"I — I finally found you, big brother!"
"The Great Witch says to come home for dinner!"
"Oh, coming!"
Under the light of the setting sun, on a small island out at sea, a handsome young man turned around on the edge of a clifftop.
Facing the nun-dressed girl who had come running up behind him, completely out of breath, he flashed an easy smile and called back.
Shin. Biological age: 16. Mental age: 24.
In his previous life — a recently graduated postgraduate student — he had attempted a Peter Parker impression in the name of justice, trying to cut off a runaway bus that had careened off a bridge and into the river below. For his troubles, he had earned the distinguished honor of becoming just another set of bubbles beneath that very same bridge.
[Congratulations, Host, on completing the Achievement: "Fear the Sun No More" — one step closer to becoming the "Perfect Human"!]
[Achievement Reward: Evolution Points +100]
[Host: Shin]
[Age: 16 (recalculated from "Revival")]
[Race: Human (?)]
[Bloodlines: Pillar Man, First Witch]
[Evolution Points: 117 (+0.02 / 1 day)]
[Available Evolution Branches: Scarlet Sea (Lv.0) / Defiled Temple (Lv.0) / Pillar Limbs (Lv.1) / Spinal Dragon (Lv.0) / Spirit Bastion (Lv.1)]
That's right — Shin was a Pillar Man. The kind from JoJo that dissolved in sunlight.
He hadn't transmigrated straight into the world he was living in now.
Instead, he had first been reincarnated into the ancient era of JoJo's world — a time before the Clan of Darkness had been wiped out by Kars — and born as an infant of that clan.
Unfortunately, he hadn't made it to six months old before the extinction event swept him up along with everyone else.
Shin had carried his memories from his first life with him, and assumed he was about to be recycled straight back into the wheel of reincarnation — when, at that very moment, his system awakened. It evolved his Clan of Darkness bloodline into that of a Pillar Man, and swept him across to where he was now.
— Which was this peaceful, quiet island out at sea. Home to a gentle and good-natured people known as the witches.
"Big brother, can you really handle sunlight completely now?"
The nun-dressed girl's name was Meruru.
She was Shin's "little sister" — a human child adopted alongside him by the being on this island known as the "Great Witch."
The origin of their sibling relationship was, in a word, peculiar.
According to the Great Witch who had taken them in, when she had found Meruru, Shin had been a human-shaped stone being clutched tightly to the chest of the unconscious little girl.
Even the Great Witch — vastly knowledgeable as she was — had never encountered a stone with the breath of life in it before.
So she had used magic to bring the otherwise-doomed Shin back to life, and had the two of them recognize each other as brother and sister.
Though, well — how to put this. The process of bringing him back to life was a bit... involved.
"Yes. Thanks to mother, I can live in sunlight without any trouble now."
"Th-that's wonderful! Sob..."
Meruru looked ready to cry from joy on Shin's behalf — actually, she already was crying.
Even at fifteen or sixteen, she still broke into tears at the drop of a hat, exactly the same as when she was small. Not a thing had changed.
But anyone who mistook that for weakness would be making a very serious error —
When Shin was young, he had witnessed her, entirely without hesitation, use a saw to divide the pet rabbit she'd been given for practicing her magic into "puzzle pieces" — and then reassemble it on the spot.
God only knew how long Shin had stood there in stunned silence when he found out.
Up until that point, Meruru's standard explanation had always been that the pet had slipped away while she wasn't looking. Shin had gone and caught her a new one more times than he cared to count.
"Alright, stop crying. If mother sees you like this when we get back, she'll think I did something to upset you."
Siblings were siblings, at the end of the day.
Setting aside the occasional unsettling moments, Meruru as a little sister was otherwise beyond reproach. Shin had confidence that with his guidance, she'd eventually grow out of those habits.
"Y-yes, big brother!..."
Meruru quickly nodded and wiped her tears.
Walking alongside the girl down the open path through the wild fields, Shin was aware of his own body — not merely unharmed by sunlight, but actually able to draw energy from it.
The Great Witch had never explained exactly how the process of bringing him back to life had worked.
His body had already collapsed at the time. Had the system not been holding onto the core of his soul, he would have passed straight back into the cycle of reincarnation.
But Shin's consciousness had been fully aware throughout.
He had watched the being called the "Great Witch" perform magic he had no framework to understand — using a process akin to "returning a soul to the womb," she had reformed him within a kind of spiritual cradle, reshaping his bloodline entirely, and made him someone who could live beneath the sun.
