Ojamajo Doremi 16 - Volume 3 - Chapter 7.5

Chapter 7.5

CHAPTER 7 – CHASING THE MOON

PART 05

——

After getting the store ready, we gathered and opened Onpu-chan’s e-mail.

Onpu-chan usually spoke with a confident tone, but she sounded a little uncertain this time.

[My host family told me about an interesting video that has been going around recently.

While it was a video from France, England is a country that loves mysterious and fantastic happenings.

There was a small article written about this in the same newspaper that featured my musical.

It was noticed by my host family, who checked it out, but it didn’t seem to be a full video.

If you try searching for it on a video-sharing site, I’m sure you can watch it too.

Please just try watching it. It has many different titles, but you can search for it using keywords.

Do a search for Paris’ famous landmarks, together with the words ‘fairy’, ‘witch’ or ‘diva’, and you’ll be able to find it.

Please watch it together, everyone.

If things are what I suspect, maybe it will be better for me to become a witch apprentice too.]

It was a message loaded with hidden meaning.

“Well, let’s just watch the video. Do a search, Doremi.”

“Ok.”

Following Lala’s suggestion, I sat down in front of the computer and closed the window with the e-mail. Navigating to a video-sharing site, I typed in the keywords provided by Onpu-chan. A staggering list of results came back.

“Maybe it’s this one?”

Ai-chan was pointing at a video titled ‘Paris Diva’. The thumbnail was pitch black.

“Diva, what a cool name…”

Momo-chan gushed as the video began to play.

“It’s dark because it’s nighttime. Is that…the Palais Garnier? But why is it only a view of the roof?”

It was a scenic shot of Paris’ famous opera house, Palais Garnier, at night. But Hazuki-chan was right, why wasn’t the video focusing on the whole building?

“There’s something there, Doremi,” Lala piped up.

We squinted at the screen, and there it was, something moving on top of the opera house.

“I hear something. Is it coming from the opera house?” Ai-chan asked.

I turned up the volume on the computer. It was the rumbling of a car engine, accompanied by the faint sound of music.

Suddenly, the screen went black and all sound vanished.

“What, that’s it? Is that all?” Momo-chan complained unhappily.

“Let’s watch another one.”

We started going through the related videos one by one. The Palais Garnier was not the only famous landmark featured; there were videos showing the Place Charles de Gaulle and Louvre Museum too.

“All these videos were shot at night… Oh! Please replay this one again, Doremi-chan.”

At Hazuki-chan’s request, I stopped the current video and replayed it from the start again. This one featured the Louvre Museum, and Hazuki-chan and Momo-chan quickly spotted a human-like figure moving around on the roof.



“Is that singing? Or an instrument?” Momo-chan asked.
“I think it’s an accordion…” Hazuki-chan tilted her head to one side as she answered, squinting at the screen.

“Nighttime, tall places, this is really mysterious…” Ai-chan commented.

“Well, with today’s technology, this may just be a clever edit,” I suggested.

“Wait, Doremi-chan! Do you see this?”

Hazuki-chan let out a sudden shout.

“Look at the dates when the videos were uploaded. Each video is separated from the next one by a week. The very first one was uploaded in early March, followed by the next video a week later, then another one after that.”

Hazuki-chan clicked back to the very first video again. This one featured the Palais Garnier and Place Charles de Gaulle. The next one featured the Musée d’Orsay and the Louvre.

“This second one’s really dark, I can’t see anything,” Ai-chan commented.

“Yes. This third one features the Palais Garnier and the Louvre. This must be when it started to catch people’s attention, because the number of views have gone up. And it’s brighter than the second one too,” Hazuki-chan explained.

“Oh——, I know why! The moon is out!” Momo-chan and I shouted at the same time.

“Wait a minute!” Lala yelled at the same time as she whipped out a schedule book and started flipping through it.

“I knew it! This video was uploaded on the same day Majorika and I visited the beauty salon in the witch world. In other words, it was the night of the smiling moon!”

“The smiling moon!?”

We looked at each other in shock.

When the smiling moon appeared, our real world would link up with the witch world. Which meant…

I was about to voice my thoughts, but stopped myself, focusing my attention on this third video.



“Onpu said there’s something here that would make her become a witch apprentice, didn’t she?” Majorika asked quietly.

I was sure all of us had some idea at this point of what we were supposed to look out for, but we had no concrete evidence yet.

“If we follow this cycle, then there’s a chance that there will be something interesting in the video uploaded on the day with a full moon,” Hazuki-chan suggested.

“That’s also the night with the smiling moon,” Lala added.

“Yeah, you may be right.”

There were numerous re-uploads by other users, each editing the original to enhance the image to get a better image of the human-like figure on the roof. Each was titled with variations of the phrase ‘Paris Diva’. It was a romantic, beautiful name. We switched to watching those. Strolling and jumping around on the rooftops of famous landmarks as she sang, there was no mistake that the human-like figure was a young girl, wearing a white dress and playing an accordion.

Then, I caught a glimpse of her side profile.

“Stop! Replay that part again!”

Hearing my shout, Hazuki-chan replayed the video we were watching at a slower speed, and paused once the girl’s face came into view.

“Hana-chan!”

Everyone yelled out the name at the same time.

There was no doubt. It was Hana-chan, the girl we’d so lovingly raised, the next Queen of the witch world.

Her eyes were filled with tears.

“There’s no mistaking her,” Majorika whispered.

“Something bad must have happened, right?” Ai-chan asked.

“This video has a ton of views because it’s gone viral. It’ll be bad if it gets featured on the news!” Momo-chan added in a panic.

There was no way Hana-chan would have made such a bold move if she knew how advanced technology was in our world. Which meant that she might not be safe when she appears next. I mean, the smiling moon would appear next week, and everyone would be watching out for her.

“We need to get there,” Momo-chan declared with clenched fists.

“But why would Hana-chan do this?” Hazuki-chan asked.

“I don’t know, but if we don’t find her and stop this, something bad will surely happen,” I insisted.

“Doremi-chan’s right. Let’s go find her,” Ai-chan agreed, a look of determination on her face.

“Yes, it’ll be best if we all go together,” Hazuki-chan agreed as she glanced at Majorika and Lala.

“You’re right. There is strength in numbers. Onpu is a precious commodity to us,” Majorika said.

We decided to fly to Paris on the night of the smiling moon. We also sent a reply to Onpu-chan, informing her that Majorika and Lala would be coming along too.

~~~~~~

So many things have happened this year. Between the time the cherry blossoms wilted and the time it has bloomed again, we’ve met with countless incidents and experiences. I felt that I had learned so much. I used to think high school would just be a continuation of junior high, but it wasn’t the case at all.

Maybe I have grown to be a little more mature now.

Probably also because Majorika and Lala had come back to Misora City, and we had become witch apprentices again.

Who had put us in such a situation again, and what more will we experience in the future? I just feel so much excitement and nervousness.

I never could have imagined things turning out like this. If Onpu-chan hadn’t discovered the video, the exposure of the existence of the witch world will surely make international news.

And looking at Hana-chan, I can just tell that this won’t be a problem that can be easily solved.

This is no longer about my ordinary school life and blossoming romance. Maybe the next volume will be exploding with lots of new happenings? Everyone, please continue to follow along!

Delivering happiness and luck to everyone!