Journal with Witch

Makio Koudai built her life to be quiet on purpose. She writes, keeps people at arm’s length, and does not invite chaos in. Then tragedy drops her fifteen-year-old niece Asa Takumi into her apartment, and neither of them knows how to live like this. Asa is open and direct, the kind of teen who speaks before fear can stop her. Makio is prickly and distant, convinced that closeness always costs too much. They start as two strangers sharing a home, bumping into each other’s habits and grief, but the days keep moving. Little by little, the awkward routines become something sturdier, as Makio and Asa figure out how to be family when neither of them planned on it.