Chapter 1 — Christmas Eve Rendezvous
She blew through the straw soaked with soapy water.
Immediately, a shower of bubbles flashing in rainbow colors flew to the sky.
The girl, noticing the boy smiling, blew rainbow-colored bubbles at him. The boy hastily fled and the girl chased after him, laughing.
A calm, uneventful scene.
Memories of a certain summer that were recalled much later.
“.….….…”
Late at night.
A girl stared at a box on the table for a long time without a word.
The surroundings were quiet late at night, and the dorm was surrounded by tranquility. All her ears could hear was the ticking of the clock.
The girl’s gaze moved towards the clock, then to the calendar after she glanced at the time. Then, it returned to the box in front of her again.
It was a small box.
Though it was wrapped up like a gift, the wrapping was quite childish, because there was a toy inside — and it was the toy of a child. Inside the box was a bottle of soap and a straw with a trumpet-shaped front.
It was a bubble-blowing set.
Also, it was a cheap, mass-produced product, nothing worthy of being specially packaged, nor was it something suitable as a gift.
But to the girl, the ‘bubble-blowing set’ had a special meaning. To this girl — and her boy childhood friend.
“.….….…”
She checked the date on the calendar again. A circle had been drawn around ‘that day’ a month ago. The most romantic day of the year. A suitable day to confess hidden secrets and feelings together. An opportunity to speak naturally would definitely come.
All that was left was to resolve herself.
“.….….…”
The girl lowered her gaze to the box in front of her again.
“Okay.” Then, she nodded.
The impact of belief in Onmyoudou could be seen everywhere in the customs of Japan.
For example, the o-toso[1] of New Year’s Day, the Nanakusa[2] of Jinjitsu[3], the mameaki[4] of Setsubun[5], ???, ???, ??, ??, ?????[6], the purifications of New Year’s Eve, and others.[7]
It could be said that these customs were evidence that Onmyoudou was still present in everyday life. The Onmyou Academy, a modern Onmyouji training institute, brought those customs into its curriculum in order to learn them and to touch that presence.
But.…..
The final grand activity held at the Onmyou Academy every year… was a Christmas party.
“.…..Why?”
Kurahashi Kyouko shrugged her shoulders with a bitter expression at Tsuchimikado Harutora’s straightforward question.
“.…..It seems to be Grandmother’s interests. For some reason, she’s always liked Christmas a lot since a long time ago.”
After school, when the classes that day had ended. The same classroom as usual in the academy building was noisy because of an atmosphere different from usual.
The students who normally ought to have been jumping to go back home had mostly stayed behind in the classroom. Also, there were rows of brightly-colored posters stuck on the classroom walls. They were posters announcing the Christmas party being held. It didn’t seem like a classroom where Onmyoudou was learned at all.
“The Onmyou Academy had quite a lot of activities, huh? Like Choyo[8], where they invited the teachers to drink chrysanthemum wine and such.”
“No, but holidays that have a Japanese flavor also generally have a Onmyoudou feel, right?”
“Well, although it came from China.”
“But that was just the teachers drinking wine, so why is some unrelated Christmas such a big deal here?”
“I said, it’s Grandmother’s interest.”
The beautiful girl with her chestnut hair done up replied like that and then shrugged her shoulders again.
Kyouko was familiar with the inside story of the academy because she was the granddaughter of the Onmyou Academy principal, Kurahashi Miyo. “Ugh.” Harutora wore an expression of both acceptance and nonacceptance, moving his gaze over the gorgeous posters that were set up.
The clearly-written date of festivities was December 24th. In other words, tomorrow.
“Although it’s fine to be interested in Christmas, I wish she didn’t drag the students in too.”
It was Ato Touji who said this. A boy with a bandanna wrapped around his forehead and quite a capable and vigorous atmosphere.
But the look he gave the poster wasn’t happy at all. Though he seemed to have given up, his expression was extremely irritated.
“I wish school activities on the rare holidays stopped after middle school.”
The students had been told that they didn’t absolutely have to participate, since the party was held over a holiday. However, for some reason it had been stipulated that dorm students were forced to attend. In other words, the Christmas — more accurately, Christmas Eve — plans of Harutora and Touji who lived in the male dorm were decided.
