--The thought that he might really have lived together with a witch involuntarily surfaced in the girl's mind.
"..."
Arisu gazed out the window, some passion she had lost long ago reigniting in her heart.
But--it soon cooled down.
There probably wouldn't be a next time, right?
Starting tomorrow, she would return to her unchanging life.
Return to being the eternal witch abandoned by the era and forgotten by the world--
"I've bothered you again today."
The next day, Arisu Kyōnoji opened the door and saw the red-haired boy once again.
"Why..." the girl murmured.
Shirou replied, "The holiday started yesterday, so I don't have to go to school."
A trace of panic entered Arisu Kyōnoji's voice. "That's not what I wanted to ask..."
Shirou tilted his head and thought for a moment. "It feels really comfortable staying in this house, so I came to bother you again."
"You took the Shinkansen here just for that?"
"Yeah. Can I come in? I brought a gift."
As he spoke, Shirou showed her the Japanese sweets he had bought from a confectionery in Fuyuki City that morning.
"..."
After a long silence, Arisu Kyōnoji adjusted her emotions and lowered her beautiful head.
"I'll make some tea."
For the week that followed, Shirou visited Kuonji Mansion on the mountain every day.
He and Arisu Kyōnoji quietly enjoyed tea and snacks in the sitting room or the sunroom.
Sometimes they turned on the television, and sometimes they didn't.
It was a space created through the tacit understanding between the two of them--
Shirou and Arisu Kyōnoji would occasionally exchange a few scattered words, simply letting time pass by slowly.
Shirou also helped clean the house.
Watching the red-haired boy bustle about the house, Arisu Kyōnoji felt complicated and subtly moved.
Perhaps this