Aoishiro
Chapter 14
Momoko: Fuwah..., good morning.
Ayashiro: Good morning.
Momoko: Oh, Hime-sempai! Your complexion looks good today.
Ayashiro: It seems I slept soundly yesterday.
Momoko: Compared to you, Osa-sempai doesn't have such a good complexion today.
Syouko: .....
I didn't say anything. I was holding Kumouchi and thrust it at Momoko.
Momoko: ...Ah.
Syouko: So...did Momoko sleep well?
Momoko: I'm sorry...
Syouko: Anyways, nothing happened yesterday.
Momoko: Uuu..., I guess I was only half-awake then.
Actually a lot of things happened, but I couldn't say that.
Yasumi and I secretly glanced at each other.
After the morning run, we headed towards Migiwa's room. Migiwa said it was better to have our meals separately, but if she wasn't going to touch us, then I didn't mind letting it go like water running under the bridge.
Besides, if she suddenly stopped showing up for meals, it would raise people's suspicions.
Syouko: Migiwa...?
She wasn't in her room.
Syouko: I'm going to go for a run by myself for a while.
The waves were already full and the Oni Stepping Stones were sunk into the sea.
At places, there were stones that peeked their heads out of the ocean, but the spaces between their stones were too wide, and they couldn't be called stepping stones.
Migiwa wasn't there either.
Migiwa went to chase the oni that was headed towards Urashima.
Momoko: There's a lot of volume today too.
Yasumi: I believed there would be enough sashimi for this morning.
So for this morning's meal, we were using the leftover sashimi from yesterday's temaki to make yamakake-don (rice bowl with japanese yam, raw salmon, and seaweed on top).
Along with a light soup, and rolled omelette (dashi maki tamago), it made for a good meal.
Nami: .....
Nami seemed to like the omelette, so that was all she was eating and didn't pay any attention to the rice bowl.
Ayashiro: Here, Nami-chan. Aa...un.
Nami: .....
Ayashiro: Yes, was it good?
Nami: ～♪
Ayashiro: Nami-chan's so cute...
Syouko: Geez...
I put all of my omelette on Nami's plate.
The monk laughed in a cheerful voice as he watched Ayashiro happily playing with Nami.
Yuukai: Vice-captain-san, you're looking well today. Is it because of the local foods?
Ayashiro: I ate a lot yesterday.
The raw materials that the monk prepared for the temaki were almost all from the local area.
Yuukai: Grated yam also has a lot of nourishment.
Yuukai: Fumu, about the weather...
The monk's eyes had been looking at something for a while.
Near his foot was an old television.
It was probably a local channel since an unfamiliar newscaster was giving a weather report.
Announcer: A large storm is approaching...
Yuukai: So that's how it is.
So it seems the bad weather that accompanied the festival of Kurou-sama was going to appear.
Ayashiro: So there's going to be a lot of bad weather soon?
Yuukai: Even in heavy rain and wind, we won't move an inch. It's good that this is a grand, old temple.
Ayashiro: Maybe it would be better to move up the training camp schedule.
Momoko: But at times like this, it's better to have others lend a hand, right?
Yuukai: If there are going to be strong winds and rains, I would not want you ladies to lend a hand, either.
Yuukai: There's only me here anyways.
The monk's eyes suddenly fell on Nami, who was eating the fluffy omelette.
Yuukai: Well, it's me and the little lady, so we'll be able manage somehow.
Ah...that's right.
When we leave, we'll also have to part from Nami...
Yasumi: Nami-chan...
Yuukai: If the roof of the temple blows off, we'll retreat to a nearby parishioner's house.
Yuukai: But with this many people, even if we increased the number of houses, it'd be a little hard to fit everyone.
Syouko: True...
Aoi: So that's how it is. We're going to return earlier. I'll go inform everyone individually.
Aoi: They'll be no practice today so it's free time, but make sure to pack your luggage and carefully clean up...
I helped clean up after the meal and then Yasumi and I headed towards the kitchen.
It'd be hard to have a discussion if Momoko or the others were around.
Syouko: Hey, Yasumi, what do think we should do?
Yasumi: Do?
Syouko: Should we go to that place, or just return home?
