Generation to Generation

In the wake of their victory, neither Miho nor Hideo could have forseen the consequences of their victory. Not its scope nor its speed.

Nise Kitai would see a shakeup in its C-suite in the days and weeks ahead. Officially, it was covered as just a regular changing of the guard. Unofficially, the Human Protection Agency had placed Nise Kitai under a microscope. One by one, executives were brought in for questioning. The one who remained were ones the Agency were confident weren’t directly involved with Jade Chrysanthemum.

That almost the entire C-suite got replaced spoke volumes.

Even if the Human Protection Agency hadn’t weeded out the executives, the old guard had already lost. With the original Sweet Bear and Wolf Knight shows available for streaming, those shows found a new audience.

A new audience meant a new demand for merch. And that meant that Miho and Hideo’s money squeeze was finally at an end.

-----

Sayuri made herself comfortable.

She wasn’t used to having her own dedicated space for the Kaijin Support Group. But after the Group’s actions against Jade Chrysanthemum, the government decided to take them a bit more seriously.

As new and familiar faces started filing in to take seats, Sayuri couldn’t help but feel relaxed. Miho’s donations were enough to keep the lights on. But actual government subsidies? It wouldn’t solve all of her problems but it was going a long way.

Her eyes rested on a pair of empty chairs to her right. If the call she’d received that morning was right, she was expecting more familiar faces.

Two minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start, an older woman entered the room. She had someone’s hand in hers, tugging it with a smile.

Fuzukawa Chika led Ayumu into the room, the mother and daughter quietly taking those two empty seats Sayuri had kept an eye on. Figuring out how culpable a person was for their actions under yokai possession was always a crapshoot. It was a thing of nuance and that was not something that law-and-order types tended to like.

In the end, Sayuri tended to share Miho’s point of view on the matter. Regardless of what created the yokai, they distorted their victims’ decision-making ability. There was no easy way to tell how much of what they did they’d have done under their own devices.

Being possessed was traumatic enough.

Sayuri gave Ayumu a knowing smile. She was starting down a long road her mother had gone down years before. But given how Chika had sent a picture of her playing on a playground swing set with the granddaughter she finally got to meet? Maybe that family deserved some rest.

She took another look at that picture. That granddaughter looked to be Kumiko’s age…

----

Kumiko finished her homework with a yawn.

She was surprised how quickly her parents had found a new place for them to live. Everything was up in the air, everything was changing.

Her parents had done their level best to make their new accommodations feel just like the old home. To the point of magically replicating pieces of furniture that had been destroyed. It was uncanny how much they’d made it look like nothing had happened.

“Kumiko?” Miho called out. “Come here please.”

“Coming!” Kumiko made her way to the kitchen, where Miho and Hideo were waiting. Kuma-chan was perched on Miho’s shoulder with an amazing smile.

Miho looked to Hideo, before leaning forward. “Your father and I have been talking…. A lot. Since what happened. And we came to the conclusion that we’ve been going at things the wrong way.”

Hideo nodded. “We were so concerned in making sure you got to be a normal kid that we never asked what you wanted.”

Kumiko’s eyes darted back and forth between her parents. Dare she hope?

“Kumiko,” her mother asked, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”

She remembered her mother asked her this question at her last birthday. In hindsight the response Kumiko’s answer had gotten back then made a lot more sense.

“I want to be like my mom and dad.”

With a sparkle in her eye, Miho pulled out a white and pink staff with a star-shaped gem inset into its head.

Kumiko was jumping up and down with excitement. This was happening!

“Now you understand that this isn’t going to be easy,” Miho warned. “I’m going to have your Uncle Fuku and Kuma-chan put you through your paces. And your father's friend Hideo might have something in mind, too.”

She kept jumping, nodding her head without abandon.

“And you’re going to keep your grades up,” Hideo added. “After all, if you want to be like your mom, she had to balance school and magic.”

“Uh-huh-uh-huh-uh-huh!”

Miho looked to Kuma-chan, nudging him gently. “Go on. Make her dream come true.”

That nudge made Kuma-chan roll down Miho’s arm, before launching out of her hand into the air to hover there. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaalrighty! It’s been way too long since I got to do this! I – whoa, wait, wait, waiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!” He was being dragged away by a manic Kumiko to her bedroom.

And that left the two legends to themselves.

“We’re never going to get another night’s rest,” Hideo warned.

Miho’s arms wrapped around his waist. Her head gently rested into his shoulder with a knowing smile. “Oh, I know.”

“You’ll worry about her,” he continued.

Her hand gently poked Hideo in the chest. “Which is why I know a certain lone hero’s going to keep an eye on her when I can’t~”

Hideo rolled his eyes but couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re so predictable.”

“And you love me for it.” She got onto her toes and kissed him on the cheek.

That got Hideo to raise an eyebrow.

Miho answered that with a devilish grin of her own. “But tonight that’s Fuku’s problem. How do you want to spend your evening alone with your wife?”

And that got Hideo to growl playfully.

Miho’s grin grew even wider. Tonight, everyone was getting what they wanted. A moment of peace, a moment of joy. Not an ending per say, but simply a farewell for now. For there would always be injustices to fight, wrongs to make right.

And as long as they drew breath, there would always be a Sweet Bear and a Wolf Knight to stand against them.