“I said, right? The Onmyou Academy has quite a lot of activities.”
“So why is there even a Christmas party?”
“Well, that’s certainly unusual.”
Kyouko smiled wryly at Touji’s disappointed attitude.
Allegedly, the Onmyou Academy’s Christmas party was held every year. But because this year was the first time it was being held at the new academy building, they had especially opened up the academy building and planned to allow outsiders to also participate. Even a snack bar and a performance had been set up by the students. In other words, although it was called a party, it was actually an activity similar to a college culture festival.
Therefore, the ‘participation’ of the students was more about helping prepare than attending the party. Hence, Touji and the others felt particularly annoyed.
Then, the spectacled boy next to them smiled brightly. “Isn’t it nice?” He was their classmate Momoe Tenma.
“It’s finally Christmas anyways, so it’ll be very fun for everyone to be doing things together. Right, Harutora-kun?”
“Huh? Ahh, well, I guess. I didn’t really have any particular plans for Christmas.…..”
“How lonesome.”
“Mind your own business.”
“Ah, right. Since we’ll be here anyways, do you want to do something like a gift exchange? How about everyone brings their own and we mix them up?”
“.…..Tenma, you’re unexpectedly into it at this kind of time.….. But, alright. Christmas is meaningless without gifts.”
“What? You didn’t have plans?”
“I said, mind your own business.”
Harutora frowned unhappily because of Kyouko’s teasing tone. Though Kyouko seemed to be picking on Harutora in her own way, her gaze crept to the side bit by bit on the topic of gifts.
In front of Kyouko’s gaze was a slender classmate whose long black hair was tied with a ribbon. That was a pretty student with a small and delicate body and a beautiful face who would have been mistaken for a female student if not for the black male uniform.
“Hey, hey? Natsume-kun also lives in the dorm, so you’re going to go to the party, right? What do you think about the gift exchange Tenma just talked about?”
Kyouko surreptitiously questioned Natsume, who hadn’t entered the conversation. Though her tone was indifferent, her gaze and expression were full of expectation.
But.
“.….….…”
Natsume’s arms were folded with her chin in one palm, with an expression of being deep in thought about something.
She didn’t even immediately respond to Kyouko speaking to her. She muttered quietly.
“.…..I didn’t think there would be this kind of activity on the crucial day.….. It was such a rare opportunity too.….. No, there will still be an opportunity.….. Maybe we can be together naturally.…..”
Even after she was spoken to, Natsume stayed deep in thought. The conversation broke off she finally came to her senses after everyone’s’ gazes focused on her for six seconds.
“…Eh? Ah, sorry. What did you say?”
She apologized with an extremely serious expression. Harutora and the others wrinkled their faces.
“What’s wrong, Natsume? Are you alright?”
“W-What. I was just thinking about things a little, okay?”
“.…..Well, although maybe you’re not ‘alright’, it looks normal for this guy.”
“T-That’s rude, Touji. I’m sorry for not listening, what were you talking about?”
Harutora blankly reiterated the topic to the awkwardly-replying Natsume.
“What are you going to prepare for the Christmas gift?”
“G-Gift!? W-W-Why do you know!?”
“Hah? Well.….. Ah, so you prepared one?”
“T-T-That, um.….. For now, I guess? It’s just in case, or o-on the off chance.…..!”
For some reason, Natsume replied incoherently.
Kyouko and Tenma were dumbstruck, and Touji rolled his eyes exasperatedly. But the key figure Harutora furrowed his brows in seeming cluelessness.
“Are you really alright?”
“I said I was fine!”
“Hey, Natsume, it’s true that Santa Claus doesn’t exist, but what’s important isn’t whether Santa exists or not–”
“What are you worrying about!?”
“Okay, okay.” Tenma consoled the shouting Natsume from the side. Perhaps he felt that the topic wouldn’t be able to continue if this went on.
“Anyways, can I take it that Natsume-kun approves of the gift exchange too?”
After he confirmed again, Natsume swung her head around.
“Exchange?”
“Eh? You meant something else?”
“No.….. Ah, yea, the gift exchange, right? With everyone? Yeah, that’s great.”