Yasumi: What does sempai think?
Syouko: I think...we should go.
There was some sort of fate.
Eight years ago, I was only together with Yasumi for a few days, but at a far-away school, we entered the same club. I seemed to think that something big bound us together.
Yasumi: The next ebb tide is in the evening.
Syouko: By the time we get there, it'll be dark.
Yasumi: Yes.
Syouko: It'll cause trouble for everyone else.
Yasumi: Yes.
Syouko: Even still, I think we should go.
Yasumi: Ok.
So, the morning passed and it was almost time for lunch.
Even if humans don't do anything, when too much time passes, the stomach becomes empty.
Today's lunch was Chinese-style food.
With a big pot and fire, enough for everyone was prepared at once of the mabo tofu and mabo eggplant.
Along with a bok-choy and dried shrimp soup, it had a very Chinese-feel to the meal.
However, there seemed to be one person who was unsatisfied with the menu...
Momoko: Zawacchi...
Yasumi: Yes?
The team members immediately thought, "If it's Momoko, there's no helping it...", and Momoko was going to say as much she wanted, which was the position she'd established in the club.
So she would probably say something Momoko-like such as "The meat in mabo is only ground meat?" or "There's not enough dried shrimp", something like that...
Momoko: Doesn't it seem like Osa-sempai received an extremely large helping?
She said something else.
Yasumi: Eh? Eeh? That's not true...
Momoko: No..it's true.
Syouko: Ok, ok, ok.
Syouko: There's second helpings, so don't be greedy.
Momoko: What I'm talking about is the problem of Zawacchi's love. I'm not talking about her being stingy with the amount of mabo tofu!
Syouko: Ah, I see.
I knew that Yasumi was favoring me, but I also thought that wasn't good. However, I was a little happy.
Yasumi: Ah, Nami-chan, was it spicy?
It seems the main point was Yasumi didn't listen.
It was time for the waves to draw back.
The sun was sinking to the west, and as if they were being drawn back together, the waves of the sea also drew back.
We didn't bring any large baggage. We just held hands and looked like we were going for a walk...
Like meeting for a date, or as if we were eloping, we avoided people, and secretly headed towards the forbidden place.
In front of us, the sea that was stained in gold, expanded.
The waves were still in the middle of receeding, but already, a road was appearing from beneath the waves.
The road stretched towards the place where Yasumi was born, Urashima.
With the sea now 80 percent high, black, bare rocks that we could cross were beginning to appear at the shallow areas near the shore, shining in the twilight.
Syouko: Lastly, just to confirm one more time...
Yasumi: What about Syouko-sempai? Is it ok? If we go more than halfway, I don't think we'll be able to return.
Syouko: It's fine.
This was the first step...
The gaps between the rocks weren't as wide as on the coast, but it was a space that a person could walk across.
I went first and looked back at Yasumi, who was on Unasaka, and held out my hand to her.
Syouko: Watch your feet.
Yasumi: It would've been better to wear jerseys.
Syouko: That's true.
As Yasumi jumped over the rocks, her skirt fluttered. When the wind blowing down the path created by the rocks changed, sometimes the skirt seemed as if it would overturn.
Syouko: But then, Momoko would notice.
Yasumi: Yes...
Since she was a person that paid attention to Yasumi, if Yasumi had changed clothes, she would definitely have noticed.
If she noticed that we were going off on our own, she would've been angry and had both Yasumi and me return.
The sun was facing us, but because of the wind and the spray, it didn't feel hot.
I was more worried about Yasumi's stamina, but she'd have to endure until we reached the other shore to take a break.
How long had it been since we'd left Unasaka?
The sun had set quite a bit and the golden sea looked as if the hinokurusi had been poured drop by drop into it and was stained in red.
The ebb tide had reached its end.
From now on, it would get dark, and following the gradually rising moon, the waves would fill.
Syouko: Since we've came this far, we can't go back.
Yasumi: Yes...
We'd already gone over the time and gone past the place where we could return.
Syouko: Since we're really sharing our lot with each other, could you tell me everything?
I had a feeling that Yasumi...Nekata Yasumi, hadn't told me everything.
