It seemed she’d wanted to doll herself up a little for Hajime.
Seeing her made Hajime’s annoyance melt away immediately.
“You prefer Western clothes, don’t you, Shizuku? Did you wear that kimono just for me?”
“W-Well, I hadn’t shown you this one yet, so...”
“I see, thanks. That made all my exhaustion fly away. You look really pretty.”
“Oh...thanks.”
Shizuku smiled and blushed, and the contrast between her usual cool demeanor and her girlier mannerisms was striking. Hajime smiled—and then suddenly reached into his pocket and pulled out a mini-Donner fitted with a silencer and rapidly fired a series of shots off to his left. There was a series of sparks and metallic clangs as the bullets collided with something. Shizuku jumped a little and looked over to see a series of small bamboo cylinders jutting out from the ground. They were barely visible unless you were focusing intently. It seemed there had still been a few assassins lying in wait.
They must have been communicating secretly with each other while hiding and had fired darts from their blowguns in tandem.
“N-Not you guys again! Get out here right now!” Shizuku shouted, her face reddening in anger. They ignored her and scurried away, the ground barely shifting as they used whatever secret passages they’d dug under the courtyard.
Shizuku trembled with rage and Hajime flashed her a sympathetic smile. However, he still needed to confirm something.
“Hey, Shizuku, are you sure your family isn’t descended from ninjas?”
“I don’t think so, but...”
Her family had never acted like this before they’d been summoned to Tortus. It had all started after Hajime had begun visiting the Yaegashi house. Since then, she’d learned far too much about the secret passageways within her own house and the various assassination techniques in the Yaegashi Style that she’d never been privy to before. It was honestly more of a shock to her than it was to Hajime.
“Mind asking them for me? You know, maybe try to see if they secretly trained you to be a kunoichi without you realizing it.”
“I grilled dad and grandpa a few days ago.”
“And what’d they say?”
“That these were all sword techniques, just combined with a bit of acrobatics.”
“So they’re keeping it a secret even from you...”
“I can’t believe my family...” Shizuku muttered with a dead look in her eyes, prompting Hajime to give her another sympathetic look.
Shizuku had thought she’d finally returned to her boring normal life only to discover that everyone in her family except her had been hiding some very abnormal secrets. It seemed no matter what world she was in, Shizuku was destined to suffer.
“Hey, Hajime...please don’t come to hate them because of this,” Shizuku said, hiding her expression with the sleeve of her kimono. The gesture was so cute that Hajime nearly pushed her down right then and there.
“Don’t worry, I won’t.”
“But from the looks of it, dad and grandpa are going to keep on attacking you like that no matter how many times I tell them to stop...”
“I get how they feel. They probably don’t want to give you away to a guy like me. If I was in their shoes, I’d be shooting me too.”
“Well, you shouldn’t be doing that either.”
Shizuku was, of course, absolutely correct, but Hajime sympathized with Shuzou and Toramasa. So, while their antics annoyed him, he didn’t really hate them.
“If I think about it as a trial that I have to overcome to make you mine, then it honestly feels kind of exciting. I’ll overcome anything in order to marry you.”
“Oh, Hajime...”
Shizuku blushed and hid her face with her sleeves. Unfortunately, she was blushing to the tips of her ears, so she couldn’t hide everything. Hajime wanted to push her arms away and look at her cute expression directly.
“A-Anyway, why don’t you come in and evacuate to my room? It should be safe there.”
“Evacuate is sadly a very fitting term here...”
“Don’t remind me...” Shizuku said with a groan, and Hajime followed her inside.
It would have been nice if they could have chatted about whatever while walking side by side down the hallway to Shizuku’s room, but unfortunately, the halls of the Yaegashi house were riddled with traps. Spears came out from gaps in the walls, there were pit traps and falling ceilings everywhere, Toramasa came out of trick wall hiding spots and attacked Hajime with wooden swords, and Shuzou also leaped out from behind pillars and attacked Hajime with a chain sickle.
Hajime dealt with them all casually and turned to Shizuku with a pitying look in his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Shizuku...but we have to face reality. Your family is a family of ninjas...and your house is a secret lair.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t know about any of this until last week even though I’ve lived here my whole life... Hey, grandpa! No chain and sickles! You’re ruining the wallpaper with them! Also, that thing’s clearly real, isn’t it?! Where did you get that from?!”
Shizuku may as well have been yelling at empty air, since by the time they rounded the corner the chain sickle attack from Shuzou was nowhere to be seen. She dropped to her knees in despair.
“Hey, Shizuku, how about we go to the living room instead of your room? It looks like they’re getting more and more desperate, since I can block all of their attacks. At this rate, they may accidentally damage your prized stuffed animal collection.”
“Ugh... My room should be safe... If they touch anything in there, I’m leaving this house forever! I’m already mad enough that they keep attacking you!” Shizuku shouted, knowing there were people in the walls, ceiling, and the floor listening in. They could tell she was seriously mad now as they all silently retreated.
“Now let’s go, Hajime! We can finally spend some time alone!” Shizuku said, squeezing Hajime’s arm and leading him to her room.