“Really? Then it’s decided. I’ll go back home for today and buy something.”
Tenma spoke happily and Kyouko spiritedly echoed him with a “Yeah”. “Do I have money.…..” Touji shook his head as if feeling that this didn’t matter next to the anxiously muttering Harutora.
Then, Natsume.
“.…..Uhm.…..”
Started thinking about things alone again.
When Harutora and Touji returned to the male dorm, most of the students were already busily preparing for Christmas.
The real party would start tomorrow evening, and the preparation work would mostly be carried out tomorrow at the academy building.
But because the dorm residents were all forced to participate, it seemed that there were many people who had undertaken work. The upperclassmen seemed especially busy.
Dorm residents were usually more motivated about this type of activity than day school students in the first place. It seemed that there were quite a few students actively participating, and people practicing for tomorrow’s play or band performance, preparing game that the visitors could participate in, or stocking up stores that trafficked in skewers of chicken were currently on the eve of the school festival.
Hence, “Hey, Tsuchimikado, come help if you have nothing to do.” With those words and a hard-to-resist atmosphere, Harutora ended up being forced to help out the day before.
“The day won’t be like this tomorrow, will it?”
“Probably.”
“Is this really preparation work for Christmas?”
“Who knows.”
Touji cut chicken and stuck it on skewers along with round slices of onion as he cursed in annoyance.
Even though they work and worked with the ingredients for grilled chicken, they were continuously added to without end. They could feel the motivation of the senpais just by looking at the amount of it. Or rather, they were practically overwhelmed.
Suddenly.
“.…..H-H-Harutora-sama. I apologize, but could you let this Kon assist you?”
“Oh, really?”
After Harutora responded to the proposition that came out of nowhere, a small girl immediately appeared by his side.
A young girl wearing a suikan and hakama. But triangular ears poked out from her head and she even had a leaf-shaped tail.
She was the defensive shikigami Harutora used, Kon.
“That would be a great help, thanks.”
“Y-Y-You’re too kind! It’s terrible for Harutora-sama to be troubled by these chores in the first place.….. Rather, now that I think about it carefully, that man who gave Harutora-sama the chores is the unreasonable one. Allow me to cut that individual to shreds before the chicken–”
“You don’t need to do that. Also, you don’t need to hold a blade. Help me with other things.”
“O-Oh? Then allow this Kon’s foxfire to roast these fully.…..”
“That won’t work either, since these are being sold–”
“Kon. Without further ado, I’ll be counting on you for a few skewers.”
“Touji!”
Though they had been unwilling to work at the start, Harutora and Touji unconsciously mixed in with the surrounding atmosphere and noisily progressed in their preparation work for tomorrow. The hustle and bustle also counted as a first taste of the activity the night before.
Then, Natsume also returned to the dorm while Harutora and Touji were working in the cafeteria
Stunned because of the dorm’s appearance, she asked:
“What are you doing, Harutora?”
“You can understand just by looking.”
“I asked because I don’t understand.”
“It’s preparation for tomorrow.”
“Eh? But aren’t you grilling chicken skewers?”
“It’s because chicken goes with Christmas.”
Natsume rolled her eyes sighed at Harutora who replied resignedly.
“Grilling chicken skewers, huh.….. It looks like the tomorrow will feel more like food stalls than at a party.”
“Who knows? But it’s not bad. Anything is fine if it’s successful. Natsume, do you hate grilled chicken skewers?”
“Though I like them.….. They’re not very romantic.…..”
Natsume muttered that sentence with a complicated expression. “What?” She shook her head with a reddened face when Harutora asked back. “Ah, nothing.”
“Come to think of it, there’s an amazing amount.”
“Right? Natsume, you come help too. .…..Come to think of it, you left from school first, so what were you doing until now?”
“I was buying a gift, aren’t we exchanging with everyone tomorrow?”
“Huh? But didn’t you already prepare one?”
“T-That’s different! It’s something else completely.….. I-It doesn’t matter!”
Harutora looked at the hastily-denying Natsume with an even more suspicious gaze. Next to him, Kon carefully skewered chicken with a serious expression, while Touji gingerly cut onions.
“Anyways, I’ll come help after I change clothes.”
