Ch.137Growth (7)

*

“Shouldn’t you say I look pretty first?”

Pia slowly rose from her seat.

Standing upright on both feet with her back straight, her growth was much more evident than when she was sitting.

Clearly, when Pia used to stand beside me, her twitching ears would have been positioned just below my waist, but now they seemed to reach up to my solar plexus.

I could see that her smooth, white legs extending from beneath the jacket had noticeably lengthened, and her arms too had grown longer, as if stretched out, compared to the Pia from just minutes ago.

“…What are you looking at?”

Pia pulled down the hem of her jacket, trying to cover her exposed thighs.

The jacket was long enough to cover her buttocks, but without any bottoms, it still looked quite precarious.

Pia turned her face away with a pout and glared at me with a slightly furrowed expression.

“…Pervert.”

“…Ah, sorry.”

I answered blankly.

Honestly, just trying to keep up with the current situation was overwhelming enough that my brain didn’t seem to be functioning properly.

Until just moments ago, Pia had been a little child, but in a flash of light, she had grown into a young lady—it would be stranger not to be surprised.

Her taller, slender frame. Her more voluminous hair.

Her fox ears that had grown sharper and longer, her tail that looked sturdier, and her slightly elongated face.

These were such significant changes that it wouldn’t be strange to think someone else had been brought in her place.

Even her sharpened gaze as she glared at me and her more defined features were both familiar as the Pia I knew, yet simultaneously very unfamiliar.

But within that unfamiliar face, there was definitely something that felt incredibly familiar and nostalgic.

I stared intently at the girl before me, as if trying to find traces of the Pia I knew.

My foolish face was reflected transparently in her eyes, which contained vertically slit, sharp pupils.

And at that moment,

I suddenly felt a wave of nausea and crouched down, covering my mouth.

“Ash?”

“Ugh, guh…”

“Wh-what’s wrong all of a sudden? Am I that bad?”

“N-no, that’s not it… ugh.”

“…”

I tried to deny Pia’s self-deprecation while sweating from the inexplicable discomfort, slowly trying to catch my breath.

What is this?

Why did my stomach suddenly feel so bad?

As I was pondering this, Pia seemed to realize something and lifted her head with an “Ah” of realization.

Then she immediately made a sad expression, approached me, and murmured softly.

“…Ah, I see.”

“Pia… just a moment… huff… huff… why am I… why am I like this…”

“Ash…”

Pia slowly reached out and covered my eyes with her hand.

Surprisingly, that alone seemed to make me feel a bit better.

As I slowly exhaled with slightly easier breathing, Pia quietly embraced me with her other arm.

I called out the name of this small fox girl I had given her, in a bewildered voice.

“Pia?”

Pia held me tightly for a long while without answering.

After waiting for my trembling to stop, she finally spoke quietly after quite some time.

“You’re reminded of Laila, aren’t you?”

“…N-no…”

“You are. I can tell. Because I’ve been watching Ash all this time.”

Since she was young,

Since my very early childhood when I couldn’t yet see Pia, she had been watching me.

She had been by my side.

And because she was Pia, she seemed able to notice.

Pia had so easily identified the cause of my symptoms that even I hadn’t realized.

*

Taking advantage of the momentary calm, I asked Pia.

“How… did you know?”

Even without any additional explanation, Pia seemed to understand what I was asking.

Pia spoke softly.

“I’ve been watching all along. Of course I’d know that much.”

Pia said just that and closed her mouth again.

But like Pia, I too could understand her feelings sufficiently without further explanation.

My pounding heart gradually calmed down, and my breathing became more even.

As my confused mind slowly settled, I felt a burning sensation in the back of my throat, as if it had been seared with a hot piece of metal.

It was probably due to the reflux of stomach acid after vomiting.

I coughed harshly because of my stinging throat.

Pia flinched as if startled, then hugged my shoulders even more tightly.

Suddenly realizing that a young girl was embracing me with all her might made me feel somewhat embarrassed, so I forcibly changed the subject with a hoarse voice.

“…Why did you suddenly grow?”

“I matured.”

“I don’t understand. Everything today has happened so suddenly…”

“All the things that have happened to Ash these past few months have been nothing but sudden events.”

“Ha, that’s true…”

As I let out a faint laugh, Pia moved slightly away from me and looked at me.

I slowly raised my head to look at Pia as well.