She might not know anything about the Oni King's curse, but there were still lots of information that could be used to solve the secret about Yasumi's condition.
Since there hadn't been a chance to talk about this before today, we'd gone forward without thinking about the consequences but...
I'd like some information to act as a pointer for what we should do after we arrive at Urashima.
Yasumi: For generations, the Nekata family has been the the successors to the Kurou-ryuu sword style...
Yasumi: In order to cut off the ox's head.
Syouko: An ox's...?
Syouko: Do you mean a sacrifice?
Yasumi: Saying it's a sacrifice...it's true it's a sacrifice offered to Kurou-sama...but more than that, along with Shinto music and dance, it's to re-enact the legend.
Yasumi: The impurities of the people of the island are transferred to the ox's head, which is cut off and floated out to the ocean in order for the people to have one more year of health...
Yasumi was saying it was something like
Nagashibina.
Syouko: What else can you tell me about?
Yasumi: About my onee-chan...
Yasumi: I was told she died, but actually...they never found onee-chan's body
So she wasn't dead, but missing.
Like the story of
Urashimataro, who was spirited away and returned three hundred, or some say seven hundred, years later.
Yasumi's older sister who disappeared...
It might be be related to something, and using that as an introduction, Yasumi continued.
Yasumi: I remembered what happened around that time. With pale skin, white hair, and an eyepatch, an outsider came to visit my father.
Syouko: An eyepatch?
Yasumi: It wasn't an eyepatch used for medical purposes. It looked like a silver eyepatch, like something from a different time...
Yasumi: And then, a religious ceremony was performed at our house, by that one-eyed, white-haired onmyouji...
Syouko: A one-eyed, white-haired, onmyouji...
How many hundreds of years had it been since the Nekata family first started performing this religious ceremony? There might be some sort of connection there...
Syouko: Urashima's Oni Stepping Stones...
Like how we were talking about the Oni Stepping Stones, I could see there were strangely-shaped rocks milling about. As we approached Urashima, those magnificent stones increased.
The megaliths were like the pillars of an ancient temple, or perhaps like a grave marker. They stood there as if greeting Yasumi and me.
Syouko: Is this a forbidden place too?
Yasumi: Yes. The people of the island will never come here.
Yasumi: Even I rarely came...
Whether it was a bad memory or if it was something hard for her to say, under the shadow of the strangely shaped stones, Yasumi dropped her eyes.
Syouko: So the people that come here are outsiders, or people like us?
Yasumi: Yes...
And it was not Yasumi, but me, who should have a memory about this place.
Eight years ago, at the time when the ships stopped crossing over to the island, if you wanted to go over there, then you had to go across these stepping stones.
The memory from eight years ago...
The crimson rocks which were painted by the crimson twiling...
Red...
The red noise mixed with the image in my head was interrupting me.
It hurt when I tried to remember, so I stopped.
Syouko: Yasumi? Are you tired?
Yasumi: Eh...I'm still fine...
Yasumi: I'm sorry. If I don't tell my condition truthfully to sempai, it might cause even more trouble.
Syouko: Here is fine too. If it's not a windy place, why don't we rest in cave or something like that.
Yasumi: If you want to take a rest, I know a better place.
Yasumi: I've heard that the reason that Kurou-sama's forbidden place is so large is to protect the forest.
Syouko: I guess if it weren't forbidden, it would quickly become a famous sightseeing destination.
Yasumi: I heard from my father that the items taken from the forest are used as medicine. My onee-chan, was who sick, was made to drink it every day...
Syouko: Hinokusuri?
Yasumi: It might have been. I wasn't told the name.
Passed down through the generations, there really did seem to be crimson-colored medicine.
Yasumi: Actually, one time, I exchanged places with my onee-chan and drank it, but...
Yasumi: After that, I developed a fever and collapsed.
Syouko: Is that what you would call medicine?
Yasumi: Onee-chan was continually drinking it since she was small so her dosage became highly concentrated.
Too much medicine also becomes poison...
Syouko: Thinking about it, the monk said that hinokusuri might be a strong medicine made from earth mixed with sulfur and mercury...
