Chapter 59: Arguing on the Way to Shikoku

On July 15th, many faculties had already started their holidays. For Minamoto Kiyomoto’s medical faculty, today was the last day of classes.

Today, he was the only one who came to school. The Faculty of Letters had already started their holidays last week.

It was still the final report.

After the report, as he was going downstairs, he was thinking about whether to go back to the shrine first and put the book in his hand back, or go directly to the shopping street to buy a birthday present for Himemiya Izayoi.

“Minamoto-kun.”

On the staircase corridor, Minamoto Kiyomoto turned around. Asana stood on the staircase landing, looking at him.

She was out of breath, looking as if she had run to catch up.

She was very beautiful. Although not as beautiful as Kamibayashi Miko and Himemiya Izayoi, in a crowd, the light around her was also different from others.

“What’s wrong?” Minamoto Kiyomoto asked with confusion.

“I—” Asana took a breath. “I, Inaba, and Kishida, Kishida’s girlfriend, are planning to rent a car and go on a trip during the holidays.”

“Kishida has a girlfriend?” Minamoto Kiyomoto was stunned for a moment, then he smiled. “That’s great. Remember to take some scenery photos for me.”

“No,” Asana immediately denied.

“No?”

“Do you want to come with us?”

Asana stared at him. Just as Minamoto Kiyomoto was about to speak, footsteps came from the top of the stairs. Inaba and Kishida walked down.

The two of them stood behind Asana and looked at him in silence, but their eyes were saying something.

What exactly it was, Minamoto Kiyomoto didn’t know. The only thing he knew was the reluctance they conveyed.

He suddenly remembered that since he was entangled by Kamibayashi Miko in the library in April, he had spent less and less time with his three friends.

He no longer had coffee with them during the lunch break, studied together, or went to Gotemba to play ball.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had a drinking party or went shopping after school.

Recently, he hardly even spoke. He went to class on time and disappeared immediately after class, just like today.

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at the three people who were trying to make him stay, and an inexplicable premonition arose in his heart—if he refused them this time, the friendship between the four of them would be completely over.

‘To gain, to lose, this is also a curse, right?’ he thought.

As long as one has a heart, there are curses everywhere between heaven and earth.

When did he become such a heartless person? Facing his friends who were trying to make him stay, he was still thinking about these things?

But if he couldn’t do this, what right did he have to cultivate?
He remembered the first time he went to Hakusan Shrine. On the lonely mountain, there was only a lonely shrine. In the shrine, there was only Kamibayashi Miko and her two shikigami.

He also remembered that the Divine Miko was bound by a curse and could not have feelings.

And Himemiya Izayoi. Hakusan Shrine had no electricity, no signal. It was a place where ordinary people would not live, but she had no complaints at all.

Zhuge Liang said in his “Admonition to My Son,” “Without indifference, one cannot clarify one’s ambition; without tranquility, one cannot reach far.”

Wang Yiqing, a Taoist priest of the Ming Dynasty, wrote in his “Explanations of the Tao Te Ching,” “The heart of a sage is like a bright mirror and still water. When things come, they are reflected; when things go, they are empty.”

Not to mention other times, when cultivating, one must be quiet and focused. The same principle applies to all things.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I can’t go.”

“Why?” Asana immediately asked.

Inaba gently pulled her sleeve from behind.

“My mother wants me to go back to Shikoku,” Minamoto Kiyomoto smiled. “You guys have fun.”

He waved his hand, turned and walked down, turned the corner of the stairs, and disappeared from the sight of the three.

◇

Minamoto Kiyomoto did not take the train and walked back to Hakusan Shrine.

After entering the hidden realm from the large banyan tree, he walked up the steps and returned to his small wooden house in the mountains.

Pushing open the door and putting down the book, he looked around the small wooden house.

There were a total of three rooms: a living room, a bedroom, and a bathroom.

He hadn’t noticed before, but now he realized that there were pitifully few things in the house. Besides the wood-burning stove, there was only a dining table and a bookshelf.

But it was not empty at all. No matter where he went, he could easily get a book—there were just that many books.

Besides books, there were also the notes Kamibayashi Miko had given him, and the cultivation notes he had written himself, he didn’t know how many.

When Kamibayashi Miko came to look for him, he was in the vegetable garden.

She stood on the ridge of the field, watching him water the eggplants.

“Miss Kamibayashi came to look for me on her own initiative for the first time. What’s the matter?” Minamoto Kiyomoto asked.

“Are you in a bad mood?” Kamibayashi Miko looked at his face.

After asking, without waiting for Minamoto Kiyomoto to answer, she said with a look of disinterest, “Come out with me.”

“We’re not going to Kabukicho again, are we?” Minamoto Kiyomoto came out of the vegetable garden and picked a tender cucumber from the green leaves.

He washed it with water, broke it into two pieces, and gave the piece with the small yellow flower to Kamibayashi Miko.

“No,” Kamibayashi Miko took the cucumber. “I’m going to buy a present for Izayoi.”

“I was just about to go,” Minamoto Kiyomoto took a bite and ate it with a crunch.

