"It's all right, Shogun... This is completely normal. If it bothers you, why not just change into a new pair of stockings?"
Makoto comforted her. Her daughter seemed to care quite a lot about things related to her appearance... including how dirty or messy her clothes were. Was she really the sort of girl who loved dressing herself up? Unlike demon gods like Makoto and Ei, who were satisfied as long as they had clothes to wear.
"Haa... Forget it. I'll leave them like this for now... I don't usually show my feet anyway."
That was true. She rarely took off her shoes under normal circumstances unless she was at home. Even so, there was no unpleasant odor. Just as with Kokomi back then, there was even a faint fragrance unique to her body. Thinking about it that way, there was really nothing worth worrying about.
"By the way, how long can you maintain this state?"
She deftly changed the subject. Somehow, the previous topic had begun to feel a little strange. She tucked her damp white-stockinged feet beneath her bottom, shifting into a kneeling position.
"Me? How long do you want me to stay~?"
Makoto asked with a smile.
"...Could you stay for the whole night? Um... sleep with me. I... don't dare sleep alone."
Like a clingy child, she lightly tugged at Makoto's sleeve. Her voice was soft, making her seem particularly adorable and pitiful.
"Of course I can. How could Mommy refuse her darling's request~? I'll stay with you~"
Makoto dotingly pressed close to her, cupped her face in both hands, and kneaded her cheeks back and forth several times.
She knew that Ei was usually the one who stayed with her daughter at times like this, but Ei was not here at the moment, nor were the other girls, so it naturally fell to her instead. Although this would only be the second time she had slept beside her daughter, she was still very much looking forward to it~!
"Mm... Th-Then I'll go take a bath first."
She suppressed the anticipation in her heart, then removed her outer jacket, revealing the enticing white shirt beneath that accentuated her figure. Casually taking off her bow tie exposed her flawless, fair, delicate collarbones. She intended to simply get out of bed and head to the bathroom, but things did not go quite as simply as she imagined.
"Shogun, wait. Mommy will come too."
At the sight, Makoto's thoughts turned quickly. She felt that she ought to rinse herself off as well. Although it was somewhat unnecessary, she decided to do it for the sake of the atmosphere, so she wanted to bring her daughter along and bathe together.
"Eh? ///"
Her body immediately stiffened.
"Come on~ Let's bathe together with Mommy."
Without waiting for her to react, Makoto pushed her straight into the bathroom. As she did, she adorably lifted a hand hidden inside her furisode sleeve to cover her mouth, her eyes curving like crescent moons with amusement.
"Wait—! N-No, don't///—!"
After the bathroom door closed, only the Shogun's muffled, delicate protest could be heard.
"Let Mommy see how much you've developed~?"
Makoto's voice also came from behind the door, carrying a trace of anticipation.
"D-Don't... Don't take off my clothes///!"
Behind the bathroom's frosted glass, the silhouettes of two slender figures became entangled ambiguously. One was being undressed by the other, while the one whose clothes were being removed protected the front of her body and curled inward.
"Don't be shy~ Mommy took hers off too. Look~ Of course you have to take off your clothes to bathe."
The other silhouette let the outline of her kimono slip down to the floor as well.
"D-Don't do that... Don't touch me everywhere—"
Hiss...
The figure embracing the person in her arms reached up and turned on the shower, filling the bathroom with the scattered noise of falling water.
"Mm~ So cold~!"
The Shogun's silhouette trembled again. She seriously suspected that her body was far too sensitive, especially whenever someone close to her touched her. The sensation seemed to become magnified instinctively.
"—!"
Makoto immediately turned off the shower.
"Um... how do you adjust the temperature on this?"
She asked awkwardly.
"Haa... The water in the bathtub is hot."
She raised a hand and pointed toward the large ceramic bathtub ahead, which had already been filled with hot water.
At that, Makoto said nothing more. She simply lifted her precious daughter into a princess carry, making the Shogun's face flush once again. She instinctively wrapped her arms around Makoto's neck. When Makoto sat down on the edge of the bathtub, she lowered her daughter into the hot water.
The Shogun was not heavy at all. In fact, she felt almost weightless in Makoto's arms.
"—!"
As the Shogun's delicate body entered the water, she instinctively gave an adorable little shiver. Makoto first stood up and thoughtfully folded the clothes they had removed, placing them in the laundry basket. Then she returned to the bathtub and slipped her own fair legs into the water.
She then lowered the rest of her body into the bath, settling behind the Shogun before drawing her daughter into her arms from behind.
"...///"
The Shogun no longer struggled. She comfortably nestled into Makoto's embrace from behind, enjoying the warmth as she soaked in water at the perfect temperature.
"Comfortable?"
Makoto whispered softly beside her ear.
"Mm..."
She nodded with a blush. She could feel something soft pressing against her back. Below the water were two equally slender pairs of long legs stretching toward the other end of the bathtub. Makoto's toenails, like hers, were painted pale violet, and her feet were similarly slender and delicate.
"..."
Seeing this, she deliberately moved her feet beneath the water and trapped Makoto's left foot between them.