Syouko: But if it uses ingredients from this forest, I guess it really is made from the Tokosaki no Tsubaki?
If that tree sealed Matamu, then the flowers around here might be poisonous...
For example, if Matamu were an
ushi-oni, then Yasumi, who was poisoned, might become something like a
nure-onna...
No, I guess I'm thinking too much.
But still, humans who drink the hinokusuri...
Yasumi: Sempai, over here.
Syouko: Ah...
? : Syouko-chan, over here...
My buried memory was slowly floating up.
The details were still fuzzy, but...
The faded memory had its colors washed out, but still...
The color of the tsubaki only, clearly stood out.
Syouko: Hey, Yasumi.
Syouko: In the past, we went for a walk like this together in the forest, right?
Syouko: You were pulling my hand...
Yes, and then...
Syouko: And you brought me to the small shrine a little past here...
Syouko: Eh? Syouko-sempai?
Yasumi's eyes widened as I took her hand.
Syouko: Right, it's over here!
I pulled on her hand and headed forward to that place.
Syouko: As I thought...it's here...
Deep within the forest of tsubaki, where the roar of the sea was dim, there was an ancient, tomb-like cave. In the past, she had told me it was a shrine to the tsubaki.
Yasumi: By the way, sempai. Don't you think the atmosphere in the forest is a little weird?
Yasumi: Like it's hard to breathe, or it's stuffy, that kind of feeling...it's somehow, a little scary here.
Syouko: True.
Whether it was because the air in the forest had a different atmospheric pressure, or the density of the air was different, but there was a weird feeling of oppression.
Syouko: Matamu's seal...
Syouko: For example, after many months and years, Matamu was storing his "power" which is causing the seal to break...?
Syouko: Or maybe it's just because there's so many trees with "power" here that it gives a feeling that it's difficult to breathe...?
Yasumi: .....
She didn't confim or deny it.
Of course, I myself didn't know either.
Syouko: Anyways, let's go inside the shrine...
The inside, with the big stones left there, was something like Sakafuneishi in Nara Prefecture. We saw what looked like a bed made of stone. Yasumi leaned against it to take a break.
Whether it was just coincidence, or it was made to be that way, the depressions in the stone looked like a person.
Syouko: Now, then...
We've come to Urashima, but what should we do from now on?
Syouko: I guess Nekata-san would know the most about Yasumi's condition...
Syouko: Though I don't suppose we can just go knock on the front door and say, "Your daughter's back, blah blah blah"
Yasumi: That's true.
Yasumi: You know, I think I know the underlying reason why I like to read so much. It's because my father showed me old books.
Syouko: Old books...?
Yasumi: It might be impossible for me to be the successor to the Kurou-ryuu, but I studied a lot and was able to read a lot of difficult books, I thought I might be able to become the successor to the Nekata rituals.
Yasumi: So, I looked at the ancient documents passed down through the generations...very old books with Japanese-style book bindings.
Yasumi: They also contained the method to make the hinokusuri that Onee-chan drank.
Yasumi: So I worked hard and was able to read a lot of books.
Yasumi: And along the line, I came to believe reading books was interesting...
Syouko: I see. So that's why Aoi-sensei was lamenting to the other teachers that she didn't have much to teach Yasumi.
Syouko: Then, perhaps, in those ancient documents...
There might some method written in there about how to deal with Yasumi's condition.
Even if it wasn't written in there, if the hinokusuri really was a miraculous medicine that could cure all sorts of sickness...
If Yasumi had enough stamina to go through her daily life, then she might not need to suck vitality from other.
Yasumi: If possible, I'd like to secretly go in and take the book when my father's not home.
Syouko: ...Should I go take a look at the situation?
Yasumi: Eh?
Syouko: If Yasumi's caught, it'll be bad, right?
Yasumi: Ah. Please wait a minute!
Yasumi got flustered and stopped me when I was about to leave. She took out a handkerchief and laid it out on a flat part of the rock she was sitting on. She folded it on half, and then in half again.
Yasumi: I guess folding a handkerchief...is a bit difficult...
Syouko: ...What are you planning to do?
Yasumi: I'm going to make a shikigami familiar and have it look around.
Syouko: A shikigami...
