Chapter 9: Before Chidorigafuchi

April 6th, the cherry blossoms in Tokyo reached full bloom.

“All the world is a-bustle, the cherry blossoms fade in a flash, we meet but for a moment.”

“Matsuo Basho’s haiku says: Under the trees, in the vegetable soup, cherry blossom petals fall.”

“After a week of blooming, they have finally reached their peak. Tokyo has been dyed a shade of pink by the blooming cherry blossoms. Grab a bento, take your family, and go eat under the cherry blossom trees.”

“Today, we speak only of poetry and flowers.”

After reading the news from the meteorological agency, Minamoto Kiyomoto put down his phone, took the tennis bag containing Polaris in his hand, and took a deep breath.

On the way to Hakusan Shrine, he made a call to his mother, who was far away in Shikoku.

“Hello, hello!” Due to running the inn, his mother’s voice was energetic from early in the morning.

“Mom, it’s me.”

“Out of money?”

“How could that be?” Minamoto Kiyomoto regretted it as soon as he said it; he should have taken the opportunity to ask for some. “Mom, can you send me my high school gym clothes? Can you still find them?”

“They’re all in the cabinet in the attic. I’ll go look for them later. What do you need gym clothes for?”

“I joined the school’s kendo club. I’ll wear the gym clothes for training.”

“Do you need money? Do you need to buy a kendo uniform, or a wooden sword, or protective gear or something?”

“No need, the club has everything.”

“If you need anything, just tell Mom.”

“I definitely won’t be polite.”

“It’s not easy for your mother to make money either. You’d better be a little more polite to me. You’re already twenty, and you’re still letting me support you.”

“Don’t you worry, six years of medical school, including this year, you still have to support me for four more years!”

“How did I raise a son like you!”

Mother and son both laughed at the same time.

Minamoto Kiyomoto stopped laughing first, paused for a moment, and as if returning to his childhood, he called out, “…Mother.”

“Hmm? What’s wrong?” On the other end of the phone, his mother’s voice also softened.

“Well, actually, I plan to skip class today.”

“Skip class?”

“Yeah, skip class, to go see the cherry blossoms.”

“Is it with a girl—?” His mother’s tone dragged on.

“I guess, hmm—, I guess so,” Minamoto Kiyomoto said with a laugh.

“Remember the photo!” His mother lowered her voice, her laughter filled with playful teasing.

“The cherry blossoms?”

“The girl!”

“That depends on whether she’s willing or not. By the way, did you receive the letter I sent back? It has a photo of the new campus.”

“I received it. They all said it’s very grand,” he heard his mother’s proud laughter.

“Next time you come to Tokyo, I’ll take you around, let you try the Akamon ramen, and then go see the Tokyo Tower.”

“What Tokyo Tower? You know your mother is afraid of heights.”

“Then we’ll go to Shinjuku.”

“No! I just want to meet the girl who made my son skip class to go see the cherry blossoms with.”

“Oh, we’re just looking at cherry blossoms, we’re not even friends!”

This was the longest conversation Minamoto Kiyomoto had had with his mother since coming to Tokyo. They talked all the way to the station, until the train pulled into the platform.

At times like this, one suddenly realizes how much life is worth cherishing.

The next generation of Pokémon was about to be released, he hadn’t seen the new movies yet, and he hadn’t eaten enough delicious food.

He wanted to go fishing on the breakwater by his house this summer.

At night, he would carry a bucket home, eat boiled edamame at the entrance of a barbecue shop, and also go to see the fireworks festival.

He had never held hands with a girlfriend in a yukata to watch a fireworks festival.

The rising fireworks, should one watch them from below? Or from the side?
The train swayed. The large-flowered cherry blossoms outside the window were splendid and beautiful, making Minamoto Kiyomoto think of Kamibayashi Miko.

Giving up the chance to live, choosing to participate in the subjugation of yokai, right now, did she, like him, feel a deep attachment to life?
He then remembered her words:
A truly courageous person is not one who is not afraid of death, but one who is full of attachment to life and still chooses to face difficulties head-on.

‘I must be a truly brave person too,’ Minamoto Kiyomoto tightened his grip on Polaris inside the tennis bag.

The train clattered along, moving forward on the tracks without any hesitation.

Although he was full of attachment to life, he had never thought of running away, and did not regret meeting Kamibayashi Miko.

However, the matter of Kamibayashi Miko using him, he remembered it even more deeply.

Sooner or later, sooner or later…
“Miss Kamibayashi, if you were to participate in a beauty pageant today, I guarantee: however many people there are in this world, that’s how many votes you would get.”

“You can still say these things. It seems your condition is not bad.”

