Clam Digging Like Old Times
"I'm putting on this imitation," Aria continued in that clear, unfinished voice unique to children.
"So why won't you even try to imitate me?"
"Having black hair doesn't make me Giovanni, does it?"
"Well…"
Aria took him in with her eyes.
Not the gold priestly robes that symbolized the sun, nor the white cape that represented the priests of light—he wore a black cloak instead. A man with jet-black hair and a face utterly without laughter, gloomy in a way that clashed with every memory she held of him. An eerie presence that could hardly be called human.
"……"
Even so, she could not bring herself to declare that he was not Giovanni.
"…I still don't really understand."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Is this what they call reincarnation?"
It was a strange thing, truly.
"It's not as though I've never seen cases like that before, but this seems like a different sort entirely. It doesn't feel like he simply received divinity from the Sun God and became deified, either."
How was she supposed to explain the Ji-oh standing before her eyes?
"The people of Earth say they call you 'Black Cloak' when they look at you, don't they?"
"I've received that name, yes."
"Is that what you would call your current identity?"
"It's only one of my names."
"Very well, Giovanni."
The little mermaid shifted her bare feet and approached him.
"Were you… a portrait from the very beginning?"
"I am human."
"……"
Only after a long pause did Aria answer.
"…I suppose that could be true."
Even Aria, for all her vast knowledge, could not properly define the Black Cloak before her. He looked like a painting, felt like a god, and at the same time seemed genuinely human.
"What brought you to this village?"
"I came to dig clams."
"Well, fine. You always did love to eat, so I understand."
"I also remember how much Aria used to enjoy my cooking."
"Then will you invite me to your feast?"
"If you help me dig the clams."
"…Honestly, what a frivolous human…"
Aria dragged the oversized white coat that did not fit her small frame, wandering across the mudflats. The magically treated garment did not soil easily.
"I'll help."
"Thank you."
They had spent time like this often enough in the past.
"This brings back old memories."
"What kind of memories?"
"Just… this and that. Silly things."
Giovanni had once brought curious mermaids to places like this. Or to beaches crowded with fishermen, bustling markets packed with people shopping, even banks where one could deposit money.
As her bare feet churned the mud, the pure white silt—so different from Earth's—turned over in slow, heavy folds.
"What are you planning to cook?"
"Grilled clams and Edelon stew."
"Something delicious, then. Are you putting clams in the stew as well?"
"That would be fine too. There's meat, so I could add that instead."
"Hmm…"
Ji-oh's skill in the kitchen was exceptional.
"Come to think of it, you must have been nobility. Why did you enjoy cooking so much?"
"You never asked when you were young. What changed your mind?"
"Back then I thought it was the wiser course. Human lives are so short and complicated that I was afraid if I poked carelessly, blood might come out."
"And now?"
"I know now that you're not someone who bleeds when poked."
"That's true."
The black-eyed Ji-oh stepped closer and folded up Aria's sleeves. The coat, sized for an adult man, had to be rolled several times in thick folds before her hands finally appeared—small, delicate child's hands.
"The reason I enjoyed cooking even as a noble was simply because I wanted to eat delicious things."
"Not a grand reason after all. But you could have had others cook for you and still eaten delicious food whenever you wanted."
"I wanted to see for myself which ingredients went in and what dish came out."
Ji-oh lightly sent Honey flying from his shoulder; the bird soared just beneath the dome's ceiling and brightly illuminated the underground space. The already white mud became so vivid it almost dazzled the eyes.
"I wanted to improve myself."
"That sounds just like you."
"Where is Iser?"
"Hiding in the temple."
"Why didn't he come with you?"
"Someone has to watch the house."
"Who would ever rob that grim place…"
"Someone like the Black Cloak, for instance."
"……"
Ji-oh felt a slight injustice. Raising one eyebrow, he asked,
"Do I frighten you, Aria?"
"Wouldn't I be?"
"Why?"