I remembered. That's what those kappa-like mouryou that Migiwa drove off were.
After defeating them, they turned into black dust and black smoke and disappeared. They were familiars with nothing but a temporary body.
Yasumi: You make an origami crane, blow on it, and then it'll fly like it's alive.
Yasumi: And then, the cranes act like they have cameras on them. Wherever the cranes go, you can see and hear what's going around them.
Syouko: Wait. So Yasumi, you can make something like that?
Yasumi: I can't...
She gave a sheepish smile.
Yasumi: But, what about my spirit leaving my body!? I couldn't that until now either!?
Syouko: No, you also did that unconsciously.
Yasumi: .....
Yasumi: Etto, I think now, I can consciously get my spirit to leave my body. I think I can do it.
Syouko: Sensei called it going into a trance.
Yasumi Ah!
Syouko: Eh!?
Yasumi: If I can have an out of body experience, then while staying here, I can also go and look around!
Yasumi: Take for example swinging around in a circle on the monkey bars. Once you've done it once, it becomes easy to do.
Syouko: Can you do that?
Yasumi: I can do a circle on the monkey bars and I can also ride a bicycle without training wheels.
Syouko: Well, I already knew that when we went out on our morning runs.
Since Yasumi didn't have much stamina, when the club went running, she accompanied us on a bicycle.
Yasumi: Anyways, I think I can do this!
Yasumi: Before, in special editions of some magazines, I think I've read about how to have an out of body experience.
Syouko: What kind of magazine was that...
I've heard of random magazines, like cooking, accessories, or health magazines...
Maybe normal magazines all had special summer editions on ghost stories planned also...
I don't normally read a lot of magazines so I don't really know.
Yasumi: Eh..to, the first thing to do is lie down and relax...
Yasumi: Then, if you'll excuse me for a while.
Yasumi lay down on the pedastal that looked like a bed.
The depression in the pedestal was very suitable for a person lying down...
Syouko: Huh...
I came here with Yasumi and then.....?
Yasumi: Syouko-sempai! Look at this!
Hearing Yasumi's voice, I turned around. But, though there was a voice, I didn't see a body.
Syouko: Yasumi?
Yasumi: Huh? You can't see me? Eh...please wait a moment.
Yasumi: Sempai should also think and try to "see" me.
Syouko: Nn...
Syouko: ...Yasumi, it seems you were able to get into a trance.
Yasumi: Yes, just like that!
For the soul, which didn't have any organic shackles, whether it was because the consciousness resided in the head, or because leaving the body thinned it out, it really was like a "ghost".
Syouko: ...What about your clothes?
Yasumi: Yes?
Syouko: Yasumi, how come you're not wearing any clothes?
Yasumi: Eh...because clothes aren't a part of my soul...
Yasumi: There's no helping it, since I became a ghost...
Syouko: If Yasumi doesn't mind, then it's ok.
Yasumi: Since you said that, I'm somehow feeling embarrassed...
Yasumi: .....
She turned red and looked like she might disappear, and she did, her body gradually becoming thinner...
And finally, she disappeared with a whiff.
Syouko: Yasumi?
Syouko: Hey, Yasumi?
There was no one in Yasumi's body.
This was the first time I've stared at her face from this close a distance.
Syouko: .....gulp.
The cell phone rang.
Syouko: .....!?
Syouko: Hello...
Aoi: Hey! Osanai-san! Exactly where are you right now!?
As soon as I answered the phone, she got mad at me.
Syouko: Um, Urashima...
Aoi: Eh, eh!? Wait...didn't I tell you that was a forbidden place!
Aoi: Geez, I thought Osanai-san and Aizawa-san were serious students. Because of things like this, young kids these days...
Aoi: Wait a minute. I'll discuss this with Suzuki-san.
Syouko: She could have just called me back...
After that, the other side of the phone seemed to have some sort of discussion, and I waited a while.
Aoi: Suzuki-san seems to have contacted Nekata-san, so we'll have him take care of you tonight.
Syouko: Eh!?
That was a little...
Sensei and the monk didn't know that Yasumi was Nekata-san's daughter, so they would have done this.
