"Is something the matter?"
Tsushima Kagami turned to look at Yukinoshita Shizuku with a smile, sensing she still had something left unsaid.
"I..."
Before she could finish, the door handle twisted with a creak, and the front door swung open from the inside.
Mrs. Yukinoshita stood in the doorway, regarding them both with a cool, unhurried expression.
"Why are you two just standing out here?"
Yukinoshita Shizuku blinked in surprise.
"Mother — you're home so early today?"
Inside the living room, Mrs. Yukinoshita sat at the dining table, leafing through an account ledger. Yukinoshita Shizuku had taken a seat beside her, silent, her hands fidgeting beneath the table — fingers kneading each other in slow, anxious circles. The only sound in the room was the soft, rhythmic tick of the wall clock's second hand.
Then Tsushima Kagami emerged from the bathroom, cutting through the stillness.
"The bath is ready, Mother."
Mrs. Yukinoshita finally looked up. She gave him a small nod, then turned her gaze to Shizuku.
"Shizuku, go take your bath. There's something I need to discuss with Kagami — privately."
"...Can't I stay and listen?"
It was rare for her mother to ask her to leave so that she could speak with Tsushima Kagami alone. Shizuku looked at Mrs. Yukinoshita, puzzled.
Mrs. Yukinoshita didn't elaborate. She simply repeated herself.
"Go take your bath."
Then she rose and looked at Tsushima Kagami.
"Kagami. Come upstairs with me."
"Of course, Mother."
Tsushima Kagami glanced at Shizuku, who was pouting slightly, and gave her a look that said: just go take your bath already.
Then he followed Mrs. Yukinoshita obediently up the stairs.
—
Inside the mother and daughter's room.
Mrs. Yukinoshita and Tsushima Kagami sat across from each other on zazen cushions atop the tatami, both kneeling in formal seiza.
Two distinct fragrances drifted through the room, weaving together and pressing themselves insistently into Kagami's nose.
After so long living under the same roof, he had long since learned to tell them apart — which one was Mrs. Yukinoshita's, which one was Shizuku's.
He was just beginning to drift when Mrs. Yukinoshita reached to her side and produced a document — a certified copy of a property registry — and held it out to him.
Kagami snapped back to attention, accepting it with both hands and taking a moment to read it over.
The document recorded the ownership of a plot of land and the building standing on it, located in Setagaya Ward.
The registered owner was listed as: Dassai-ya Cultural Co., Ltd.
This was the arrangement they had worked out together in advance. Mrs. Yukinoshita had formally incorporated the company as a legal entity and brought Tsushima Kagami on as a registered member. Ever since he had signed the contract to publish the print edition of Shayo, it had all been done in the company's name. Going forward, whether manga, novels, or any other commercial endeavors, everything Tsushima Kagami undertook would be conducted under the banner of Dassai-ya Cultural Co., Ltd. — a perfectly legal vehicle for tax optimization.
Once Kagami came of age, Mrs. Yukinoshita would transfer the company back into his name.
"Thank you for the trouble, Mother."
Kagami smiled and handed the registry copy back to her.
"Please keep it here for safekeeping."
Mrs. Yukinoshita accepted it with a nod.
Then she looked at him — and in that moment, her gaze held a rare complexity: grief and remembrance, relief and gratitude, and underneath it all, a quiet, helpless wistfulness.
"Even though it's already done, I still want to say this — Kagami, you didn't have to go this far. You had no obligation."
"And besides... when a person is gone, they're gone. Even if we buy back the house in Setagaya, even if we return to those familiar streets —"
"— the person won't be there. Going back to a place full of memories would only deepen the longing. It would only bring more grief."
Tsushima Kagami gave a solemn nod — and then met her eyes with an earnest, measured gaze.
"You're right, Mother."
"But here's the thing — having the ability to buy it back, even if it just sits there untouched... that's still better than the alternative."
"Because one day, out of nowhere, you might just really, really want to go back and see it again."
"And you go — only to find that the garden looks nothing like you remember. The exterior has been renovated beyond recognition. Maybe the house itself has been torn down and rebuilt entirely. Nothing left of what you once knew."
"And the people living there now are complete strangers."
"If you were standing there, looking at all of that... wouldn't that hurt even more?"
Mrs. Yukinoshita fell into a long, deep silence after he finished speaking. Kagami made no move to disturb it. He simply sat and waited, quietly.
At length, she came back to herself. A slow smile spread across her face, and she nodded.
"You're right, as always."
With that, Mrs. Yukinoshita rose from her cushion, set it aside, and then lowered herself slowly back down onto the bare tatami. She leaned forward, her upper body bending in a deep, deliberate bow — right hand beneath, left hand above, both placed flat on the floor before her, her forehead pressed to the back of her hands.
A full dogeza.
"This debt belongs to the Yukinoshita family."
"It will never be forgotten."
Tsushima Kagami received Mrs. Yukinoshita's dogeza with perfect composure — and with a clear conscience.
He hadn't paid the full sum upfront, after all. But he had leveraged what connections he had — through Shinshosha and the Kosaka Akane family network — to arrange a favorable deal. In the end, Mrs. Yukinoshita had purchased the property under the name of Dassai-ya Cultural Co., Ltd., on a five-year, interest-free installment plan.
The housing market at this point in time remained deeply depressed. Sellers were sitting on mountains of repossessed properties they couldn't move — every extra day they held onto them was another day of depreciation. Being able to offload one at its original asking price of 250 million yen on a five-year, zero-interest plan was, all things considered, a result that left everyone satisfied.
And as for Tsushima Kagami — in just the first half of last month, Shayo had sold over one million copies, netting nearly ninety million yen. That sum, along with the steady stream of royalties to follow, would serve as the source of funds for both this installment plan and future investments.
"Mother, we're family. Please — no more of this."
"Besides, I'll most likely be building my life in Tokyo going forward. I'll need a permanent address. I can't keep renting here and there forever, can I?"
"Whichever way you look at it, I'd be buying somewhere anyway."
After he finished, Mrs. Yukinoshita sat in silence for a long moment before slowly rising to her feet. Then, still smiling, she reached for a small sheaf of paper documents and handed them to him.
Kagami took them and looked.
They were his own certified family registry copy and his certificate of residence.
Where they had previously read Yukinoshita Kagami, they now read Tsushima Kagami.
He looked up from the documents and met Mrs. Yukinoshita's eyes.
"Mother... what is this?"
Mrs. Yukinoshita looked at him with a gentle, warm smile.
"You're more than capable of bearing your own family name now."
"I understand."
Kagami gave a quiet nod.
Not that he particularly cared about family names one way or another.
But since the change had already been made, there was no point in being fussy about switching it back.
"Oh — there's one more thing I need to mention, Mother."
"Go ahead."
Mrs. Yukinoshita looked at him with mild curiosity.
"When the new semester starts, I'm planning to move out of the apartment and find a place of my own."
Mrs. Yukinoshita's brow furrowed. She tilted her head, puzzled.
"Did Shizuku do something to upset you?"
"Ah — no, it's nothing like that."
Kagami scratched his cheek with an awkward, slightly sheepish laugh.
"It's just... it feels a little inconvenient, that's all."
"And honestly, I think Shizuku feels the same way — though she's probably been too considerate to say so."
Mrs. Yukinoshita's expression cleared. Something seemed to click into place for her, and she raised a hand to cover a quiet, knowing smile.
"I see. Understood."
"Shall I be the one to tell Shizuku?"
Kagami let out a breath of relief and smiled.
"No need. I'll tell her myself."
____
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