Kamibayashi Miko was still wearing her red and white miko outfit today, with magnolias embroidered on the sleeves.

What was different from usual was that she had a sash draped over her arm. The sash was brilliant, as if made of concentrated golden light, floating and circling around Kamibayashi Miko.

The sunlight shone on her, pure and otherworldly. She was simply a fairy on earth.

Minamoto Kiyomoto suddenly remembered the weapon Kamibayashi Miko had mentioned when registering at the Onmyo Bureau.

“Is this the Divine Miko’s Damask?” he asked curiously, reaching out to touch the sash.

The long sash fluttered. It looked like a condensation of sunlight, but it felt real to the touch.

It felt very silky, and on this cold early spring morning, it also had a warm feeling. It was indeed an extraordinary thing.

“Hmm?” Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at Kamibayashi Miko in confusion. Kamibayashi Miko was staring straight at him.

“Can’t I touch it?” Minamoto Kiyomoto touched it twice more, then withdrew his hand. “Sorry.”

“Are you always this deserving of a beating?” Kamibayashi Miko looked at him.

“Actually, I’m a very cold person. One day, walk with me around the school, and you’ll know. It’s mainly—”

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at the sash floating beside her.

“For example, a woman with horns, a woman with wings, a woman with a tail, don’t you want to touch them?”

“Pervert.”

“He’s a pervert!”

“He really is a pervert!”

Several small heads poked out from Kamibayashi Miko’s hair. It was the butterfly sprites.

They looked smaller than usual, small enough to be hidden in her hair.

“Little butterflies,” Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at them and softened his voice, “after this battle, when I get the money, I’ll buy you grapes.”

“He’s a good person.”

“He is a good person!”

“He really is a good person!”

They were a group of shikigami who spoke their minds, very cute.

“Where’s Shirako?” Minamoto Kiyomoto looked left and right, but didn’t see the military uniform girl.

“She’s in the main hall praying for my fortune.” The two had been standing in front of the shrine gate. As she spoke, Kamibayashi Miko took a step and walked along the path towards the torii gate.

“Although Shirako has a bad temper, she is very loyal. I wonder if I can have a spirit like that as a shikigami in the future.”

The path was a downward-sloping stone path, with stone lanterns, komainu statues, and a purification trough on both sides.

This path was surrounded by a guardian forest. Oak, zelkova, chestnut trees… lush and green, all undeveloped primeval forest.

The hidden realm of Hakusan Shrine was built on a mountain.

The two of them stepped on the dappled light that spilled over the stone steps and headed down the mountain.

◇

“The flowers are all in bloom!” a girl rowing a boat in the moat shouted excitedly.

Chidorigafuchi was one of the moats of the Ogosho’s residence, named because the surface of the river resembled a thousand birds spreading their wings to fly.

Along the winding moat, cherry trees lined both banks endlessly, their branches full of blossoms. Hundreds, thousands of cherry blossoms, in clumps and layers, were like a sea of clouds.

The banks were covered by this boundless cloud of flowers. The flower-viewing crowd within it was like swimming in a sea of flowers.

Under the morning sun, it was a vast expanse of crimson, overflowing with color and light.

This was a four-hundred-meter-long cherry blossom road.

Minamoto Kiyomoto and Kamibayashi Miko stood under a cherry blossom tree. On the riverbank before them were golden rapeseed flowers.

In the eyes of the crowd, only Minamoto Kiyomoto could be seen, not Kamibayashi Miko in her miko attire.

The crowd would consciously walk around her. On the crowded riverbank, no one found it strange that there was an empty space there.

Many girls were looking this way, pretending to take pictures of the flowers, but were actually taking pictures of Minamoto Kiyomoto.

“Looks like we can’t take a photo together,” Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at Kamibayashi Miko, took out his phone, and took a selfie with the riverbank, cherry blossoms, and rapeseed flowers as the background.

“What’s this, so silly! Haha~” a silver-bell-like laugh, and a black-haired head leaned over, blocking Minamoto Kiyomoto, looking at the selfie on the phone.

A fragrance different from the cherry blossoms and rapeseed flowers entered Minamoto Kiyomoto’s nose.

He took a closer look. It was Himemiya Izayoi’s delicate face, both charming and pure.

Today she wore a gorgeous long-sleeved kimono, wrapped in a mink shawl, like a girl attending the coming-of-age ceremony on March 3rd.

“Can you not be so close?” Minamoto Kiyomoto dodged a little, not wanting to touch this woman who felt very dangerous.

But Himemiya Izayoi ignored him, snatched his phone, and aimed it at the two of them.

“Come on, smile!”

“Click,” she took a photo of the two of them with Minamoto Kiyomoto’s phone without permission.

