Chapter 57: The Wind Chime Festival

Summer in Japan is the summer of festivals.

Festivals are held one after another in various places: the Gion Festival in Kyoto, the Tenjin Festival in Osaka, the Nebuta Festival in Aomori, the Tanabata Festival in Sendai, and so on.

A few days after the microbiology makeup exam, the long month of Minazuki ended, and the time entered July. There was still half a month before the school holidays.

On the first day of July, on the way to Ueno Park’s Shinobazu Pond during the lunch break, Minamoto Kiyomoto asked Kamibayashi Miko:
“Does Hakusan Shrine have any festivals?”

“Hydrangeas?” Kamibayashi Miko thought for a moment and replied.

“That’s a flower, right?” Himemiya Izayoi said.

“That’s a flower,” Minamoto Kiyomoto affirmed.

The north gate of the University of Tokyo is called the “Ikenohata” gate. From this, one can see the distance between Tokyo and Shinobazu Pond—out the door, across a road, is Shinobazu Pond.

Shinobazu Pond is a natural pond with a total area of about 1.1 million square meters, filled with lotus flowers.

Today is July 1st. There hasn’t been a summer shower yet, so the lotus flowers naturally haven’t bloomed.

It was precisely because they hadn’t bloomed that Minamoto Kiyomoto gave up his lunch break, braved the sun, and walked all the way here—to dig some up and take them back.

“How many do you plan to transplant?” Standing in the pavilion, Himemiya Izayoi asked.

“Enough to cover the pond in Miss Kamibayashi’s yard,” Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at the pond, a vast expanse of green.

The lotus leaves spread out on the water, like green umbrellas, or like jade plates. When the breeze blew, the green waves rolled.

“With mud in the pond, won’t you mind getting dirty if you fall in?” Kamibayashi Miko looked at him with confusion.

Minamoto Kiyomoto withdrew his gaze and looked at her, “Do you really not know why I want to fill the pond with lotus flowers?”

“Hmm?” Kamibayashi Miko tilted her head, her eyes innocent.

“There’s nothing cuter than a ‘girl pretending to be cute,’ not to mention that the one pretending to be cute is Miss Kamibayashi. No need to think too much, no need for other praise, the world’s number one.”

“Thank you.”

“Praising her is one thing, but Young Master Kiyoshi, who did you say is the world’s number one?” Himemiya Izayoi put her hands on Minamoto Kiyomoto’s shoulders and looked at him with a grin.

“The cherry blossoms in spring, the stars in summer, are all the world’s number one,” Minamoto Kiyomoto pushed her arms away. “Since we’re here, let’s take a look around before we start working.”

The surface of the pond was covered with lotus flowers, and ducks, pelicans, and other birds inhabited it.

In the center of the pond is the Benten-do Hall, which enshrines the goddess Benzaiten—the only goddess among the Seven Lucky Gods of Japan. It is said that she is proficient in music and eloquent, and her image is a crown of eight lotuses on her head, holding a pipa.

A few days later, to be precise, two days before the Tanabata Festival in Japan on July 7th, that is, on the evening of July 5th.

“I plan to hold a wind chime festival on Tanabata,” Kamibayashi Miko suddenly said under the veranda.

“A wind chime festival?” Himemiya Izayoi lay on the veranda, her head resting on her left elbow, full of charm.

Minamoto Kiyomoto was by the pond, checking the transplanted lotus flowers to see if they had survived.

“Red wooden frames, green bamboo, with wind chimes tied to them. The style of the wind chimes will be animals such as octopus, squid, and jellyfish.”

“I can imagine what those animals would look like as wind chimes,” Himemiya Izayoi nodded lightly.

“Tanabata?” Minamoto Kiyomoto looked over. “There are still two days. I’m afraid there’s not enough time to order the wind chimes.”

“I already know how to blow glass and make wind chimes,” Kamibayashi Miko said faintly.

“Amazing,” Minamoto Kiyomoto continued to look at the lotus pond. The carp brought from the Sanshiro Pond at the school were fat and big.

“You help too.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto raised his head and looked at Kamibayashi Miko, who had a matter-of-fact expression.

