that case…”

She smirked, gave me a playful punch on the shoulder, and slipped on the hoodie, zipping it up.

Whew. With about 50% less exposed skin, I could finally relax.

Alright, time for some fun!

Snapping Turtles and Smashed Watermelons

We started by hunting for snapping turtles.

We split up—Hiyori upstream, me downstream—and set a one-hour time limit. Each catch was worth 1 point, and turtles with shells over 20 cm were worth 2 points.

Despite her city-girl background, Hiyori put up a good fight, but she couldn’t beat my experience. I won by a landslide, 7 points ahead.

She tried to release the turtles right away, but I quickly stopped her and tossed them into the now-empty cooler.

“What are you doing? Of course we’re eating them.”

Snapping turtle meat tastes like chicken. The ones that burrow in mud tend to get a bit stinky, but a few days of purging fixes that. If they don’t smell, they’re dinner tonight.

After that, we moved on to watermelon smashing.

I warned Hiyori to hold back—if she went full power, the watermelon would explode into pulp. She overcompensated and ended up missing ten times in a row, which made me burst out laughing.

Annoyed, she swung full force, obliterating the watermelon and breaking the stick.

Good thing I had a backup watermelon.

This time, I took the blindfold, calculated my steps, and sliced it clean in half.

Under the shade of the beach umbrella, we enjoyed cold watermelon with ice-cold cola.

As she carefully picked out the seeds with a fork, Hiyori grumbled.

“Why did I even bother guiding you? How the hell did you know where the watermelon was?”

“Easy. I counted the number of spins after being blindfolded, memorized the direction, then took the exact number of steps. Simple trick.”

“Stop brute-forcing everything with sheer skill.”

We laughed over nonsense, looked up at the summer sky, bit into juicy watermelon, and let the cool valley breeze wash over us.

For a moment, I forgot we were living in a post-apocalyptic world.

Tokyo had been through hell, but we were recovering, little by little.

And here, in Okutama, where only the weakest of monsters appeared, we could afford to let our guard down.

“Hey, why is Okutama so peaceful?”

“What? Are you talking about monsters?”

“Yeah.”

When I brought it up, Hiyori reached for a second slice of watermelon as she answered.

“I don’t know. It’s not like there aren’t precedents for places like this.”

“Wait, there are?”

“Yeah. Like the Dragon Witch’s territory, or the Daidarabotchi’s domain.”

“Ah, yeah.”

If we’re including those, then sure, that makes sense.

The Dragon Witch may be a beast, but she’s a massive dragon. Weak monsters don’t go near her territory, and any weaklings that do show up skitter away the moment they sense her. Monsters strong enough not to fear competition over territory still can’t defeat the Dragon Witch.

The Daidarabotchi, on the other hand, was the opposite. It ignored weak monsters and animals, so its territory was apparently overflowing with them. But when it came to strong monsters, witches, or wizards, it had sharp eyes for intruders and would relentlessly, thoroughly exterminate them. Because of that, powerful monsters avoided its territory.

If Okutama had some kind of hidden, ultra-powerful monster following the Daidarabotchi model—one that simply by existing kept strong monsters away or instantly killed any that did approach—then the region’s peace could be logically explained.

“But there aren’t any strong monsters in Okutama, right?”

“Exactly. That’s the mystery. I’ve done extensive investigations, and there’s no chance that some powerful monster is lurking here. If that’s not the reason for Okutama’s peace, then what is?”

“Maybe it’s because the strongest witch comes here from time to time, and monsters think it’s her territory?”

“But strong monsters weren’t appearing in Okutama even before I started coming here. And even when I was around, monsters wandered freely into Ome City. I’m irrelevant. That leaves two possible reasons. One: This land itself is special. I don’t know the logic behind it, but it’s not impossible. Two: It’s because of the Okutama Meteorite. The meteorite might be functioning in some way similar to a territorial claim from a powerful creature, keeping monsters away.”

“Hmm… not sure about that.”

Neither theory sat quite right with me.

I’d never felt any special power radiating from Okutama itself.

If I had to choose, the meteorite seemed like the more likely cause—but I’d never heard of a magic stone that could establish territory.

“If I had to bet, I’d say it’s the Okutama Meteorite…? Or maybe monsters just fear me?”

“Pfft—!”

Hiyori let out a genuine laugh. Unforgivable.

She doesn’t know! Maybe monsters are instinctively scared of highly skilled individuals or something! There’s still so much we don’t understand about their ecology!

Hiyori once embedded herself with a Gremlin from a Flare Sparrow, temporarily becoming a beast tamer (though she later removed it for meditation purposes).

Before taking in the Gremlin, she had borrowed university texts to study monsters, but nothing she read offered any explanation for Okutama’s peace.

As a magic staff craftsman, I couldn’t figure out how the Okutama Meteorite could claim territory either.

For one, if the meteorite really rejected all monsters of Class B or above, then the Fire Lizard and Fuyou—who were both Class B, as they were born with Gremlins—shouldn’t be able to stay here so comfortably.

The idea that the meteorite was deliberately excluding them from its rejection effect seemed like a stretch. It’d be a huge leap in logic to assume a magic stone had that kind of will.

It’s a mystery.

We continued discussing the puzzle of Okutama’s peace while eating watermelon, but we never reached a conclusion.

Well, it’s not like it’s causing problems, so who cares?

After our lunch break, we skipped stones, played make-believe at Sai no Kawara, tested our courage by jumping into a waterfall basin, and finally wrapped up the day with a barbecue of beef and softshell turtle meat before parting ways.

We played hard all day, and I was exhausted. But it was fun, so it’s all good!

Next year, we should invite Professor Ohinata and the Spider Witch.

That’d make it even more fun for sure.

Previous chapter | TOC | Next chapter