"...?"
Feeling the contact against her foot, Makoto glanced down curiously. Then, suppressing her laughter, she exerted a little force and escaped her daughter's grip before retaliating as though playing with a child.
"—!"
Unfortunately, after only a short while, the Shogun lost. Both of her legs ended up tangled and restrained by Makoto's.
"Haa, when it comes to strength... you really do take after Ei. That's good. Don't take after me. I'm not very strong."
Looking at her trapped legs, Makoto lowered her gaze toward the daughter in her arms and sighed.
"My personality takes after you..."
The Shogun turned to look at the mother behind her.
"Hehe... I can tell. You're nowhere near as rigid as Ei."
Makoto smiled.
"Ei can pin me down very easily. Every single time."
Their strength was clearly about the same, yet somehow she could never win...
"She doesn't go easy on you?"
Makoto took the Shogun's hand and gently rubbed it.
"She's very serious about things like this. She never lets me win."
The Shogun puffed out her cheeks and turned slightly, resting her head against Makoto's collarbone.
"Hehe, Ei has always been rather competitive, so..."
Makoto smiled.
"Mm. Every time she tangles me up, she says things like, 'Let's see whether you can break free...'"
She imitated Ei's tone and voice.
"Hehe, that really does sound like something Ei would say..."
Makoto laughed.
"Mm, but every time I try to break free, she secretly eases up, so I always manage to escape. Whenever I look up afterward, I can see the smile on her face and the gentleness in her eyes."
"Once I see that look in her eyes, whether she lets me win or not stops mattering, because I can feel that she's always cared about me."
Perhaps this was Ei's way of being gentle?
A tender expression gradually appeared on her face, and her violet eyes shimmered with moisture.
"Shogun..."
Makoto shifted slightly closer to her daughter, lying sideways with her in the bathtub.
"Mm?"
Hearing her mother's call, she raised her head and met Makoto's eyes, those violet eyes so similar to Ei's.
"Do you think you're happy?"
Makoto asked.
"..."
Hearing this, she slowly nodded.
She really was very happy. She had her mother, as well as Ayaka, Kokomi, and the others by her side. She was already content.
"That's good..."
Splash. Makoto sighed in relief and smiled at her. Then she scooped up some bathwater in her palm and gently spread it across her daughter's smooth, rounded shoulder.
"..."
The Shogun also understood that Makoto intended to wash her, so she obediently turned around and sat in the water, allowing the woman behind her to occasionally splash water over her back and neck. Both of their hair had been wrapped in bath towels, leaving their slender necks exposed to the air.
"You two need to get along..."
"..."
Makoto's hand stopped as she looked at the girl in front of her.
"Don't have any more conflicts. A family should live in harmony."
"Mm. We definitely will."
Makoto promised.
...
After the mother and daughter finished bathing, the Shogun was the first to leave the bathroom. Wrapped in her bathrobe, she immediately darted onto the bed without a word. She did not even dry her hair before burrowing straight under the covers.
Makoto was the last to leave the bathroom. After tightening the bathrobe around herself, she switched off the bathroom light and carried the neatly folded clothes they had removed into the bedroom.
Naturally, these included her own kimono, hair ornaments, underwear, and tabi socks, while the Shogun's consisted of her Tennoz school uniform and white thigh-high stockings. She carefully placed both sets of clothes beside the bed so they could put them on first thing tomorrow morning.
"Darling, sit up and let me dry your hair."
She glanced at her daughter, who had already burrowed under the covers, and brought over a towel. Speaking gently and indulgently, she sat down on the edge of the bed and unfolded it.
"..."
The little kitten beneath the covers squirmed around for a moment before an adorable little head poked out through a gap. She then crawled out and sat on the bed, allowing her mother beside her to dry her hair.
Perhaps because she usually kept it tied up, the Shogun's hair was not perfectly straight when let down. Instead, the ends fell in gently curling waves, beautiful and captivating like a violet sea.
Feeling the soft touch against her head, she narrowed her eyes slightly and enjoyed it. They could have used a hair dryer, of course, but Makoto was not accustomed to using one. She preferred drying hair by hand, slowly working the towel through the Shogun's long locks little by little until they gradually dried.
Perhaps because she had activated her sleep simulation some time ago, the Shogun was already growing drowsy and muddleheaded. She looked as though she might fall asleep right in the middle of the process.
"All done. Lie down now~"
At last, Makoto lightly brushed a finger across the tip of her nose and removed the towel.
"—!"
Plop~
She immediately collapsed back into the blankets and stopped moving. Makoto, meanwhile, sat at the dressing table and dried her own hair. Glancing at the Shogun curled beneath the covers and sinking into the soft bed, she instinctively revealed a deeply affectionate smile.
Things really were different once you had a child. She did not know whether Ei felt the same way. No matter what unforgettable experiences the two sisters had gone through as demon gods, or how many wars they had fought, once they had this precious darling lying on the bed, all the hard edges carved into them by the cruelty of the past seemed to be worn smooth by this warmth. It was an indescribable feeling, one that both sisters knew they had to treasure.