"That dark, gloomy atmosphere of yours is oppressive enough as it is."
"I have never been oppressive."
"You are now, I think."
"I still feel wronged."
"Well, and on top of that…"
Looking up from her shrunken body, Aria said,
"…I didn't know what face I should wear to face you, so I couldn't bring myself to go meet you easily."
"It's true that the moment we reunited, we started with a fight."
There had been no time to feel the emotion of reunion or anything of the sort.
"From my perspective, it felt rather like the little nieces and nephews I raised as my own children had gone on a few years of overseas travel and, upon returning home, committed mass slaughter and even kidnapped a child."
"If we're putting it that way, from my side it felt like the beloved teacher I thought was dead had reincarnated as some jet-black lump of a monster that wasn't even human. And he even came equipped with the divinity of that irritating Sun God, so I half wondered if someone was deliberately trying to enrage us."
At those words, Ji-oh nodded.
"I still think my shock was greater."
"I almost missed that shamelessness of yours."
The mermaid gave a short laugh.
"You're not angry?"
"Should I be angry?"
"At the very least, the things we've done all this time weren't the sort that would sit well with you, Giovanni."
"I don't see any need for the already-dead me to take responsibility for how the children I raised have changed, or to get angry about it."
"That's rather cold…"
"I already spent every scrap of my anger at that banquet hall."
With his jet-black hair and emotionless eyes, Ji-oh continued,
"The rest is for the Giovanni who died long ago to settle—and he has neither the duty nor the right."
"……"
Soon the mermaid spoke again.
"Then that's fine."
Aria, too, was no longer curious.
"You said we have all the time in the world, after all."
"Exactly that."
Above all, Ji-oh was not the type to brood deeply. He was not someone who would flinch just because the mermaid disciples he cherished had grown into mad merfolk.
"And fretting over food that's right in front of you is a bad habit."
"Isn't that just you being strange, Ji-oh? Why do you love food this much?"
"Why don't you love food this much?"
"You can't live on eating alone."
"But you can't live without eating, either."
"…Fine. As long as you're happy, that's enough."
"You're giving up more easily than I expected."
It was surprising.
"You used to dig your heels in and try to win no matter what."
"I've become an adult now."
"For someone who claims that, I seem to remember you crying at the dinner table."
"…You do remember who made you cry, right?"
"And you remember who made you angry, don't you?"
"…Oh…"
"Looks like I won this round too."
"…You really do have a shameless side…"
"It's part of my charm."
Ji-oh looked down at the mermaid, now so small he had to bend quite far to meet her gaze.
"Can you dig clams with that body?"
"I used to come dig them often even when I was this small. Why ask that now?"
"I was asking whether you feel any dissonance at having a younger body."
"This much transformation is easy for me now."
"Hmm."
A moment later he asked,
"That coat is mine after all, isn't it?"
"……"
The mermaid answered promptly.
"This doctor's coat?"
"Yes."
"That's right. It's mine now."
"I was always planning to leave it to you, so it's fine."
"……"
After a rather long silence, the mermaid asked with deliberate nonchalance,
"You were?"
"Did you think you had stolen it?"
"……"
"Your silence tells me you did."
It was true. Aria could not deny his words.
"I never imagined you meant to leave it to me."
"I intended the doctor's coat for you, Aria, and my priestly robes for Iser."
"Unfortunately, your priestly robes were torn apart. By those people from the Sun Church."
"I thought as much. Fortunately the doctor's coat found its way to its proper owner."
"I'm truly surprised."
Aria kept smiling.
"We merfolk ruined the life of the human you once were."
"All the tragedy of that time was closer to something the humans brought upon themselves."
Giovanni could have simply chosen not to help the merfolk at all. The humans could have escalated their pointless emotional war with the merfolk far further. There had once been a world where humans and merfolk might have lived side by side.
"Aria, you have never taken anything from me."
"Is that really true?"
"I simply handed it over of my own free will."
"You're still so kind."
