章節 139: Epilogue: She who bears a Lifelong Promise
Almost every day in the inner courtyard of Kyoga sanctum, a woman wearing layers upon layers of ceremonial garbs dances around a circle pattern made of snakeskin and maple leaf ashes. On her hand is a lit metal torch that is twirled and swung around in many directions until it is eventually stopped by its handler to the bottom point of the circular pattern where its fire ignites the patterned ashes.
"Summon!"
*Pwif-!*
"Another failure…"
The flame from the torch consumed the fine ashes of snakeskin and maple leaves, glowing brightly for a moment before it dissipated in an instant. However, the result was nothing more but a puff of air that smells like smog. An air you can expect to smell in a heavily urbanized area.
"Lady Azusagawa… I believe that is enough of an attempt for today. Anymore and the summoning circle may ask something more than the ashes of snakeskin and maple leaves."
"I know what I am doing, Hanami-san…"
"Do you really? Or are you just putting up a tough act to hide the fact that these summoning rituals has been draining your energy ever since you made this an almost everyday affair?"
"Tch!"
"I am not just your assistant shrine priestess, Lady Maya… I am also your caregiver. You know that I will mind your health more than I will care for how well you are doing in these things."
Following that failure, a very tall woman dressed as a Shrine maiden approached the ritual platform and placed a warm towel around the tired shrine priestess' shoulders. She also said that she must stop the rituals for today or risk injuring herself in one way or another.
"With your health now saved with my interference, I wish to convey to you that you have some guests who has asked for audience with you."
"Huh? Guests? I don't remember having an appointment with someone today."
"They walked into the shrine earlier and arranged it with one of our shrine maidens. Seeing that you're about to be worn out with your failed attempts to summon anything, I decided to accept them and have our maidens lead them to the tearoom so you can have an excuse to rest for today."
"Are you saying that you just accepted them in so you can force me to rest? Like you didn't even check who it is that visited us out of the blue?"
"Ufufu! Don't word it out like that, my lady. You make it sound like I am always counting on you wearing yourself out with your failure to summon anything and I let just anyone to see you."
"Tch… You really like to add insult to injury when it comes to me, huh?"
"Oh please. I have nothing but love for you, Azusagawa-sama~!"
"Argh! Let go of me!"
After teasing her which caused her to complain, the woman picked her up and hoisted her with both arms, carrying her in a "princess carry" style which made her fluster in embarrassment. With the woman's height, looking down made her fear for herself if ever she ends up falling down.
"No way. You can't walk properly to the tearoom now anyway. Do you really think anything good will happen if you maintain that kind of attitude? It's good to uphold our Shrine's honor as its head shrine priestess, but you have to mind your own health too."
"Geez… I know that already. We've talked about this a lot before."
"And yet, you still insist to do these ridiculous summoning rituals behind our walls… It was already wrong that you broke the promise between the shrines about summoning Otherworlders in rapid fashion, but you added to your problem the fact that these summoning rituals has began to take a toll on your body and soul."
"As I told all of you before… all of the wrongs that I am doing is for the sake of fulfilling a promise I had before I was brought here… and for the sake of this world's future too. The pair that I am trying to find and reunite will surely be able to swerve this world into the direction that it needs to go if we are to avoid the mistakes that led to this world's destruction."
"…If that is so, then I will believe in what you believe."
"…"
"But this thing shouldn't come with the cost of losing you… For what is a noble goal such as that if you are not alive to see and enjoy its fruits?"
After this brief conversation, the tall assistant shrine priestess lowered Maya in front of the tea room's door and helped her stand up properly into a veritable posture.
"Hmm… I can handle talking with them by my own now, you should go and prepare some tea for us, Hanami."
"I will, my lady."
Maya opened the door and walked in to see a pair of young women sitting in front of the table with kimonos that has patterns which are halved at each side. She thought it was strange but didn't raise it up as a question to not seem rude to them.
"I bid you welcome to Kyoga sanctum, honored guests… May I ask for your identity and the reason for this visit?"
"Chief Shrine Maiden Azusagawa Maya, I presume?"
"I am… I don't wish to sound rude, honored guests, but I believe that I have asked the first question and yet, you have returned one to me without answering me first…"
After she looked at the two guests with rightful displeasure, they looked at each other for a moment, seemingly talking to each other without the use of words. After a short pause of silence, the one who looked taller and older than the youthful one answered her question.
"My name is Momiji Kurumi, and this one is Tanukichi Reiha. We came her to converse with you about-"
*Click! Wack!*
"Hanami-san? Are you alright?"
Maya jumped up in surprise after her assistant priestess entered the room and suddenly dropped the tea set which clattered on the hardwood floor and spread tea all over it.
"Y-You two…"
"I didn't expect someone from that line to still be around and serving in Kyoga sanctum. Dear mother told me that they must've been wiped out by now."
"I am just as surprised as you, Reiha. But this would simply things now that she is here with us."
"What are you two talking… about…?"
Maya was caught confused with all of this. She didn't know why seeing these two caused her colleague to be in that state of shock and cause a blunder, nor did she expect for the two to talk like that out of the blue. And to add to that, she looked back at her subordinate and saw her bowing low until her forehead touched the still tea drenched floor towards the two guests.