But how many years has it been since Yasumi and her mother left the Nekata house.
For a growing child, in a few years, they could look like a different person.
Especially for girls, with a different hair style, or different clothes, it could have a big change...
Syouko: Nothing ventured, nothing gained...is it?
With the monk's introduction, we could go squarely through the front gate to the Nekata's estate.
If Nekata-san confirmed to the monk that we went to the Nekata estate, then if anything happened, we couldn't pretend we were innocent.
Syouko: Then, could you please do so? We're at a shrine in the middle of the island right now...and resting in a cave.
The phone call had ended for a while. If we were going to go, then we should get going but...
Yasumi had gone to the mansion to go some reconnaissance. If I headed there, we might be able to meet up halfway...
Looking at Yasumi's unmoving body on the pedastal, I was just about to touch her to carry her on my back, when...
Yasumi: Nn...
Yasumi's eyelids fluttered a little.
Syouko: Yasumi, have you returned?
Yasumi: Yes. Sempai, tadaima.
Syouko: How was it?
Yasumi: Otou-san is still in the house it seems.
Yasumi: If I get too close, my presence might give me away so I couldn't see what was in the house.
Yasumi: I'm sorry I wasn't helpful.
Yasumi: Did anything happen on Syouko-sempai's side?
Syouko: Sensei called.
Yasumi: Eh!?
The old monk also contacted them so we could go to the house.
Syouko: Yasumi, we're going to go to the house now.
Yasumi: What, wait, my heart's not prepared yet...
It's said that if you try to hurry up good will, then your mind will become impatient and turn around.
But though we had a limited time, we should do all we could to prepare.
Right now, the only thing we could do was...
Syouko: Before we go, we should replenish the "energy" that Yasumi used.
I hugged Yasumi and her inner self.
If a person loses their physical body, then the soul, a shape made from "energy" wouldn't be able to sustain itself.
So Yasumi, who left her physical body, should have consumed a lot of "energy".
Yasumi: Eh? That's not necessary. I wasn't helpful. I would feel bad.
Syouko: The important thing is not whether or not you were useful. It's whether or not you are tired.
Syouko: Fortunately, after that event a couple days ago, I'm filled with a strange "energy" so I'll be fine.
It might be the life of the never withering tsubaki's "energy" residing in this body. I was filled with a mysterious "energy".
Yasumi had already drained some from me so I didn't think of it as improper.
Yasumi: Then...
Her eyes looked a little embarrassed as she glanced up at me.
Yasumi: I guess...it should be...the neck...
Like Yasumi was embarrassed, I was also the same.
Syouko: Whatever place you like is fine.
Yasumi: Uu...even if you tell me that...
Yasumi: Then...then, I'm going to begin!
Her thin arms wrapped around my neck with a little shudder as if she couldn't hold back.
The distance between the two of us shortened to zero.
Syouko: .....
Starting with my wrists and my ankles, the extremities, where the body was slimmer than other places, it felt as if the boundary between the inside and outside thinned.
Included in those areas was also the neck, where under a thin layer of skin, what could be called the road of life was connected. It is a place where both blood and energy travel through.
At that place that expressed my life, the sensation was sharper than other places...
The skin of neck captured the warmth of Yasumi who drew near. Before her lips touched me, the tiny hairs on my back stood up.
Though I'd already experienced this night before, my body was nervous and tightened up.
Syouko: .....
Though I was only stiff on the outside, I should do something about it so I took a deep breath.
Yasumi: Hah...
I relaxed and Yasumi let out a sigh. She once again concentrated.
It was hot, wet, it didn't matter that it was gentle...
No, it was because it was gentle.
Yasumi: Nn...
After her sigh, her lips touched me.
Yasumi's lips were soft, but their shape changed like they wanted to break something. She was buried in the space between us.
The space was almost completely airtight, and only within the circle of her lips did I get wet from saliva.
The blood had already stopped, but yesterday's scar hadn't completely shut yet.
If she sucked strongly, the blood should ooze out, but...
Yasumi: Chu...
Yasumi wasn't sucking strongly. It might've been weaker than when a baby sucks milk.
Yasumi: Un...nn...hah...nn...