“You’re quite photogenic, but not as good-looking as me,” after saying this, this person took someone else’s phone and started taking selfies on her own.

Minamoto Kiyomoto thought for a moment. Anyway, as long as it was a girl, it didn’t matter whose photo it was, so he didn’t snatch it back.

He scanned the riverbank.

By the riverbank, a young man dressed as a samurai taking pictures;
On a blue waterproof cloth under a tree, a young woman eating cherry blossom dango;
An uncle taking pictures of the flowers, middle-aged women taking pictures of each other;
A middle-aged couple, a young couple, same-sex friends walking side by side;
In the moat, tourists either rowing oars or pedaling swan boats;

Among these ordinary tourists, if one sensed carefully, one could detect the surging divine power in their bodies.

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked at the four-hundred-meter cherry blossom road, standing there without moving, but his heart was surging.

It was about to begin.

“Silly, don’t just stand there, hurry up and take a picture of me!”

Himemiya Izayoi stuffed the phone into Minamoto Kiyomoto’s hand, then raised her fan to cover her face, stood under the cherry blossom tree, her face turned towards the sun—already posing.

Minamoto Kiyomoto raised his phone and aimed it at Kamibayashi Miko, who was looking out at the riverbank.

The lens was empty. Her sacred figure was not there, only the distant crowd.

“Hey, are you done yet!” Himemiya Izayoi held her pose, her face not looking this way, seemingly trying to create a sense of being captured in an unguarded moment.

“Done, done,” Minamoto Kiyomoto took a picture.

Himemiya Izayoi walked over cheerfully, leaning in to look at the phone as if she were very familiar with Minamoto Kiyomoto.

“Even if you didn’t put your heart into it, it’s still so beautiful!” As if that wasn’t enough, she added, “How am I so beautiful!”

After that, she even said to Minamoto Kiyomoto, “I’ll allow you to keep this photo, use it as a wallpaper, or for some lewd things.”

“…”

Kamibayashi Miko looked over, and the butterfly sprites also poked their heads out of her hair.

In front of them, Minamoto Kiyomoto deleted the photo, then showed them the screen.

Kamibayashi Miko glanced at it and said, “‘Recently Deleted’.”

“…”

Minamoto Kiyomoto opened ‘Recently Deleted’ and deleted it again.

Himemiya Izayoi looked back and forth between the two and asked curiously, “Are you a couple?”

The people around, attracted by her beauty, looked at the two of them strangely. They couldn’t see Kamibayashi Miko.

“Is that possible?” Minamoto Kiyomoto asked back.

“Then—, why did you delete my photo?” Himemiya Izayoi leaned in very close, so close that Minamoto Kiyomoto could see himself in her eyes.

This was like an angry girlfriend’s questioning. He didn’t know if it was because her divine power far surpassed his, but it made Minamoto Kiyomoto’s hair stand on end.

It was as if the world had suddenly shrunk. He was in a box, and an eye was pressed against the box, staring at him without blinking.

“I’d also like to know why I deleted it,” he said, moving aside and looking at Kamibayashi Miko.

Himemiya Izayoi also looked at Kamibayashi Miko.

“I would be very troubled if you suddenly became interested in women now. Please hold on until after I die.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto remembered. This woman had sought him out precisely because he was not close to women.

“…I hope I can live until then,” he put away his phone and looked at the four-hundred-meter cherry blossom road again. “Why hasn’t it started yet?”

Kamibayashi Miko heard his anticipation and said, “Excitement can give people strength, but it can also give the enemy an opportunity. Be careful to maintain a balance between excitement and calmness.”

Minamoto Kiyomoto took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and then felt a little excited again.

“Why are you excited?” Himemiya Izayoi stared at Minamoto Kiyomoto curiously.

“I’ll be able to see a yokai soon.”

“So what if you see one?”

“It can increase my knowledge and experience, and give my life more possibilities.”

“Aren’t you afraid of death?”

“I am, I’m scared to death. I even called my mom this morning.”

When Minamoto Kiyomoto said this, both Kamibayashi Miko and Himemiya Izayoi looked over.

On that handsome and clear face, one could indeed see an attachment to life and a fear of the future.

“But,” Minamoto Kiyomoto’s eyes sparkled, “the more you fear something, the more it can temper you; the more frightening things you experience, the higher your state of life will be. I want to see how far I can go in this life, and what kind of state I can finally reach!”

Twenty years old was not too late!
Minamoto Kiyomoto was full of strength, his face full of fighting spirit.

He looked at the four-hundred-meter cherry blossom road as if he were looking at the unpredictable path of his life.

The two miko fell silent.

Kamibayashi Miko thought of Minamoto Kiyomoto’s capacity; Himemiya Izayoi smiled, looking at Minamoto Kiyomoto with admiration.