“You owe me money. Helping me with work counts as interest,” Kamibayashi Miko said.

“I heard that in Mannō, Kagawa Prefecture, about 1.2 million sunflowers bloom every summer. We can consider bringing some back,” he said.

“You want to bring everything home. You have no ambition,” Himemiya Izayoi said lazily.

“I hope that in my old age, I can enjoy all the scenery of the four seasons without leaving here,” Minamoto Kiyomoto’s mood had already entered old age in advance.

“You have time to do these things. How is your ‘Divine Power Transformation Curse’ cultivation going?” Kamibayashi Miko asked.

“I have some ideas.”

Kamibayashi Miko had already said her five sentences. She gestured with her eyes for him to continue.

“If I can’t control the yokai, I can only avoid conflict.”

“How to avoid it?” Himemiya Izayoi asked.

“The ‘Mahavairocana Sutra’ records that when Shakyamuni sat under the Bodhi tree and attained enlightenment, the first sentence he said was ‘all things and I are of the same root.’ Laozi also once said, ‘heaven and earth and I are of the same root, and all things and I are one’.”

“Are you going to become one with the yokai?” Himemiya Izayoi turned her head with a smile.

“The yokai is heaven and earth, and I am also heaven and earth. We are just returning to one.”

“Do you have a specific method?” Himemiya Izayoi sat up.

Kamibayashi Miko also looked at Minamoto Kiyomoto with curiosity.

“‘Swastika’ wheel of light,” Minamoto Kiyomoto replied.

The two miko, after hearing this, fell into deep thought.

The setting sun shone over, moving over their smooth skin, outlining perfect lines.

“You can transform the ‘swastika’ wheel of light from a ‘swastika’ into a ‘Tathagata Dharma Body.’ Perhaps you can really become one with the yokai,” Himemiya Izayoi’s face showed unconcealed admiration.

“It’s difficult, not as simple as imagined,” although he said so, Minamoto Kiyomoto’s face was full of confidence.

“I look forward to the day you become a yokai. I want to try what it feels like to ride a dragon,” Himemiya Izayoi said with a laugh.

“‘Riding on the back of a silver dragon, crossing the vortex of clouds and rain’,” Minamoto Kiyomoto remembered Nakajima Miyuki’s song and hummed a line.

After singing, he said:
“This move is the first move of the Minamoto clan’s ‘from the heart’ school—’heaven and earth are of the same root, all things and I are one, the body of a god, all-encompassing.’ The yokai is the body of a god, and I am also the body of a god.”

The two of them listened to his incantation. It was obvious that he had already grasped the general idea. It was probably not long before this curse could be perfected.

From April, in just three months of cultivation, he had actually created his own curse.

Even if he had borrowed a lot from other curses, it was still something that even they found hard to believe.

“I must master it before the end of summer. At that time, I’ll fly directly to Hokkaido and transplant the lavender fields back,” Minamoto Kiyomoto began to think about managing Hakusan Shrine again.

“Piglet! Come and get the food!” Shirako’s small head poked out from the kitchen and shouted.

“The second thing after I’ve mastered it is to eat the person who calls me a piglet,” Minamoto Kiyomoto took off his shoes, went up to the veranda, and walked towards the kitchen.

Himemiya Izayoi let out a series of silver-bell-like laughter. When Minamoto Kiyomoto passed by her, she hit him affectionately with her fan.

Dinner was cold soba noodles, which had a very summer-like feel.

“Shirako, do you know how to make shaved ice? I want to eat shaved ice,” Minamoto Kiyomoto asked.

“I don’t know how to make shaved ice. Do you want to eat shaved pork?” Shirako retorted.

“What’s wrong with you? You had to learn your Lady Miko’s sharp tongue,” Minamoto Kiyomoto’s voice was full of regret. “It seems I have to make the shaved ice myself.”

“Remember to help me make wind chimes later,” Kamibayashi Miko reminded him.

“I know—” Minamoto Kiyomoto deliberately dragged out his tone to show his dissatisfaction. “There’s a limit to how much a capable person can do.”

“Then I’ll go back first,” Himemiya Izayoi stood up gracefully, preparing to take a walk to digest her food, and then take a hot spring bath.