It might have been enough to suck juice with a straw, but unfortunately my blood was not that easy to get.
Thinking about it, I'd heard that the standard milkshake and the like at Hakku's had their consistency adjusted so that the strength needed to drink them was the same as what a baby needed to drink milk.
Syouko: Yasumi...it tickles...
More than where her lips were touching, the ticklish part was where her soft weight was draped over me. It would be nice if it were over my whole body though...
Syouko: If you're like that, you won't be able to draw any blood.
Yasumi: But, I'm somewhat scared...
She removed her lips from my neck and said that.
Was she scared about hurting me? Or was she scared about drinking blood over and over and changing into something inhuman?
Yasumi: And also, it's embarrassing...
I was also embarrassed.
Syouko: Yasumi.
I patted the arms around me with my palm to give a signal that it was ok so Yasumi once again buried her face in my neck.
Yasumi: Senpai...
Yasumi pursed her lips on my neck where the blood, and the "energy" within it, ran underneath, and started to earnestly suck.
Yasumi: Nn...nn...
For the many storms that would await her, if Yasumi's life would not waver, and would not disappear, then I could endure.
If I could support her, then...
Syouko: Please excuse me.
Yasumi: Hello? Please excuse me.
Refined man's voice: ...Who is it?
A hard voice answered our question.
Someone wearing white clothes and white hakama pants was standing in the darkness.
The light of the paper lanterns and the moon didn't light up the wrinkles on his face, which were deep.
There were few smile lines around her eyes. The lines around his mouth and his brow were especially noticeable.
He wasn't an especially tall person, but he body was trained to its limit, and I could see that even over the white clothes he was wearing.
The light that was reflected back off him seemed to drive out impurities.
It gave an impression of tempered steel.
Syouko: .....!?
I stifled a gasp.
Souji: Ah...you were the ones that Suzuki-san was talking about.
I didn't think see any sign of an insincere smile as he said that with a melancholic expression.
He didn't say it in a gruff voice, but instead, with a calm tone. His low voice and his stern appeareance was a little bit of a relief...
But it was only a tiny, little, bit...
He looked more like a martial arts warrior than a Shinto priest at a shrine.
No...that air around him which would keep people from getting too close to him and his austure persona may be well suitable for a priest which prays to a god.
Syouko: We're Osanai and Aizawa from Seijou Girls Academy.
Yasumi: Pl...pleased to met you.
The monk might have already told him the name Yasumi, but just in case he only gave our last names, we decided not to use our first names.
And also as much as possible, I would be the one talking.
Souji: It's really reckless to cross over the Oni Stepping Stones at this time.
Souji: It hasn't become rough yet, but if you fell into the sea, you might lose your life.
Souji: You are both still young, so you shouldn't treat life so lightly.
Syouko: True...
Souji: .....
Syouko: Yes?
Souji: Ah...excuse me. It's nothing.
Souji: It's rare for outsiders like you to come here. This is a place where tourists don't even come. It's a rural island that doesn't have anything.
Yasumi: Ho...
Yasumi: I...I guess it's pretty hard here?
Souji: ...The festival will probably continue on in some shape or form, but the Nekata family's divine work might end with my generation.
Yasumi: .....
For a while after that, Souji-san had to do some preparations for priestly duties so he left the house.
So we were snooping around in an acquaintance's house...not really.
This was Yasumi's house, and the arrangement of it had not really changed from the time she lived here.
Yasumi: This is nolstalgic...my father's study is this way.
Yasumi: I think it's probably in this room somewhere.
The old items were the Japanese-style bound books and scrolls while the newer items were the technical books and academic reports in the vanity case. This was a library with both past and present and the books filled the walls.
And the book we were looking for was...
Yasumi: .....
It was probably written with something like a fountain pen.
There were a few, comparatively newer notes written, so we might be able to read the book, but looking at all the ancient text filling the pages, it looked impossible.
It wasn't a matter of the preservation of the book, but the words and appearance.
Syouko: Yasumi, can you read this?
Yasumi: Somehow, I'll manage...
After giving a pained smile, she determinedly tightened her eyebrows and concentrated on the difficult books.
The only thing I could do was to not get in her way and stay silent.