“Y-Yeah. You must be getting really desperate, huh?”
Hajime had been in Shizuku’s room twice before, and as always it was filled to the brim with cute things. Stuffed animals lined the shelves, there was a calendar with pictures of cute cats hanging on the wall, the curtains and sheets were all pink, and the cushions had cute rabbit ear designs on them. It was the girliest a room could possibly be.
Shizuku put down a cute raccoon cushion for Hajime and it let out a cutesy squeal when he sat down on it. If the people in Tortus saw Hajime sitting down on something like this, they’d probably all burst out laughing, especially the imperial emperor.
“One sec, I’ll get us some tea and snacks.”
“Nah, don’t bother. Also, I don’t really want to be alone in this house...”
“Gah... I-It’ll be fine! I told them I won’t tolerate this anymore and I did thoroughly explore my room to make sure there’s no secret—”
Just then, Hajime heard a clunk from the ceiling, and Shizuku’s reassurances turned to ashes in her mouth.
“Welcome, Hajime-san. Please, enjoy some snacks,” Kirino said, removing one of the ceiling panels and dropping down with a tea tray laden with tea and snacks. The fact that she managed the feat without spilling a drop of tea or a crumb of cake was beyond impressive.
“Mom?! How...? I thought I examined everything...” Shizuku muttered, looking up at the ceiling in despair.
Kirino just smiled and gently set the tray down on the glass table in Shizuku’s room. It was clear from her calm, confident demeanor that she was a very strong woman. While she did look pretty, the overwhelming impression Hajime got from her was that she was more cool than beautiful.
“H-Hey, mom, you’re secretly a kunoichi, aren’t you? Don’t lie to me now.”
Kirino was the one person in Shizuku’s family who hadn’t suddenly transformed after Hajime’s arrival. Or at least, that was what Shizuku had thought, so suddenly seeing her mom drop from the ceiling like a ninja shocked her to her core.
Not you too, mom...
Shizuku stared up at her mother with dead eyes.
“Oh, Shizuku, you really are such a hopeless girl,” Kirino said with a small smile.
“I’m sorry, Hajime-san. She got overly excited when she learned you were coming, so I thought I’d lighten the mood with a joke to make sure she doesn’t trip over herself. But as you can see, she’s serious to a fault, so instead this is the reaction we got. She might be a little boring, but please don’t abandon her, Hajime-san.”
“Don’t worry, her reactions are plenty interesting,” Hajime said with a small smile.
“You’re so mean, Hajime...” Shizuku said, turning to Hajime with tears in her eyes. Hajime patted her on the head, and her frown instantly turned into a smile as she leaned against his chest.
“My, I can’t believe you’re not embarrassed to act like that in front of your mother. All right, all right, I’ll leave,” Kirino said with a gentle smile and jumped back up into the ceiling.
As Shizuku watched her mom replace the ceiling panel, her eyes turned dead again as she realized even her room wasn’t safe.
“Well...just think of it as her way of teaching you about this house’s secrets little by little.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah. I heard after we all went missing, your family was the one that led most of the search parties. From what they seemingly accomplished while you were gone, I had the feeling they weren’t a normal family even before I met them.”
Indeed, the Yaegashi family had spared no effort in their search, and unlike all the other normal families, they’d had access to resources regular civilians couldn’t dream of. Not only that, but they had connections to basically every major organization in the country. They trained the local police officers in martial arts, and indeed the guy who’d jumped out of the pond to attack Hajime was the local police chief. The reason they’d been able to so easily sweep the news of their return under the rug was because he’d also known the truth and had been able to effectively get the rest of the police department to believe his reports.
“I’ve known the police chief since I was little, so I just thought of him as my weird uncle, but I guess he’s a ninja too...”
All of the students of the Yaegashi Dojo were like family to Shizuku, but that was why the realization that they were all trained ninjas came as such a shock and why Shizuku felt so betrayed.
Regardless, the fact remained that most of the students of the Yaegashi Dojo had posts in high places, and they’d helped keep the chaos to a minimum, talking to the neighbors, school administrators, and distant relatives of family members that Hajime hadn’t had time to reach out to. They had also helped him keep the rude journalists, curious onlookers, and crazy conspiracy theorists at bay. This was why Hajime had spent so much time at the Yaegashi house this past week, and indeed the main reason he’d come today was to thank everyone for their help and let them know things were finally calming down, as well as to decide what they’d do moving forward.
“I guess the event that prompted this wasn’t the nicest, but it’s a good thing that you’re getting to learn more about your family, right?”
“You’re right... I’ll need to find out why they didn’t tell me until now as well. I’m getting tired of learning about these things piecemeal.”
Also, why do you keep denying it when it’s obvious from your actions that you have ninja training?! Shizuku screamed internally.
She stuffed a tea cake into her mouth to help her calm down and Hajime began to wonder just how Shizuku had managed to remain oblivious to her family’s true nature for so long. She wasn’t an idiot. In fact, she was more perceptive than most. In which case, it made sense to assume Shuzou and the others had gone to great lengths to hide this from her. The fact that they’d kept it secret even after she’d gotten into high school meant they might have planned on keeping the secret forever.