"Hanami! What are you doing?! Why are you-"
"Please, Lady Azusagawa… I will explain everything later… for now, I compel you to listen to those two young ladies about what they are here for."
"Hanami…"
"Listen to her. With her display of reverence, I believe that you can get a clue or two that we aren't just any guest, right?"
"I… do."
"I see… Reiha, let's release the spell."
"Right."
In an instant, Maya's vision was obstructed with an explosion of autumnal maple leaves and fresh green leaves that came from nowhere. She instinctively crossed out her arms to her face, but surprisingly none of the leaves hit her or even spread around. It was as if it just disappeared as quickly as it seemed to have appeared.
"Again, I am Momiji Kurumi, Shrine Priestess of Furuya's Inari-no-Kami sanctuary and Keeper of the Mystical Forest of Mori."
"And I am Tanukichi Reiha, Master of Mujina Mori shrine and the Keeper of the Yokai folk of Mori forest's Gensokyo Yokai reserve."
"You two-!"
"That is right, Shrine Priestess of Kyoga Sanctum…"
She didn't even need to speak out the rest of her words from that shock. That was how remarkable these two's names were for them who worked in Shinto Shrines. However, the final and definite proof was showed with the presence of a fox's ears and a tail on the taller guest and racoon ears and tail on the smaller one.
"You… I didn't expect anyone from the mountain Hachishaku clan to still be alive and serving in Kyoga sanctum to fulfill their family's penal punishment."
"My family might have been malignant yokai folk back then… but the promise to devote ourselves to this shrine as our ancestors gave to the First Kirin Lord is our pride and work."
"And rightfully so… Anyways, let us go back to the matter at hand…"
Kurumi looked directly at the now slightly shaken Maya and told her straightly the reason for their visit.
"The two individuals that you have been spending your past years to meet again has long been reincarnated in this world. We came here to tell you about this news in order to stop you for further opening the summoning gate to the Otherworld."
"W-wait… Chikako and Hiro are here already?"
"Yes… it took a while of investigation from the two of us through the spirits of the dead, but we soon found definitive proof that the two has been here for some time without any memories of your past world."
"How on earth…?"
"Because somehow, this world isn't that different from the one you came from."
"What?"
Kurumi took something from her sleeve pocket and slid it across the table with her hand over it, hiding it from her vision.
"I believe that this would let you realize how much of a waste it was for you and Hiro to try and distance yourself from the world that you came from."
When Kurumi finally took her hand away from the object, she saw something that definitely can't belong to this world even if it had a way to connect to their past world through summoning circles.
"I think you Otherworlders call this thing a soda bottle, one used by a widely popular and prosperous company."
"Where did you get this?"
"In one of the holes to Yomi that we discovered around these parts of the city and covered up."
"You can't be saying that-!"
"That right… This world seems to be in between the past and end of your past world that was destroyed."
Kurumi looked up to the open ceiling of the tearoom before speaking.
"The combined timelines of the Otherworld before the appearance of the Challenger that hangs above everyone's heads…"
And then, she looked at the glass soda bottle that still has some of the viscous black tar of Yomi inside of it that is on the table.
"…And the stagnant ending of the Otherworld that rests below us in the place that everyone began to call as Yomi."
Hearing all of these revelations, Maya knew that she cannot dawdle around anymore if she is to change the fate of this world as she dreamed about.
"Where is Hiro and Chikako? I know that those two can do something about all of this!"
"…Miyazaki Hiro, or Iwasawa Hiroshi, as he his called today, is already doing his part in this change that you are seeking. It is Arata Chikako, or Aoyama Chiyo, that you have to worry about right now…"
"Then where is she?! I need to find her first since she is the only one who can soften up Hiro-kun enough for me to tell him what should be done to stop all of this!"
"…Go to the 7th ICU room of the Central Medical Center of the city."
"An ICU? Why is she in there?"
"Because your enemies have pulled the trigger first. And they seem to know the same thing as you do… that it is only through her that Hiro can fulfill his part in the fight."
"Tch! I apologize, revered spirits, but I cannot keep this conversation for now. Hanami! Let's go!"
"Y-Yes, my lady!"
As the two left the sanctum in a hurry, Reiha looked at Kurumi with a slightly despondent expression.
"Inari-sama would reprimand you heavily for doing something like this…"
"You yourself know that this is the only way for us Spirits to knock the pieces around properly for the humans to actually succeed this time. The texts hidden in the holes to Yomi that we discovered and resolved bore those messages."
"Still, I don't see why we have to go through this roundabout method."
"It's exactly because that is the only viable method that I chose to use it now when the stakes aren't as high yet…"
On Kurumi's face was an expression of discomfort about something that she found hard to speak out using words. And that only added more mystery to what this world really is in the first place.
"If I doubt myself right now, all of this… even the sacrifices that happened in the past and future of the Otherworld would be nothing but a failure…"
Perhaps, it is time for the battle that would cut this world from the Otherworld to finally begin.
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票