“You stay too,” Kamibayashi Miko’s gaze turned to her, her tone slightly commanding. “You ate my dinner, so you have to help me.”

Himemiya Izayoi was stunned for a moment, then she showed a look of ‘a little hard to believe, and a little amused’.

“Okay,” she nodded with a playful smile.

She really didn’t know if this was Kamibayashi Miko being impolite to her as a friend, or being unfeeling to her as not a friend.

“But I don’t want to make any octopus or squid,” Himemiya Izayoi sat down again.

She made a human head… from the hollow point, it was indeed suitable for a wind chime.

Fortunately, it was glass. Even if it was a human head, it wasn’t scary, but because it was too realistic, it was really hard to appreciate.

Minamoto Kiyomoto made a lotus flower. It happened that the bellflowers and morning glories in the yard were in full bloom, so he also made bellflowers and morning glories.

“Hey, does it look like you?” Shirako’s fair, tender little hand held a hot glass product.

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked, and it was a pig’s head.

“Miss Kamibayashi, aren’t you going to do something about your shikigami?” he went to complain.

“Heave-ho, heave-ho!” The little butterfly rubbed a butterfly and held it up with both hands as if showing off. “Lady Miko, Lady Miko, look!”

“Yes, it’s beautiful, but it can’t make a tinkling sound like this,” Kamibayashi Miko was like a kindergarten teacher, her voice gentle, her gaze like water.

“Miss Kamibayashi, I’m talking to you!” Minamoto Kiyomoto was dissatisfied.

“Can’t you see that Lady Miko doesn’t want to talk to you? Just get back to work!” Shirako gave him a handful of quartz sand.

Minamoto Kiyomoto took some more sulfide, and with a bang, the fire thunder struck, and the quartz sand melted directly.

He made a Shirako head with light yellow hair, a silly expression, as if saliva could flow out of its mouth at any time, cute.

The night sky was full of shining stars, as if they were about to cover the sky.

The Japanese-style room was brightly lit, the sound of insects was like a symphony, and fireflies danced in the yard.

The next day, July 6th, Minamoto Kiyomoto was asked to make a red wooden frame again.

And Kamibayashi Miko helped him make a set of white kariginu worn by Shinto priests.

On July 7th, a great sunny day.

“Not only do I have to make wind chimes and wooden frames, but I also have to help you sell things?” he looked at the clothes in his hand and asked in disbelief.

“Before, it was just me, and there was no priest, so I couldn’t do any activities. It’s really convenient to have you.”

“…Don’t use the tone of ‘a vacuum cleaner is really convenient’ to say that it’s convenient to have me.”

“If you’re just going to make noise here, you’re not as convenient as a vacuum cleaner,” after saying this, Kamibayashi Miko pointed to another room. “Go and change.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto changed into a white kariginu and put on black short boots.

Perhaps it was because he had been in the mountains for a long time, or perhaps it was because of his cultivation, or perhaps because he was often with Kamibayashi Miko, his temperament in a kariginu was very similar to hers.

In a kimono, he was handsome and extraordinary, with a dignified bearing. In a white kariginu, he was otherworldly and handsome, elegant and ethereal.

“You look the part,” Himemiya Izayoi, who had changed into a miko outfit, said with a smile, her hand on her chin. “Even your smile has become clear.”

“Lady Izayoi is as always, even in a miko outfit, you are still so amorous and moving,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said with a smile.

“Okay, let’s go,” Kamibayashi Miko called out.

The wind chimes had been set up in advance, and a stand for buying wishing slips had been set up, 100 yen each.

After buying a colored slip and writing a wish, one could get a blessing from a priest or a miko for free, and then hang it on the bamboo in the shrine themselves.

Or, one could spend another 1,500 yen to buy a wind chime and take it back with the colored slip.

“Blessing is usually the job of a miko, right?” Minamoto Kiyomoto said.

“We have to break the rules,” Kamibayashi Miko replied.

“I find that you actually have a talent for comedy—ouch, gently.”

Kamibayashi Miko gave Minamoto Kiyomoto a hand chop.

The three of them walked down from the shrine. The sunlight filtered through, casting dazzling patterns on their white miko and kariginu outfits.