“Ah, thanks. .…..Come to think of it, if even today’s like this, it looks like tomorrow will be crazy.”
Natsume also smiled bitterly in assent after Harutora predicted this with a distressed look.
As if to fulfill that prediction, the lights in the male dorm ended up not going off for the whole night.
Christmas Eve the next day was a sunny winter day.
It was a day suited to a party. But Natsume’s face wasn’t bright as she looked up to the sky on the road to the academy building.
“.…..White Christmas.…..[9]”
Her face was empty and vexed along with exhausted from lack of sleep as she spoke quietly.
Harutora next to her looked up at the same sky, but he nodded and with an inexplicably satisfied expression. “Good.”
“.…..As expected, I’ll get to use it.…..”
He quietly spoke to himself. “What?” Kon’s ears immediately quivered slightly from next to him and she looked up at her master. Touji yawned sleepily behind them.
The three of them and the shikigami headed from the male dorm to the academy building with their arms full of stuff.
They had ended up being forced into even the work of transporting things, but it looked like there were people going back two or three times. Were this huge preparations really alright? It was quite worrisome.
“Though everyone’s motivated enough.….. Will there really be visitors from outside? Peoples’ plans for Christmas are very tight in the first place.”
“Uh.….. I dunno. The Onmyou Academy is seen in a pretty strange light by ordinary people in the first place. Maybe people will be curious and come to check it out, or they might be scared and have trouble coming by.…..”
Natsume recounted her thoughts, but she held the same doubts as Harutora about whether the activity would be a success. As the students saw it, it wasn’t too important whether it succeeded or not, but now that they had worked for the entire night, they wanted it to go smoothly.
However, the two who walked as they chatted gaped in shock when they saw the Onmyou Academy.
The exterior of the entire academy building had already been changed into red and green Christmas colors.
“.…..What is that.”
“.…..U-Uwah.”
The two of them both inadvertently froze, eyes wide.
The outer academy wall was a blinding red and green. Also, there were ribbons and satin strips in various colors along the windows. Christmas wreaths were hung all over. The lights put up without any gaps made it seem like the building had been designed for Christmas from the very beginning.
Also, it seemed that a figure of Santa Claus seated on a sleigh pulled by reindeer was deeply laughing ‘ho ho ho’ while whirling around the air above the academy building. Flashing stars danced along the tracks of the sliding sleigh.
The final blow was that there was a giant forest of almost fifty-meter-tall Christmas trees towering in the square in front of the academy building main entrance.
To say nothing about the colorful, fully-prominent decorations, they were also hung up with toy musical instruments — trumpets and violins, cellos and trombones, all moving on their own and playing Christmas songs. After the song changed, this time a man made of tin started a chorus.
Touji spoke, the sleepiness completely blown away from his expression:
“.…..Hey hey, the Principal’s way too serious about this.…..”
She had definitely used magic — and on quite a large scale — to have changed the academy appearance this much in a night. Come to think of it, he had heard rumors that there were several shikigami who performed cleaning jobs in the Onmyou Academy during the dead of night. These decorations might have been put up by those shikigami.
Of course, the flying reindeer and the sleight that Santa Claus sat on and the instruments playing on the trees were all shikigami — simple shikigami. But though they were shikigami, they had taken quite a large amount of work. Perhaps all of the teachers had done their best.….. It wasn’t a joke, this was definitely on the scale of the Onmyou Academy’s full power.
“.…..Is everyone actually very busy?”
“.…..Or the Principal just used her power.…..”
Of course, it wasn’t that there were no visitors. The activity started in the night, but the pedestrians passing by all stopped without exception, their eyes widening from shock or letting out voices of exclamation. Most of them excitedly took photos of the academy building exterior and Christmas trees with their phone. Perhaps the news would spread vigorously.
Stunned, Harutora couldn’t help but shiver.
“This is incredible, we’ll have to do our best too.”
After saying that, the group hastened their pace and headed to the academy building carrying their goods.
Two sets of heavy automatic doors were set at the academy main entrance and two komainu were placed to the sides between them. They weren’t simple komainu. Instead, they were shikigami of the principal called Alpha and Omega.
