Seeing the witch before him—black hair down to her waist, crimson eyes—Hayashi Maki's gaze flickered with surprise.
"Since you've already called me a lecherous customer, do I even need to say what my wish is, facing such a beautiful witch?"
At that, the witch rolled her eyes.
"This lecherous customer is quite bold—do you intend to claim the witch herself? Then are you prepared to pay the price?"
As she spoke, a powerful magical pressure swept out; the air around Hayashi Maki seemed to halt. Thin arcs of lightning crackled—space being compressed.
Hayashi Maki remained calm. Simple reason: even if he were killed, he wouldn't die; with his retainers, he could revive after some time. Besides, this was only a warning from the dimensional witch—there was no killing intent in the pressure.
Makes sense. The dimensional witch, known as the gentlest of witches, wouldn't casually take a life. A little teasing like his wasn't nearly enough to anger her.
The massive pressure came quickly and vanished just as fast. Having displayed her absolute power, the witch took another draw from her long-stemmed pipe, looking comfortably at ease.
"Then, lecherous customer—your name?" she asked, exhaling a white plume.
"Hayashi Maki. At the moment, just an ordinary high schooler."
"Oh? A high schooler. And your birthday?"
"April 1st," Hayashi Maki said casually.
The witch smiled with delight. "My, my—an incautious guest, giving both name and birthday."
"If someone knows your name, they can know your future; if they know your birthday, they can deduce your past. In other words, you have no secrets before me."
Hayashi Maki shrugged, eyes calmly lingering on the long, pale legs draped over the chair.
"And your name, Witch-san?"
"Yuuko Ichihara," the black-haired, red-eyed witch said pleasantly, then added, "Of course, that's an alias—but you may use it."
Noticing the room was empty of guest seating while she lounged at her ease, Hayashi Maki snapped his fingers; alchemical lines bloomed on the floor and a chair formed. Sitting opposite her, he asked, "Yuuko-san, you just said there are no coincidences in this world—only inevitabilities, right?
"Does that mean my coming here was destined?"
Yuuko shook her head.
"No. I just said that offhand. I didn't actually expect someone like you to show up in my shop."
Hayashi Maki's face fell.
"What, so you weren't seeing my future—you were just being mysterious and saying whatever?"
Yuuko took another drag, gave him a lazy glance, and said tartly, "Well, you did give me a fake birthday. It isn't April Fool's Day today."
April 1st—of course it sounds like a prank.
Hayashi Maki only shrugged. "I wasn't lying. My birthday really is April 1st."
—From his previous life, of course. And the fact Yuuko couldn't divine his past proved the singularity of his being a transmigrant. Even a dimensional witch couldn't read his past or future.
Hearing this, Yuuko frowned; her glossy black hair rose and magic churned. She was clearly trying to probe his past and future through the laws of time and space. But she soon let it go.
Hayashi Maki was… special. Perhaps not even human. The inability to deduce him by time and space implied he possessed the power to bend fate.
Quite the extraordinary visitor today.
"Well? Did you manage to divine anything, Yuuko-san?" Hayashi Maki asked with a smile.
Yuuko waved a hand.
"Obviously, you lie outside my divinations. Lecherous customer, state your business."
"Nothing much. I was just strolling, noticed a shop I'd never seen before, and came in for a look. Met a beautiful witch—naturally, I thought I'd make friends. That's all."
Yuuko arched a brow, saying nothing, a half-smile on her lips.
"Ahem, alright—there is something I wanted to ask." Hayashi Maki took out his phone and showed her a photo of Sakurajima Mai.
"Did you receive this guest?"
Yuuko glanced and nodded.
"I did. She had a wish fulfilled here, and paid the corresponding price. She wished to disappear from others' sight; the price was to be forgotten—by people, even by the world."
As expected, Hayashi Maki thought—the phenomenon around Mai was linked to the dimensional witch.
"Then what did you gain, Witch-san? I'm curious."
Yuuko didn't hide it.
"I gained the existential power of her moment of disappearance—time's power. That is the price that must be paid to grant such wishes."
Her own time, she explained, had been frozen; and because of overwhelming magic, time and space warped, causing anomalies in the world.
To mend things and resolve the distortions, her own power alone was insufficient—indeed, she herself was the greatest anomaly. Thus she opened this Dimensional Magic Shop: to grant the wishes of those with powerful desires, accumulating life force—existence itself.
Hayashi Maki sighed.
"If I wanted to cancel Sakurajima Mai's wish and return her to normal, what price would be required?"
Yuuko's interest piqued.
"Simple: a portion of your soul."
She was curious how Hayashi Maki could slip the bonds of fate and stand outside time and space; if she could study him, perhaps the anomalies could be unraveled entirely.
"A piece of my soul? Witch-san, that's a bit steep, isn't it?"
"The existence of an ordinary girl can't be that important to you, can it?" Hayashi Maki quipped.
Compared to the witch's power, even a girl with a strong wish was like an ant in terms of life force.
"No, no. Life and existence are equivalent," Yuuko said matter-of-factly, setting down the pipe and propping her chin on a jade-white hand. "If you weren't… special, the price would be your entire soul."
"So—will you trade, Hayashi Maki-san?"