That was the origin of the "First Witch" bloodline that appeared in his system.
It could be said, in the most literal physiological sense, that the Great Witch was Shin's second mother — the one who had given him life a second time.
[Scarlet Sea (Lv.0) — Points required to level up: 50]
[Defiled Temple (Lv.0) — Points required to level up: 50]
[Pillar Limbs (Lv.1) — Points required to level up: 100Skill: [All Martial Mastery] (You can rapidly master any weapon or martial art.)]
[Spinal Dragon (Lv.0) — Points required to level up: 50]
[Spirit Bastion (Lv.1) — Points required to level up: 100Skill: [Parallel Processing] (You can run multiple threads of thought simultaneously. The number of parallel threads is determined by your constitution.)]
With a thought, Shin opened the system panel — visible only to himself — and stared at the 100 Evolution Points he had just received, thinking.
Embarrassing as it was to admit, this was actually the first time he had ever received a system achievement reward.
Before today, he had assumed Evolution Points could only be accumulated slowly through the passage of time.
In sixteen years of living on Witch Island, his system panel had only grown by a natural total of 117 points.
If not for the fact that as a Pillar Man he had near-infinite lifespan, he would have genuinely wondered whether he'd make it to leveling up even one of the five branches before old age took him.
Shin didn't rush to spend the points. He intended to think it through carefully before making any decisions.
As a Pillar Man, even without the system, his body and mind were already beyond ordinary human limits.
Crushing iron with his bare hands, remembering anything he had ever seen — these were baseline capabilities for him.
Not to mention the ability to "consume" others to improve himself, just as they had done in JoJo.
At the far end of the open path, a grand manor rose on the crest of a slope.
This was the center of the island — the Great Witch's home, and the place Shin had lived for the past sixteen years.
"Well, if it isn't little Shaya and Meruru?"
"Haven't seen you in ages — look how you've both grown! A fine young man and a lovely young lady. I used to hold you both when you were small, you know!"
Walking up toward the manor with Meruru, they were greeted by a woman tending to the flowerbeds in the outer courtyard. Her smile was warm and open, but her features were somehow blurred beyond recognition — some invisible force obscured them. All of the witches on the island were the same way.
The Great Witch had told Shin it was a trait of the witch people — they never showed their true faces to anyone outside their close family, and he would understand when he was older.
"Lady Earth Witch, when did you get back?"
"Just passing through. Stopped in to check on you both."
The woman's gaze moved to the manor, her deep eyes unreadable, before she looked back and gave the two of them a small smile.
"Go on in — don't keep Snow waiting too long. She's been crowned Great Witch and she still can't see to three meals a day without her children looking after her... honestly..."
"All these years — you've both worked hard."
"Not at all. The Great Witch has done a great deal for us. Looking after her is the least we can do."
Shin gave a respectful bow to the woman, and then he and Meruru went inside.
Like this "Earth Witch" who had just greeted them, the one who had taken Shin and Meruru in was the "Wind Witch."
There were, in fact, four Great Witches in total — Wind (without substance, without form), Earth (with substance, with form), Water (with substance, without form), and Fire (without substance, with form). Each represented one of the four great properties of the magic their people studied.
But apart from the Wind Witch, the other three Great Witches were away from the island virtually year-round.
So in everyday conversation, when the witches on the island said "the Great Witch," they were unanimously referring to the one who had taken Shin and Meruru in —
The Wind Great Witch, whose name was Snow.
[Snow.]
"You're back~"
Inside the manor, draped lazily across a sofa, a pair of slender little feet in white silken tights dangled without a care in the world off the armrest.
Yes — this was Shin and Meruru's "loli mom."
In appearance, she was the very image of a girl who stood 146 centimeters tall and weighed perhaps 30 kilograms. In reality, she was the most extraordinary talent the witch people had ever produced — a being who had mastered every known magical art and been crowned Great Witch of Wind before she had reached a century of age.
As she registered the sound of someone coming in, the girl — cascade of snow-white hair, dressed in a form-fitting warm white bodysuit and a long classical ruffled skirt — lifted her gaze from the spell tome floating in front of her:
"Good timing. I have something important to discuss with the both of you. Especially you, Meruru."
"That matter I asked you to think over — have you come to a decision? Are you willing to marry your big brother?"
"Ah — ah—...!" Meruru went stiff from head to toe.
She shot a flustered sideways glance at the young man beside her — whose physique, frankly, could have served as the model for an ancient Greek sculpture — then shut her eyes tight and nodded rapidly, her face burning.