The two could be called door guards of the Onmyou Academy, but as expected, they had also been decorated today. Their heads were outfitted with things like reindeer horns, and collars with bells were hung around their necks, with big red balls stuck on their noses.
“Uwah, you guys are pushing it.”
“How rude, isn’t it very suitable?”
“Guests from outside will also be invited tonight. This is also a form of entertainment.”
Alpha and Omega puffed out their chests with boastful demeanors. It looked like they seemed willing themselves.
Even Kon furrowed her brows as she stared at the shining round noses.
“H-H-Harutora-sama. Should Kon also decorate herself like that?”
“No, that’s not necessary. You don’t need to worry about it.”
“B-But if the servant doesn’t behave appropriately, it will bring shame to Harutora-sama’s reputation as the master.…..”
“My reputation doesn’t matter, and the two aren’t related anyway. Also, this outfit isn’t normal in the first place.
“.…..Rather, I hope this trend doesn’t continue on to the students falling prey.”
Harutora went “It’s very possible” and put on a bitter look towards Touji’s ominous premonition.
Just then.
“Oh my, Harutora-kun, thank you all for your work.”
A calico cat walked out step by step from the first floor inside the opened automatic doors. It was no longer surprising anymore, and as they might have predicted, it wore a conical red hat topped with a white ball of cotton on its head.
This calico cat was the principal’s shikigami. Unlike Alpha and Omega, it normally wouldn’t talk, but it seemed like the principal was controlling it directly.
“.…..Principal? Is Christmas always this gorgeous at the Onmyou Academy?”
After Harutora directly asked this, a chuckling laugh came from the cat’s throat.
“No matter what, the academy building’s brand new, you know. I was excited this year.”
She spoke with dignity and no shyness.
“.…..We’re the Onmyou Academy, right?”
“Oh? Is it strange for an Onmyouji to celebrate Christmas?”
“Ah, no. If you celebrate it individually, that’s fine.….. But for the whole academy to be this over-the-top.…..”
Though he didn’t plan to complain at all, the cat’s whiskers trembled fiercely for some reason the moment it heard Harutora’s words — or maybe that was an illusion.
“.…..Listen up, Harutora-kun.”
The principal started a speech through the shikigami’s mouth with a tone that was composed throughout.
“I talked to you about ‘first-class magic’ and ‘second-class magic’ before, right? I believe that the existence of Santa Claus is an example of the greatest of ‘second-class magics’ that succeeded in producing happiness for the world.”
“.…..Huh.”
“Needless to say, the economic effect for reality and the effects to the people of the physical world are absolutely not something that we can ignore as practitioners — rather, this example of the ‘second-class’ is outstanding because the person in question made Santa Claus into a form of ‘second-class magic’ and we must recognize that the effects have continued for so long that it is an example extremely worthy of our attention as Onmyouji who use magic–“[10]
The calico cat proudly stretched its tail as it lectured. “As expected of our master.” “A deep understanding.” The komainu to the left and right added their praise. Harutora and the others could only force stiff smiles onto their faced.
“T-Then, Principal, we still have preparation work.….. So.…..”
Harutora and the others hastily passed by the cat alongside Natsume’s tactful statement. “Please do your best, everyone.” They received the principal’s warm encouragement from behind them as they left the area as if fleeing.
“.…..Is our Principal actually a Christian?”
“Go ask Kyouko about that kind of thing.”
In any case, they first went to the third-year where the dorm residents had set up shop and moved the goods they had brought from the dorm in.
Then, they moved to their own classroom, but–
“Ehh!? K-Kurahashi-san?”
“This is.…..”
“She’s already fallen prey.…..”
“Eh, wait! Don’t react like that right when you see me! A-Although I can understand.”
The red-faced, embarrassed Kyouko wore a red conical hat on her head and was dressed in a white-trimmed red coat like Santa Claus was portrayed as wearing. Also, she had an almost obscene miniskirt.
“I-I can’t do anything about it! Because Grandmother said I had to wear it.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t refuse.”
“I-It’s because Grandma said she would buy me any gift for Christmas if I wore it.….. I didn’t think it would be a miniskirt like this.”