"Did you hope I wouldn't be?"
"I might have."
"But unfortunately…"
In the end, Ji-oh was still Ji-oh.
"I find I'm not very good at changing."
Perhaps it was simply because he never thought too deeply about things.
"In that spirit, shall we dig some more clams?"
"You have a talent for shattering the mood."
"I need to prepare dinner before it gets any later…"
"Hah."
The mermaid muttered as she fussed with the coat that kept slipping down even after Ji-oh had rolled up the sleeves.
"I thought you came to talk with me, but you were just a pure glutton."
"It's nice to do both at once."
"You really do just go with the flow of life. That's Giovanni for you."
"You still don't know that life is most enjoyable when you live it roughly."
"……"
A little time passed before the mermaid asked,
"…Are you happy now?"
The answer was not difficult.
"I always have been."
"…Why?"
"Because I always did my best."
"……"
"So now, the clams…"
"Ah, enough."
She let out a soft note of irritation, yet Aria still dutifully joined the clam expedition.
"We're back."
"Kku-wu…"
The teddy bear regarded the four living creatures who had arrived with armfuls of clams.
"Kku?"
"Yes, I also brought Aria and Iser…"
"Kku."
"I brought them along."
After so long without word while they dug clams, Iser had grown concerned enough to come looking for them in the village of Edelon.
And there he had discovered his older sister squatting in a dress, digging clams. Ji-oh learned for the first time that a face already so pale could turn even whiter. Thus Iser, too, was forcibly enrolled in the clam excavation team.
Iser stared with a complicated expression at the Sun God wearing the teddy-bear skin.
"……"
"Kku-wuuu."
"…You've become much cuter since I last saw you…"
"Kkukku."
"Is that a laugh?"
Truly?
What am I even looking at?
Iser, still cradling a full load of clams, was already light-headed with confusion.
The sight of none other than Aria herself getting mud on her hands to dig clams had been disorienting enough; so was his own situation, having been naturally dragged along the same path to dig clams and then hauled all the way to the cabin.
"Why is the Sun God here…? I did sense that the sun's presence had vanished, but this is…"
"He's still your grandfather, so don't be like that. It's not proper to make someone so elderly who is quietly minding his own business feel uncomfortable."
"No, no, ah."
Iser was at a loss for words, yet his sister Aria was not in a much better position.
"A teddy bear?"
"Kku."
"Are you serious?"
"Kkukkukku…"
"You're laughing?"
Through that calmly chaotic scene, Honey toddled across the floor on little feet and approached the teddy bear. Then, with a great clatter, the bird spat out every size of clam it had swallowed.
"Kkuk."
"Kku-wu."
"Kkureureureu!"
"Kkukku…"
The teddy bear laughed like an old man watching his grandchild's antics and clapped its soft cotton paws. When Honey proudly puffed out its chest, Dana, who had been watching, stood beside it and struck the same pose. The Sun God was thoroughly delighted.
"What good children."
Ji-oh was delighted as well.
"……"
"……"
He called to the speechless merfolk.
"Time to go clean the clams, kids."
"…Are you our father?"
"I already have two children. Any more than that might be a bit much."
"Then uncle."
"All right, my little nephew—want some pocket money?"
"Is this fun for you?"
"It is fun."
"Oh…"
With that watery exclamation Aria turned into a stone statue, while Iser hurriedly adjusted the clam basket he had nearly dropped and turned his gaze toward Ji-oh.
"Teacher."
"Yes, go ahead."
"Do you by any chance have plans to destroy Earth…?"
"Why would you suddenly ask such a terrible question?"
"Well, looking at the members of this household."
"……?"
Ji-oh glanced around.
"……"
He could not understand.
"One teddy bear, one bird, and one cat—what problem could there possibly be with such an adorable and harmless lineup?"
"Ah, so that's how you regard them… I understand."
"I don't think you do."
Even before they had begun cleaning the clams, it was already a thoroughly noisy family.
(To be continued)