Yasumi: That can't be...it's a lie...
Syouko: ...Yasumi?
Yasumi: Wait...please wait a moment! I'm going to read it carefully! I might have made a mistake!
Yasumi: Hah...
Yasumi shut the bound book with a thump and let out one, long sigh.
It might be because she read something unfamiliar, or some reason like that because it was a heavy, long sigh.
Yasumi: ...It was filled with things that I didn't want to believe.
And then, Yasumi opened her heavy mouth, and started saying her heavy words.
Yasumi: Long before the onitaiji, before Yasuhime came, a lone onmyouji came to an island that continued to have disasters.
Yasumi: Sempai, at the festival of Kurou-sama, an ox is offered as a sacrifice, but...
Yasumi: In the beginning, what was offered was all of god's things...in other words, it was chosen by the onmyouji...
So it came to be that everything from the first harvest could be offered to Kurou-sama.
Yasumi: And humans were no exception.
Syouko: People...you mean human sacrifices?
Yasumi: Yes.
Syouko: That was a story from long ago, right?
Yasumi: It...seems that way.
Yasumi: The reason Matamu and other monsters appeared was because it was said that the way of celebrating Kurou-sama was wrong.
When there are calamities happening in front of them and the calamities were able to be avoided, then the people of the island also couldn't help it...
The people, and the the children too.
Yasumi: After Yasuhime came to the island and sealed Matamu, she imparted a more correct ceremony to Nekata-san...
Yasumi: And then, that other custom seems to have disappeared.
The vestiges of the custom that remained were song and dance, an enshrined deity, and a ceremony offering a live ox as a sacrifice.
Yasumi: That's just the public story though.
The rites of the secret festival had to stay hidden from the public until the end.
Yasumi: Let's start with the conclusion.
Yasumi: The hinokusuri is not made from the Tokosaki no Tsubaki.
Yasumi: But even if you knew how to manufacture it, it can't be made by anyone other than us.
The secret of the cure-all medicine that the Nekata passed on...
Yasumi: It's said there's "energy" within blood...
Yasumi: Because of sempai's blood yesterday, though many things happened, I too, was able to not collapse and keep moving...
Yasumi: The "energy" in blood can be weak or strong. Especially strong and concentrated blood is called "Nie no Chi".
Yasumi: The real identity of the hinokusuri is that it is the blood of Yasuhime-sama.
Syouko: Eh!?
Yasumi: For a long time, the Nekata family has had Yasuhime-sama sealed up and is wringing living blood from her.
Yasumi: Yasuhime-sama, who ate mermaid's flesh seems to have perpetual youth and longevity. The people who drink Yasuhime-sama's blood also seem to have a strong "energy" reside within them.
Yasumi: But for normal people, it's too strong and becomes poisonous to them, so when it's used as a medicine, it's only one of the ingredients and is very diluted.
The current head of the Nekata family though about that method, since he knew the secret of Yasuhime-sama's blood as she went around healing the people of the island of sickness.
To find a a sacrifice that had strong "energy", you might have to go through tens, thousands, tens of thousands, of people without "energy".
Yasumi: In order to have the seal on Matamu last forever, Yasuhime-sama, who sealed Matamu, gave part of her own "energy" to the Tokosaki no Tsubaki.
Yasumi: Yasuhime-sama used a lot of energy and was going to rest on this island for a while, but...
The Priest Nakata, who couldn't find a way to hold down Yasuhime-sama, received a great opportunity.
Yasuhime-sama disappeared from the people of the island and because of her the sacrifices stopped, so they thought it was ok.
Yasumi: So, the Nekata ancestors decided to handle everything themselves.
Yasumi: In order words, the sacrifice would be the oldest child...
Syouko: Eh...?
Yasumi: They couldn't think of a way to decide how to pick a sacrifice so they decided to make it the oldest child...
Yasumi: So, I think Onee-chan must also have...
With those words, it's like a shovel unearthed a layer of my memory.
That was wrong. The one that was cut down should have been me...not Yasumi's onee-san.
Because...
Because, I know.
Because I know the fear of being under Nekata Souji's sword as it swings down.
And then, with that blade, my head.....