Harutora smiled dryly back at Kyouko as she tugged gingerly at the edge of her skirt. Though she was wearing stockings, it didn’t change much about her level of shame. In any case, she was a miniskirt Santa. The principal was also merciless in the way she treated her cute granddaughter — or rather, it was very possible that she actually just didn’t get it.
Also, it seemed that there was someone other than the principal who didn’t get it.
“It’s nice, Kurahashi-san. It feels very cute, it really suits you.”
“N-Natsume-kun!? .…..T-This? But.….. i-it’s not weird?’
“You’re a female Santa, right? I think it’s very suitable, since it’s Christmas after all.”
Even though Natsume’s words were irresponsible and not thought out, Kyouko still smiled bashfully as if she had been saved. Actually, Kyouko’s body wasn’t bad, and it was certainly suitable.
Saying that, Natsume turned her face away as if coming to her senses.
“.…..R-Right. If it weren’t in the academy, I would be able to wear cute clothes like that.….. Ah, but I don’t have clothes like that.…..”
She muttered something or other.
At that point, Tenma showed up.
“Ah, Harutora-kun and the rest are here too. Good morning.”
“Oh.….. Hey, you too, Tenma. Were the students really forced into cosplay?”
“Sensei~ What exactly are we going to do?”
“Come to think of it, we never asked about the details.”
After Harutora asked, Touji remarked that as if he had only now thought of it.
Ohtomo nodded at the students’ question.
“Our class is the decorations class. Just like everyone saw, we and the principal have perfectly finished the outside, but we decided to leave the inside to the students. Also, after the party begins, we’re also leaving you responsible for leading the outside guests and being on duty in the stores. That’s the plan.”
“.…..In other words, we’re not ‘attendees’ at all, we’re ‘workers’ instead.…..”
“Well, don’t be like that. It’s a rare opportunity, so it would be nice if everyone could have fun.”
Ohtomo laughed carelessly, just like his style. Though the students sighed, more than half of them had already given up, so they became motivated instead.
“Everyone’s responsible for this place and the hallways of the floor below. I hope that you can use simple shikigami to the fullest just like the outside. Remember to focus~”
As a result, they completed the work they had to do beforehand one hour before the party started, right at four in the afternoon.
“.…..This is even more tiring than the normal coursework.…..
“.…..Also, next up is the real thing. Please give me a break.…..”
Harutora and Touji complained loudly as they sat exhaustedly on the stairs. But no one rebuked the two of them. Natsume and Tenma gave off fatigued feelings as they leaned against the staircase railing. Kyouko, who had felt embarrassed about her Christmas outfit at the start, was now using her finger to pull open the neck of her coat in discomfort.
But it seemed that there were results to match the exhaustion Harutora and the others, as fine decorations comparable to the ones on the outside wall were set up in the academy building’s hallways.
Outside of posters, the walls were also decorated with huge engravings of Santa and reindeers.
Chandeliers of all sorts hung at equal spacing along the ceiling. There were old-fashioned candles lit in the center along with luxury objects sparkling like gems, and even objects that slowly danced.
They were the simple shikigami that the students had made. In contrast to the decorations outside, many moved monotonously or had twisted forms. But their gorgeous appearance alone was satisfying.
There were also other things. A green vine made from a shikigami charm arranged with a wood-element charm twined around the railing Natsume leaned against. It even had the additional ability where its buds would often blossom, and it would definitely be stunning to the eyes of someone unfamiliar with modern magic.
Originally, the students’ simple shikigami — especially those created by the immature first-years like Harutora and the others — had trouble staying materialized for a long amount of time. But this time, they had used shikigami charms whose spells the teachers had woven the foundations of beforehand, and had added sufficient magical energy into them. They would probably be able to stay materialized until the end of the day.
Of course, that didn’t make it so that the students were easily able to finish creating the shikigami. Rather, it had been exhausting.
“.…..We don’t have any time to be together at all.…..”
Natsume quietly moaned as if to keep anyone else from hearing. She wore a Christmas hat like Tenma’s on her head, but the size was too large, and it was slipping down in front of her eyes.
“H-H-Harutora-sama~. I brought drinks from over there!”
Kon, who had also helped out, sprinted over carrying a tray with enough paper cups for all of them. “Ohh, thanks, Kon.” Harutora thanked her and the others also accepted the drinks.