Coming out of the large banyan tree, they knelt on a high platform, slightly higher than the people standing below.

People who had bought the slips, whoever’s blessing they wanted, would line up in front of that miko or priest.

The two miko were real miko, so the blessings were naturally not a problem. The priest was a fake priest. Minamoto Kiyomoto could only recite some sutras like the “Tsuchigawa Sutra” or the “Anzhai Shenzhou Sutra.”

This was for the safety of the house. Although it didn’t fit the atmosphere of Tanabata, as long as it was a blessing, it probably didn’t matter.

Speaking of which, after so many years, had the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl bought a house by the Milky Way?

He didn’t know what the housing prices were like by the Milky Way. One herded cows, and the other wove cloth. If the housing prices were high, life would probably be very hard.

Kneeling on the high platform and giving blessings to others, Minamoto Kiyomoto passed the time by thinking about these messy things.

He thought that Himemiya Izayoi would definitely not be able to stand it, but who knew that she was the most serious and most popular one.

To women and children, she spoke softly; to men, her expression was solemn. She satisfied anyone’s imagination of a miko.

Kamibayashi Miko was always like a cold fairy who was about to fly back to the celestial realm with a gust of wind.

The two of them were usually like this.

Kamibayashi Miko was beautiful and otherworldly, but she had a coldness to her and was dismissive of people.

And Himemiya Izayoi, whether she was smiling, angry, charming, or innocent, she had a kind of allure, like a strong light, making the people around her become young and full of vitality.

There were few people in the morning, but as soon as it was past noon, a large group of people came in, as if out of nowhere.

Not all of them were here to see the beautiful miko and the handsome priest. Many people liked the rows of wind chimes and took pictures under the wind chime corridor.

“The wind chimes are almost sold out. I’ll go and get some,” Kamibayashi Miko stood up.

“I’ll go too,” Minamoto Kiyomoto quickly stood up.

He had been sitting here all morning. He had already figured out which part of the Milky Way the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl would buy a house in, how much the down payment would be, and how many years the mortgage would be.

In conclusion: it was extremely boring.

“Izayoi, I’ll leave this to you,” he called out, stretching his body as he walked towards the large banyan tree with Kamibayashi Miko.

“Don’t you think holding a wind chime festival is a waste of time?” On the way, he asked Kamibayashi Miko.

“Besides going to class and transplanting lotus flowers at Shinobazu Pond, you’ve been cultivating all the time. It’s good to relax once in a while.”

“You call this relaxing?”

“Boom!”

Minamoto Kiyomoto’s stretching movements paused, and the two of them stopped.

After the thunder, there was a sudden gust of wind, and the wind chimes tinkled endlessly.

“Is it going to—”

Before Minamoto Kiyomoto could finish his words, the next moment, raindrops fell like broken pearls.

Water splashed, and a water mist rose. The sound of thunder rumbled endlessly.

Kamibayashi Miko raised her arm and held it over her head.

She saw Minamoto Kiyomoto subconsciously extend his hands and hold them over her head to shield her from the rain.

The tourists in the shrine cried out in alarm and scattered in all directions.

She smelled the familiar, pleasant scent of Minamoto Kiyomoto.

“It’s useless even if you block it.”

“Does that mean I shouldn’t block it?”

Minamoto Kiyomoto lowered his head and looked at Kamibayashi Miko.

Her long black hair reached her waist, and a few strands of her sideburns were wet and stuck to her snow-white cheeks. Her charm was moving, like a weeping willow in the wind, a lotus flower in the rain.

Further down, the white miko outfit with magnolia flowers embroidered on it was soaked by the rain, outlining the delicate shape of her chest.

Kamibayashi Miko chopped at his waist with her hand.

“I-I couldn’t help it, I couldn’t control myself, my body acted on its own, it was a slip of the tongue, I couldn’t help it, it was as round and smooth as a pearl, as delicate as a jade carving, as crystal clear as jade…” Minamoto Kiyomoto held his waist and explained with a pained expression.

“Hmm?”

“It hurts, it hurts so much I’m talking nonsense.”

The shower had stopped.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to everyone, and may you always be happy.

(End of Chapter)