"I — I'm willing! Of course I am!"
"If — if this is the Great Witch's arrangement..."
Shin: "?"
Events had moved so quickly that by the time his brain had caught up to what he had just heard, it was already too late.
"Wonderful, then it's settled. The wedding night is tonight."
The floating spell tome snapped shut. Giving Shin no time to get a word in, the snow-haired girl rose from the sofa with the weightlessness of a sheet of paper:
"You're getting quite the bargain, Shaya. Meruru's well-built — she'll have no trouble with children at all~"
"Shaya" was the nickname the girl had given Shin. It had originally been intended as his full name, but once Shin learned to talk, he had taken matters into his own hands and renamed himself.
"It's been so long since there's been a new addition to Witch Island. I haven't experienced being a mother-in-law yet..."
Wait. Hold on. What are we talking about??
"Mother, is this a joke? Me? Marry Meruru?"
Shin was somewhat dazed. Setting aside the Meruru beside him, whose face had gone as red as a baked sweet potato, he stared at the Great Witch as though he'd seen a ghost.
"How would I know about this? You never said anything to me."
"I didn't say anything to you, but that doesn't matter. In matters between a man and woman, you really only need the woman's consent."
The snow-haired Great Witch was entirely unbothered:
"As the saying goes, 'A man pursuing a woman is like crossing a mountain; a woman pursuing a man is like crossing a veil.' Sweet little Meruru coming to you like this — it's hardly a loss for you, Shaya."
"That's not the point! Mother, you know I've always thought of Meruru as a little sister — and besides, neither of us is eighteen yet, isn't this a bit soon—"
"Waaah~!"
Before Shin finished the sentence, the nun-dressed girl beside him burst into full-volume tears, dissolving into a weeping jellyfish:
"Big brother, please don't — sob..."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry... I know I'm not good enough for you... I'll go make dinner!"
And just like that, Meruru ran off crying, leaving absolutely no opportunity to be called back.
"Didn't expect you to be this picky, Shaya. Even Meruru's not good enough for you?" The snow-haired Great Witch put her hands on her hips.
"Don't tell me you prefer my type?"
"Hmm, that wouldn't be entirely out of the question, actually. Tonight let me stand in for Meruru and let you give me a try—"
Shin: ???
"Mother, why don't we discuss what to have for dinner instead—" Shin attempted to steer the conversation elsewhere.
"Mm, yes, what should we have... wait, no. Don't change the subject."
The Great Witch nodded on instinct, then caught herself and shook her head sharply, narrowing her eyes:
"This won't do, that won't do — are you going through your rebellious phase, Shaya?"
"Your parents have made arrangements; the match has been decided. You're of age now, and there are things I'd rather not have to spell out."
The Great Witch's previously gentle expression turned cool.
Her small hand rose — and an invisible force clamped around Shin's four limbs, simultaneously sealing his mouth and nose.
Not even a Pillar Man's physical strength could break free. Let alone call for help.
Shin: ?!
"Meruru!"
"Yes!"
Meruru — who had just run off to the kitchen — had somehow already come back, giving Shin a deeply unsettling premonition.
"Throw him in the basement. Shaya, you can sit in the 'reflection room' and think things over properly."
"Whether you want to go through with this marriage or not, you're going through with it. If the birthrate doesn't go up, what future does Witch Island have?"
BAD END — Basement Route. Achievement Imminent.
— Hold on, not even a moment to hesitate?
Was it too late to change his answer right now?
All of this had happened so fast and so completely without warning that Shin had had zero time to prepare.
Unable to call out for help, he watched both mother and daughter turn faces on him that were eerie and unnervingly doll-like. The Great Witch in particular casually, almost absent-mindedly, licked her lips.
Shin had the overwhelming sense that he had been set up — but he had absolutely no proof.
[Ding! New group admission has been issued — new member "Aspiring to Be the Perfect Human" has joined the group chat [Adults' Social Group]!]
[Many-Headed Monster (Admin): Welcome, newcomer.]
[Queen of Britain: Welcome.]
[Lord of Lands Between: Welcome.]
[Moon Princess: Oh my, another cute girl~ Welcome~]
[Spreading Witch Factor: Lady Marika, following your suggestion, I've put the unruly child at home in the basement... Hmm, a new member? Welcome.]
Shin — bound by the Great Witch's magic and dropped into the basement — sat down hard on the floor and stared blankly at the chat window that had suddenly popped up in his field of vision.
Wait. Hold on — ?
To be continued…