“It’s not practical to talk about these things now,” Minamoto Kiyomoto suddenly changed the subject. “Right now, I just want to make money.”

“Make, make money?” Perhaps the topic changed too quickly, and Himemiya Izayoi didn’t react for a moment.

In her concept, what was money?
“Thanks to Miss Kamibayashi, I now see everyone as Yukichi Fukuzawa. My eyes can’t even see beautiful women anymore.”

Kamibayashi Miko let out a silent laugh, as beautiful as after a rain, when a beam of light leaks from the dark clouds and shines on a white magnolia wet with rain.

“Thanks to her? Did something happen? Tell me, tell me!” Himemiya Izayoi was very familiar, as if they were old friends who hadn’t seen each other for years.

However, of these three people, the longest they had known each other was only three days.

Just as Minamoto Kiyomoto was about to complain about Kamibayashi Miko’s greed, a high-pitched voice suddenly came from the distance.

“Please ask the newlyweds to cut the happy cake!” a person dressed as an emcee shouted with all his might.

Following the sound, it turned out that someone was holding a wedding.

Many tourists acted as temporary guests, looking at the well-matched bride and groom with blessings.

“The ‘first bite’ ceremony for the bride and groom!”

Countless flashes of light, like stars, vied to light up.

“The groom feeds the bride, promising to provide for you for a lifetime!”

“The bride feeds the groom, promising to cook delicious food for you for this lifetime!”

“Okay, now please everyone present, share in this happiness together. Let’s all open our mouths wide, ‘Ahhh—’!”

The emcee was talking about a wedding custom that Minamoto Kiyomoto had never even heard of.

“That’s so silly. I will definitely not hire an emcee like that when I get married,” Himemiya Izayoi said to Minamoto Kiyomoto as if giving instructions.

“Go discuss it with your husband, what’s the use of telling me? By the way, a miko’s wedding should be a Shinto ceremony, right? But can a miko get—”

“The bride’s dress is quite pretty though,” Himemiya Izayoi didn’t care about Minamoto Kiyomoto’s reaction at all and said to herself.

Minamoto Kiyomoto looked over. The bride wore long wedding gloves on both hands, a silver crown on her head, and her white, thin gauze skirt was puffed up high.

“It is pretty,” he said.

Kamibayashi Miko was also looking at the happy wedding scene, her thoughts unknown.

Just then, a deafening roar suddenly came, and the ground shook.

Minamoto Kiyomoto turned his head sharply. The four-hundred-meter cherry blossom road, like a giant python raising its head, slowly lifted its upper body.

“It’s here!”

“Assemble!”

“Form ranks!”

Roars rose one after another.

The one taking pictures threw away his camera, which turned into a hand cannon. Three young people immediately gathered behind him;
A family sitting on a picnic blanket all stood up, taking out knives, guns, and swords. The last one lifted the picnic blanket, and with a “swish,” it turned into a shield;
A couple on the river jumped into the water, and in a blink, they were clad in water-colored armor. They jumped out of the river again, their bodies resplendent with water-colored divine power, and stood on the river surface.

Their regular clothes turned into various ancient garments, some armor, some kariginu, some single-layer robes…
“Gods and spirits of heaven and earth, with your brilliant and majestic power, shikigami, come!”

Various colors of divine power shone brilliantly, forming a formation!
A three-meter-tall giant with bull horns, a flying man with eagle wings, a ten-meter-long python, a shark poking its head out of Chidorigafuchi, all sorts of strange and bizarre shikigami appeared in the divine light of the formation.

The originally leisurely scene of flower viewing had, in a blink of an eye, turned into a kingdom of demons.

“Roar—”

With a roar that seemed to want to bring down the sky, the giant python formed by the four-hundred-meter cherry blossom road opened its mouth and spat out. A pink divine breath shot up into the sky, forming a huge pillar of light, shattering the white clouds.

“Roar—”

Another roar.

Minamoto Kiyomoto turned his head to look. In the direction of Shinjuku Gyoen to the west, a giant bird made of cherry blossoms spread its wings. From its huge beak, it also shot out a pink divine breath.

“The bride and groom kiss—” amidst the roars of the demonic beasts, the emcee shouted loudly.

“Roar—”

“Kiss! Kiss!” the guests cheered and clapped.

“Roar—”

The beast roars came one after another. Giant beasts filled the sky, and the whole of Tokyo turned into a paradise for yokai.

Countless streams of pink divine breath supported the space between heaven and earth, spreading out like a giant wave. In a blink of an eye, the sky turned pink.

Cherry blossoms fell like a blizzard, another cherry blossom blizzard.

(End of Chapter)