Pia fastened the collar of the jacket that had been armor just minutes ago and said:

“I become stronger the more I receive from Ash.”

“So that’s why you took things from my drawer and swallowed them.”

“Yes, there was nothing else I could do at that time.”

Pia slowly waved her hand in front of my eyes.

A faded red fingerless wool glove covered Pia’s dainty hand with its slender fingers.

That glove that Pia had found and swallowed from my room,

It was the very glove my mother had knitted for me when I was young.

I slowly leaned my back against the wall and said in a cracked voice:

“…Then I should have brought more things from my room. Though I wasn’t in the right state of mind for that.”

At my words, Pia slowly shook her head.

“I don’t get stronger from just any object. I found everything in that room that could help me.”

“What’s the criteria?”

“Things precious to Ash. Or things that connect Ash and me.”

“…”

Pia slowly began to explain.

I was grateful for Pia’s improved articulation, which matched her newly grown appearance.

If she had been six-year-old Pia, she would have predictably stammered like a broken machine when trying to explain something complicated.

“When Ash couldn’t see me, I only received a little of Ash’s magic, and after Ash became able to see me, I received a name.”

“You count receiving a name too?”

“Because Ash thought of it for me.”

“…”

Pia placed her index finger on my lips as if telling me not to interrupt, and continued her explanation.

“Receiving a name was significant. I felt like I could grow if I received just a little more. But after that, Ash didn’t think about giving me anything. Of course, Ash was preoccupied after reuniting with the hero.”

Indeed, I had named Pia after leaving Silvia’s side, when I was staying alone with her, still a fox cub, by this lake.

The little fox Pia who warmed the chilly night air by setting herself on fire every night.

I still clearly remembered her soft fur and warm body temperature.

“So I drank Ash’s blood.”

“…What?”

“Well, technically I licked it.”

Looking back, it was after she had licked the wound on my knee that she took on the form of a six-year-old child.

“So you drank my blood and took on a human form.”

“Probably.”

“And then you received objects with my memories attached to them and grew like this?”

“Maybe?”

Pia answered with a tilt of her head.

Seeing Pia suddenly giving vague answers, I let out a hollow laugh.

Pia puffed her cheeks and spoke in an upset voice toward me.

“Actually, I don’t really know either. Does Ash remember what you ate to grow taller?”

“No… but that’s different…”

“It’s the same for me. Honestly, my feeling is that I just grew at some point while being with Ash.”

At Pia’s answer, I tilted my head but gradually nodded.

Perhaps for spirits, physical bodies don’t have much meaning, making it difficult for her to explain.

In fact, I wasn’t even sure if what I was seeing now could be called Pia’s physical body.

Silvia still wouldn’t be able to see Pia, and Pia could disappear from my sight at will if she wanted to.

It was frustrating that this fairy-tale-like being called a spirit was still full of mysteries, but at the same time, I was glad that she still retained her peculiar mystique.

That complex emotion stemmed from a mixture of anxiety about whether I could properly handle this power and expectation that it could become an incredible ability if I did.

“Then what was that painful state you were in earlier?”

“Don’t know. I was so hungry I can’t remember.”

“Hungry?”

“Yes, I was so hungry my stomach hurt.”

“You scared me. You were hunched over and groaning, so I thought you were sick.”

“It did hurt.”

“…Maybe it was like growing pains.”

I came to a reasonable conclusion.

It seemed like she was just barely missing the final piece needed for another growth spurt.

And that final piece was the armor I had made.

I asked Pia:

“So now that you’ve grown, can you use that teleport thing you did earlier multiple times?”

“…”

“Pia?”

“It doesn’t work like that.”

“What do you mean?”

Pia crossed her arms and made an angry expression.

Despite her rather sharp eyes, given her apparent age, it looked more like a cute tantrum than anything else.

“Ash, do you remember when I was angry earlier?”

“Earlier?”

“Before we went to your room.”

“…Yes, I remember.”

“Do you know why I was angry?”

“…”

I don’t know.

To be honest, I had just apologized perfunctorily because I found it bothersome to deal with, without giving any thought to why Pia was angry.

After all, who would take a six-year-old’s anger seriously?

I hesitated and slowly turned my head.

“Yes, this is why.”

“This?”

“…Sigh.”

Pia showed me her reddened eyelids and said:

“Ash only looks for me when you need something.”

“…Ah, no, that’s not…”

“Ash uses me like a convenient tool. I don’t like that.”

.