Miku, having faced Mountdog, seemed tired and lay down without practicing Streep much.
When she first returned, Miku had the Streep with the intention of practicing, but she started to doze off, so the others around her stopped her.
Normally, Miku would have protested, but this time, she immediately let go of the Streep.
Seiya and Shia, who were watching Miku from inside the self-propelled wagon, sat on the driver’s seat so as not to disturb Miku’s nap.
However, judging from Miku’s sleeping state, the adults around her thought that she wouldn’t wake up even if they made a little noise.
Of course, they didn’t say anything like that, and they had a leisurely conversation.
Seiya and Shia, sitting on the driver’s seat, were talking with Kousuke and Colette.
“The wind feels nice!”
Inside the self-propelled wagon, no wind entered unless the windows were opened, but the driver’s seat was directly exposed to the wind.
Currently, because Miku was sleeping inside, they were driving at a slightly reduced speed, so the wind was just right for the children.
By the way, when they were moving at high speed, the wind blew strongly, but the adults weakened the wind using their own magic.
“It’s dangerous, so don’t lean out too far.”
“I know!”
To Kousuke’s repeated warning, Shia replied obediently.
For Seiya and Shia, they had heard this countless times already, but when dealing with children, they had to be that persistent or they might act impulsively.
Kousuke knew this and was being overly cautious.
As if to respond to Kousuke’s expectations (?), Seiya and Shia didn’t lean out but instead gazed at the flowing scenery with sparkling eyes.
“Sparkly!”
“That’s right, it’s sparkly!”
As they said this, Seiya and Shia stretched out both hands in various directions, trying to catch something.
Kousuke couldn’t see anything, but he understood what they were trying to do.
“…Is it okay to catch spirits?”
Kousuke, who had never thought ofCatching them himself, asked Colette with wide eyes.
“Spirits that come to people come willingly, so I think it’s okay? Besides, spirits can’t be crushed by human hands, can they?”
Colette replied to Kousuke’s question with a bitter smile.
Kousuke, who tried to imagine a spirit being crushed in someone’s hand for a moment, suddenly burst out laughing.
“Now that you mention it, that’s true.”
He couldn’t imagine a spirit being crushed by a human hand like a small insect.
Seiya and Shia, who had been watching with a startled look at Kousuke’s words, looked relieved.
“Mr. Spirit, are you okay?”
“Will you not be crushed?”
Kousuke opened his hands, which he had been holding closed, and gently patted the heads of the two children as he asked them.
“You’re okay.”
“That’s right. There’s no need to worry.”
Colette, stroking Seiya and Shia’s heads like Kousuke, continued.
“Spirits don’t have solid bodies, you see. They can’t be crushed. In fact, it might be better to play with them like that?”
If they had solid bodies like fairies, they could be physically crushed, but spirits did not have such bodies.
Therefore, Kousuke’s concern was completely unfounded.
Seiya and Shia blinked at Colette’s words.
“Play with spirits?”
“How?”
To the two children who asked with great interest, Colette smiled and explained.
“There’s no set way to play. Spirits are happy just by approaching people they like, so noticing them is important.”
In short, Colette was saying that Seiya and Shia, who could see spirits as light, only needed to acknowledge them.
“Acknowledge them?”
“I’ll dodge them a lot!”
Colette laughed again at Shia, who said this while waving her hands.
“But then they come back, don’t they? That’s fine.”
The fact that they returned even after being dodged was proof that they were liked.
However, Colette knew that if she explained this to the children, they might not understand, so she kept her explanation as simple as possible.
As the two children still tilted their heads, Kousuke patted their heads and said with a smile.
“You don’t have to think of it as difficult. Whatever you find fun, the spirits will probably find fun too.”
Kousuke’s words, if heard by some, could be considered extreme, but he naturally believed that the children would never do anything to make the spirits dislike them.
Colette nodded in agreement.
“That’s right. Seiya and Shia, you should just do as you please.”
“Understood!”
“Okay!”
Seiya and Shia, told by Kousuke and Colette to do as they pleased while having fun, nodded vigorously with their hands raised.
After Kousuke and the others had been talking for a while on the driver’s seat, the sound of a Streep was heard from inside the wagon.
“Oh. Did she wake up?”
It goes without saying who was playing it.
The sounds she was playing were not connected, so she wasn’t playing a song.
She was just playing each note one by one, as if confirming the sound.
Miku, when she first woke up in the morning, often played like this, perhaps to wake herself up.
Seiya, who had been listening to the sounds from inside for a while, suddenly asked.
“Dad. Should I learn to play too?”
Seiya’s sudden words caught Kousuke by surprise, and he blinked.
However, he could guess why Seiya had started saying this.
He had seen how the adults around them had been cheering Miku on in various ways since she started playing the Streep.
It was natural for him to think that he should do the same.
“Hmm. I wonder. If Seiya wants to play himself, I’ll support you? But you don’t absolutely have to play.”
As Kousuke said this while stroking Seiya’s head, Seiya looked at Kousuke with wide eyes.
“Is that so?”
“That’s right. Miku likes the Streep, so she plays it a lot. How about Seiya?”
Kousuke said to Seiya, sensing that Shia was also listening.
After a moment of thought at Kousuke’s words, Seiya raised his face and replied.
“…It’s just because Miku is playing, so I’m curious?”
“I see. In that case, there’s no need for Seiya to force himself to learn, is there?”
When Kousuke said this, Seiya paused for a moment and then said, “…Yeah.”
Kousuke smiled at Seiya and said,
“But you know. If Seiya wants to learn the Streep, I’ll definitely support you?”
“Huh?”
“The important thing is what Seiya wants to do. You don’t have to learn it by force. But if Seiya wants to do something, he should do it.”
Kousuke said this and once again patted Seiya’s head.
He then did the same for Shia.
Seiya, after being patted on the head by Kousuke, looked at Colette.
Seeing Colette nod slightly, Seiya put on a bright smile, like himself.
It is still uncertain whether Seiya and Shia will end up playing the Streep.
However, they seem to have various thoughts about the fact that spirits are gathering around Miku as she plays.