The two of them went down the mountain under the sun.

“Have you decided what to buy?” Minamoto Kiyomoto asked.

“Where did you buy her the ring?” Kamibayashi Miko ate the cucumber in small bites.

“Omotesando.”

“Let’s go to Omotesando and have a look. She should like the things there.”

“The idea is not bad, but she has also bought things in Ginza.”

“Let’s go to Omotesando first, then Ginza.”

“Miss Kamibayashi,” he reminded her, “Izayoi is different from you and me. She can buy sports cars and RVs whenever she wants. Do you think the things she wants in Omotesando and Ginza will be left there for us to buy?”

Kamibayashi Miko stopped. Minamoto Kiyomoto took another step forward, creating an angle where she was looking down at him.

“Then where do you say we should go?” Kamibayashi Miko asked.

“Let’s go to a luxurious area she hasn’t been to, like Aoyama or Roppongi.”

Kamibayashi Miko started walking. As she passed by Minamoto Kiyomoto, she said, “You seem to have put a lot of thought into buying her a birthday present.”

She threw the leftover cucumber tip under an oak tree by the stone steps.

Minamoto Kiyomoto smiled and followed.

“Miss Kamibayashi, I have something to report to you.”

He told her what had happened in the morning. Kamibayashi Miko was not interested at all and didn’t say a word.

Whether it was the shopping street in Aoyama or the shopping mall in Roppongi, the new shops were one after another. In the huge glass windows, the dazzling array of goods was dazzling.

In the end, Kamibayashi Miko bought a set of coffee-making utensils.

Minamoto Kiyomoto considered that Himemiya Izayoi often wore kimonos and always had her hair up, so he bought a hairpin.

The hairpin had two blooming white cherry blossoms on it.

“It’s better than my tableware,” on the way back, Kamibayashi Miko said.

“I gave you tableware because I like the way you eat. It’s very elegant. I gave her a hairpin because she probably likes these things and always has her hair up.”

“You say you like me, but you put more thought into her gift.”

“Didn’t I just explain?”

“You might as well be with her. She’s as beautiful as me and more humane. I bless you from the bottom of my heart,” Kamibayashi Miko said.

An inexplicable anger rose in Minamoto Kiyomoto’s heart.

The train on the light rail beside them rushed towards the two of them.

The expressions of the passengers in the carriage could be seen clearly, like a set of still photos, flipping past their eyes frame by frame.

In Minamoto Kiyomoto’s eyes, these sceneries were like a backdrop, and the passengers on the train were just actors on a stage.

At this moment, the world only had him and Kamibayashi Miko.

“Miss Kamibayashi, have you read ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’?” he asked faintly.

“I have. ‘At the end of the world, where is there a fragrant hill’.”

“It was only today that I suddenly understood why every time Lin Daiyu mentioned the ‘golden jade marriage,’ Jia Baoyu didn’t comfort or guarantee, but instead flew into a rage.”

Kamibayashi Miko’s long eyelashes fluttered, her movements light, like a pair of butterflies that had temporarily stopped flying.

She wanted to say something, but in the end, what came out was, “Let’s go back.”

“Okay,” Minamoto Kiyomoto replied.

Minamoto Kiyomoto remembered that last time, when he and Himemiya Izayoi were buying a present for Kamibayashi Miko, there was also a conflict.

The next day, July 16th, the group set off for Shikoku.

From Tokyo to Shodoshima, it would take 10 hours by car, but only an hour and a half by plane, so they naturally chose to fly.

Shirako, as a earth spirit shikigami, if she was injured, Hakusan Shrine would also suffer a disaster, so Kamibayashi Miko would usually not take her out.

But this time, it was for a trip, so she brought her along.

There were special seats for cultivators on the plane. Otherwise, the shikigami that ordinary people couldn’t see would have to stand.

Shirako’s elementary school girl-like body sat in the large seat, very excited.

She swung her legs, her face pressed against the porthole, looking at the sea of clouds.

The little butterfly flew beside her, her whole body pressed against the porthole.

“Lady Miko, Lady Miko!” The little butterfly turned her head excitedly and gestured with both hands, “I see lots and lots and lots of clouds! So clouds are three-dimensional!”

“Really?” Kamibayashi Miko asked with a smile, as if she were coaxing a child.

“Yes!” The little butterfly nodded vigorously.

Minamoto Kiyomoto glanced at them and said:
“When I first came to Tokyo, to save money, I took a night bus. It was ten hours. My waist hurt and my neck was sore. I had to hold it in until the service station to go to the bathroom.”

“What if you can’t hold it in?” Himemiya Izayoi asked with curiosity.

“I’ve been back and forth between Shikoku and Tokyo a few times. I haven’t seen anyone who couldn’t hold it in yet. I don’t know what those who can’t hold it in do.”

Fuyuarashi brought over some cut cantaloupe.

This time, Himemiya Izayoi had also brought all her shikigami. She had to have someone serve her wherever she went.

“Is it sweet?” Minamoto Kiyomoto reached out to take a piece.