But why?
Maybe they didn’t want her to feel pressured by her family lineage? He thought back to when she’d fought her double in the Frost Caverns. She’d overcome that trial by becoming true to herself. Afterward, he’d heard from her just how overjoyed her family had been at the martial talent she’d exhibited, and the high hopes everyone had had for her. However, that had led to Shizuku suppressing her true desires to try to live up to the image people had of her.
The first time Hajime had visited the Yaegashi house, he’d had an opportunity to speak with Shuzou and the others without Shizuku being present. They’d all asked him about the events in the Frost Caverns. Of course, Shizuku had told them what had happened herself, but they’d wanted to hear it from the perspective of the only other person who’d been there, the person she’d opened her heart to. They’d wanted to know whether or not Shizuku was truly living according to her desires or if this, too, was an act. When Hajime had told them he was certain she wasn’t hiding her true self anymore, they’d looked relieved.
“I see... So Shizuku’s finally going to be all right.”
“Thank you for granting her the opportunity to be who she wants to be.”
“Please look after her from now on, Hajime-kun.”
Shuzou, Toramasa, and Kirino had all started crying after that too. They were all truly happy that she’d come to love who she was, rather than the person everyone else expected her to be. Hajime hadn’t pressed them for details, but he’d been able to guess quite a bit from that conversation.
They probably regretted ever putting a sword in Shizuku’s hands.
It was only natural for parents to be overjoyed by their child’s natural talents, and it was also natural for parents to place expectations on their children. It was only after a few years that Kirino and the others had realized they’d taken those feelings too far, and as a result, Shizuku had grown into a precocious young girl who never complained about anything regardless of how she truly felt. That was precisely why Hajime suspected Shuzou and the others had decided to hide the true nature of the Yaegashi family from her, so that she wouldn’t be burdened by yet more expectations. The reason they were opening up so slowly now was because they wanted to test the waters and make absolutely certain that revealing the full truth wouldn’t pressure her into walking down a path she didn’t want.
Of course, this was all speculation, but Hajime was pretty confident in his conclusions. And so, he smiled gently at Shizuku as she stuffed her face full of snacks and said, “They’re a troublesome bunch, all right, but I’m sure your family cares deeply about you.”
“I know...”
In retrospect, Shizuku might have also come to the conclusion Hajime had regarding her family.
As Shizuku wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, Hajime said, “Anyway, regardless of whether one of my wives becomes a kunoichi in the future—”
“I won’t, don’t worry.”
Right as Hajime opened his mouth to continue, he stopped and started looking around. Shizuku realized what he was probably searching for and a glint of anger entered her eyes as she looked around.
A few seconds later, she also sensed the presences Hajime must have and openly scowled. She was slightly late on the uptake when it came to sensing her own family members because she was used to being around them so much.
“Even after I told them I’d run away if they did it again...”
“Now, now, relax. Things have finally started calming down, so they probably want to test whether I’m worthy of being your husband.”
“No, they’re just pouting because none of their techniques work on you, Hajime.”
That does seem more likely.
Shuzou and Toramasa were both hardened warriors, so naturally, it stung their pride if someone managed to evade all of their techniques.
“Now even Kirino-san is joining in. Maybe this really is a trial of some sort?”
“Huh? What are you talking about? Mom’s in the kitchen right now. She hasn’t done anything, has she?”
“She put something in the tea...and in those sweets. Regular poisons don’t work on me, but I’m pretty sure it’s a paralyzing agent of some kind.”
“Moooooooooooom! That’s it! If you guys don’t cut it out, I’m going to cut you in half!” Shizuku shouted, her voice echoing throughout the whole mansion. She then summoned her trusty black katana and leaped out of her room.
Hajime took the last of the sweets and plopped them straight into his mouth.
“This is much easier to work with than Kaori’s dad’s reaction, since it’s just a test of strength and skill,” he muttered.
“All of you, sit down right this instant! I’m going to teach you some manners!” Hajime heard Shizuku shout from a few rooms away.
That was quickly followed by Shuzou screaming, “Bwah?! Shizuku, you’ve grown even stronger?!”
“Heh, very well, then. Let’s see just how much you polished your swordsmanship while you were away in the other world!” Toramasa exclaimed, seemingly still resisting.
There was a loud crash, followed by a disciple shouting, “We need reinforcements urgently! The young miss is going on a rampage!”
Another one yelled, “At her current level of strength, we won’t be able to win just by ganging up on her! Get into the four corners of judgment formation!”
“She’s left the boy’s side! White tiger team, kill him now!”
Hajime waited patiently as numerous people closed in on his location from all sides.
“I guess Earth isn’t all that different from Tortus after all...” he muttered with a sad shake of his head.
Incidentally, when Shizuku went on a family trip to visit extended relatives the day Hajime took Yue and the others out on a date, she called him in the middle of the night, screaming, “Hajime, there are people claiming to be from the Iga clan and the Kouga clan here! They’re all dressed like ninjas too, but they keep saying it’s a fashion statement and that they’re not really ninjas! What do I do?!”
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