"Thank goodness these are peaceful times..."
She murmured softly.
"...? Did you say something?"
The Shogun raised her hazy eyes and asked drowsily.
"I said you're the precious darling of both of us sisters~!"
Makoto smoothly came up with an excuse.
"..."
Hearing that, the Shogun buried her face beneath the covers again.
"Hehe~"
Makoto smiled indulgently and returned the towel to its place. Moving quietly and gently, she slipped her shapely legs beneath the covers, followed by the rest of her body, sharing with the person beside her a large quilt that covered the entire bed.
Before she could even lie down properly, the little kitten under the covers had already clung to her, wrapping her arms around Makoto's waist and pressing her face against her.
"Pfft, Shogun... Are you this clingy with Ei too?"
Makoto stroked the hair of the girl in her arms, then switched off the bedside lamp, leaving the room dimly illuminated by only a trace of moonlight. She lay beneath the covers and wrapped her arms around her daughter as she asked.
"No."
The girl in her arms rubbed against her chest and shook her head.
"You don't cling to Ei?"
Lying on her side beneath the covers, Makoto looked at the Shogun right in front of her... though all she could see was the top of her head, and asked curiously.
"It's not that... Before I even get the chance to cling to her, she comes up from behind and clings to me first."
The Shogun answered muffledly, her face buried against Makoto's chest.
"Pfft, really?"
Makoto asked.
"Mm... She often hugs me from behind, and she always likes pressing her face into the crook of my neck."
"Hm? The crook of your neck?"
Sniff, sniff~
Makoto thought about it, then leaned toward the Shogun's fair neck and sniffed it while suppressing her laughter.
"Mm~"
Sure enough, the Shogun adorably shrank her neck.
"Indeed. It really does smell like Ei."
Makoto nodded solemnly as though she had confirmed something important.
"Why can you smell it too? Miko can smell it as well."
She asked in confusion.
"...Miko? Haa... What a nostalgic little one. Has she grown up already?"
Makoto asked with interest.
"Mm. She's been an adult for a long time. She's over five hundred years old now, and she usually takes human form."
She answered.
"Is that so? Time truly flies. In my memories, Miko was still a little fluffy kitsune."
Makoto gazed toward the moonlight blocked by the curtains and reminisced.
"Back then, during gatherings with the youkai, she was always clinging to us sisters. Sometimes she'd even play little tricks on the other youkai. Hehe~ She was very adorable."
At that, Makoto could not help laughing aloud.
"Mm... I've heard her talk about it."
The Shogun responded.
"Right, speaking of Miko, she's also your older sister~?"
Makoto reminded her.
"I know... She's always using the title of 'older sister' to tease me, and I... can't exactly argue with her."
She rubbed against Makoto's chest aggrievedly.
"Hmm—when I think about it, Shogun, you should be the youngest, shouldn't you? At least among all the friends I know?"
Makoto suddenly thought of something and recalled the acquaintances in her memories who were hundreds or even thousands of years old. Unfortunately, a great many of them were already gone, and only a few remained.
"Of course I know... Just thinking about it makes me feel unwilling to accept it."
She complained adorably.
"There's nothing wrong with that. You can actually look at it from the positive side~? Being younger means everyone is more likely to care for you and look after you. You get to be spoiled and loved by all your elders, and you can act as spoiled as you like. That's actually a very happy thing."
Makoto comforted her.
"...Even if that's true, still... Haa... Forget it."
She wanted to argue, but could not think of any way to refute it, so she gave up.
"Oh, right, Shogun. Do you know Ganyu?"
An idea suddenly occurred to Makoto, and she thought of someone.
"Ganyu? Older Sister Ganyu? I know of her... Miko mentioned her before."
She answered.
"Is she doing well?"
Makoto asked somewhat vaguely.
"Mm. I haven't really met her much. She should be doing fine."
She replied uncertainly.
"She's an auspicious qilin of Liyue and also a half-adeptus beast. Long ago, she once visited Inazuma as a guest to discuss matters of commerce. I met her several times, and occasionally we would chat about miscellaneous things as well. Back then, I told her that Ei and I wanted a child. When she heard, she even gave us her blessings."
"..."
So Makoto and Ei had already started planning for me that far back?
The Shogun, already close to falling asleep, marveled inwardly.
"She even said at the time that once our child was born, she'd like to meet her. Hehe... Looking at it now, hasn't it already been several hundred years?"
Makoto reminisced about the past.
"..."
Zzz...
"...?"
Makoto came back to herself and lowered her gaze, only to discover that the Shogun had already closed her eyes and fallen asleep. Her beautiful face was dimly illuminated by the moonlight. Her delicate little lips were slightly parted, her chest rising and falling rhythmically.
From time to time, soft, sweet breaths brushed against Makoto's chest. Her hands rested in front of herself like a kitten's paws as she curled up in Makoto's embrace.
"Looks like you really were sleepy."
Seeing this, Makoto smiled tenderly and pressed her lips to the forehead of the girl in her arms...
Chu...
She gently gave her a goodnight kiss.
Goodnight... darling.