Himemiya Izayoi slapped his hand away.

“What’s wrong? I can’t even have a piece of cantaloupe?” Minamoto Kiyomoto rubbed his slightly painful back of his hand.

“Kneel down. I have something to ask you,” Himemiya Izayoi said in a high and mighty tone.

“What is it?” Minamoto Kiyomoto turned his face towards her.

“Think for yourself.”

“Didn’t you want to ask me? Why are you making me think for myself now?”

“If you can’t figure it out, you’re not allowed to stand up,” Himemiya Izayoi said, eating her cantaloupe.

Minamoto Kiyomoto did not kneel, nor did he figure it out.

The plane landed in “Takamatsu.” They needed to take a ferry to Shodoshima.

Minamoto Kiyomoto went to buy the ferry tickets. When he came back, he looked at the two miko wearing straw hats and skirts. Their elegant posture and perfect light and shadow reminded him of the paintings of the French painter Monet that he had seen in his literature class.

They were teasing the seagulls.

On every wooden post of the ferry pier, there was a seagull.

The locals were not interested in these birds at all. Only the tourists from outside would find them strange.

Soon, the boarding announcement came.

The three of them carried their luggage and boarded the boat, sitting on a bench on the deck.

The ferry sounded its whistle and left the shore. At this time, even if they had grown up at the ferry, the seagulls on the pier would all fly up together.

The staff couldn’t see Shirako, so Shirako, with her elementary school student appearance, leaned on the side of the boat, looking as if she were about to fall into the sea.

“Ah—”

“Ah—” The little butterfly made a trumpet with both hands and shouted along.

“The sea—”

“The sea—”

The sea was calm and gentle.

Minamoto Kiyomoto raised his head and saw that the sky was a vast expanse of blue, like a piece of water-blue drawing paper pasted on his head.

A plane was using a white brush to draw a straight, snow-white line on this vast blue drawing paper.

After watching for a while, he rubbed his slightly sore neck and said, “I feel a little sorry for Michelangelo.”

The two miko did not speak.

Himemiya Izayoi seemed to still be angry about ‘Minamoto Kiyomoto not remembering what she wanted to ask’.

“Michelangelo?” Fortunately, there was still the cute little butterfly.

“An artist from the Renaissance,” Minamoto Kiyomoto explained. “He painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It took him four years and five months. He must have tired his neck out.”

The little butterfly touched her lower lip with her finger, her confused eyes looking at the sky blankly, not understanding at all.

The ferry sounded its whistle again and slowly approached the shore.

Looking at the familiar scenery, Minamoto Kiyomoto excitedly jumped off the deck.

“Where is your house?” Kamibayashi Miko asked.

“Just keep walking forward,” Minamoto Kiyomoto pointed to the small road that was built along the coast.

A few people dragged their luggage. Minamoto Kiyomoto stuffed his things to Fuyuarashi and received a roll of the eyes from Himemiya Izayoi.

He didn’t care at all and jumped onto the breakwater by the sea.

“I used to like walking on it when I was a child!” His hair was blown wildly by the sea breeze, and his voice was about to fly away. “When I was in high school, I rode my bike to and from school, and I even rode on it!”

On the left was a green hillside with a huge white windmill on it.

On the right was the sea. The surface of the sea was not a monotonous green, but was composed of countless blues, vast and boundless.

The waves of the sea swayed gently, reflecting golden and silver light.

After a while, the hillside on the left disappeared, and a forest rose up, lush and green.

Minamoto Kiyomoto jumped down from the breakwater. Shirako and the little butterfly were still on it, running and playing to their hearts’ content.

“I remember there was a fruit tree here. Every year when I came back, I would pick one when I passed by,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said, found the tree, and picked three green fruits.

“Here,” he gave one to Kamibayashi Miko and one to Himemiya Izayoi.

“Can you eat it?” Himemiya Izayoi sized up the fruit in her hand.

“Of course you can,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said, taking a bite.

“Mmm—” he let out a satisfied sound.

Himemiya Izayoi looked at Kamibayashi Miko. Kamibayashi Miko picked up the fruit and also took a bite.

“How is it?” Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at her and asked.

Kamibayashi Miko nodded slowly.

Only then did Himemiya Izayoi take a bite with confidence, and then she squinted her eyes from the sourness.

She looked at the two of them in disbelief.

“Hahahaha!” Minamoto Kiyomoto bent over with laughter.

Kamibayashi Miko also laughed.

Himemiya Izayoi spat out the fruit in her mouth, pinched Minamoto Kiyomoto’s chin, and stuffed the fruit in her hand into his mouth.

“Mmm—”

Himemiya Izayoi didn’t allow him to open his mouth and even rubbed his cheeks to help him chew.

“Ah, Lady Miko, Lady Miko, help!” Shirako and the little butterfly ran back quickly.

“Woof, woof!” A rabbit-like puppy chased after the two of them.

The dog seemed to be able to see the shikigami. While Minamoto Kiyomoto was thinking, tears flowed from his eyes.

It was really too sour.

(End of Chapter)