“But.….. If you think carefully, chandeliers have nothing to do with Christmas, right? I can’t understand what the principal thinks.”
“Well, maybe she’s fine with anything as long as it’s gorgeous.”
“Ah–, I remembered. Harutora, though the chandeliers you made were extremely bright, they’re quite unstable, right? I feel like they’re very dangerous, should we redo them?”
“Spare me, I don’t have any energy left.”
“But.….. Look, isn’t that one yours?”
Kyouko pointed out a chandelier downstairs after she spoke. Harutora stretched his neck in annoyance to peer over.
Immediately afterwards, the contour of the chandelier shook agitatedly.
It was a phenomenon that was called ‘lag’. It normally happened when materialized shikigami received physical impacts, and the fact that lag appeared when nothing at all happened was evidence that the shikigami’s spiritual body was unstable. “Uh, I guess.…..” Harutora bitterly admitted his faults.
Natsume said wryly:
“Your output is as excessively strong as always. Especially this time, when the simple shikigamis’ spells were very detailed. Let’s go fix Harutora’s portion after we rest for a bit.”
“Y-Yeah. There’s still time until it starts.…..”
“Ah, then should we take the time to exchange gifts?”
“Yeah.” “That’s good.” Natsume and Kyouko remembered about that and spoke after Tenma proposed it.
“Ah.”
But only Harutora let a regretful sound leak out.
“What’s wrong, Harutora? Did you forget?”
“N-No. I prepared something.…..”
“Then what is it?”
“.…..I left it in the dorm.”
“So you forgot.”
Touji and Kyouko’s ice-cold gazes stabbed at Harutora. Harutora dryly laughed a few times and scratched his head in embarrassment.
Then, Kon swished her tail in puzzlement.
“H-Harutora-sama? Didn’t you carefully take out a charm this morning? Was that not it?”
“A charm?”
Natsume asked Kon. In contrast, Harutora hastily waved his hands with a “No, no.”
“That wasn’t for the exchange.….. But I properly bought a gift! Wait a bit, I’ll go back and get it.”
“Eh, hold on, Harutora-kun. We don’t have the time, you know?”
“Yeah, there’s no helping it, the person who gets Harutora will have to get the gift later.”
“R-Really? Sorry.”
Everyone shook their head in resignation as Harutora lowered his head, then rose to return to the classroom.
The classroom of Harutora and the others wasn’t opening a store or putting on a performance. Instead, it was being used as a storeroom. Excess decorations and wares were placed on the desks.
The four outside of Harutora who had forgotten quickly started taking out their gifts.
“Eh, hold on, Touji! Isn’t that a bottle? You should at least wrap it. Also, isn’t it definitely alcohol?”
“Though it’s affordable, it’s a decent champagne.”
“I wasn’t talking about the type.”
“.…..Kurahashi-san’s seems quite expensive.….. That bag’s logo is a name brand, right? It’s kind of hard to accept something expensive.…..”
“I-It’s alright. I thought so too, so it’s just a rubber bracelet even though it’s branded — Ah, um.”
Kyouko hastily covered her mouth as that inadvertently slipped out, but Touji and Tenma laughed out loud.
On the other hand.
“Huh? Natsume, you prepared two gifts?”
Natsume was taken aback by Harutora’s question, hastily covering them with her hands. He had seen a small, childishly-packaged box in a pink bag when she had taken out her gift from the bag.
Natsume hastily closed the bag and said:
“N-No! That wasn’t it.”
“Eh? But it was definitely a gift–”
“That.….. I-It’s for me! Is something wrong with that!?”
“N-No. It’s completely fine.…..”
Touji shot out a perplexed gaze in place of the confused Harutora.
“You’re giving yourself a Christmas gift? Natsume, you’re quite the lonely person.”
“Shut up! Touji, it has nothing to do with you!”
“What a stranger you’re being, Natsume-kun. If you had just told me, I’d have given you a gift outside of the exchange–”
“I-I said that wasn’t it, alright?”
“Okay, okay, everyone. …Come on, let’s draw the order now.…..”
Just as Tenma intervened between the bickering Natsume and the others:
Suddenly, a huge crashing sound of something being destroyed came from the hallway, followed immediately by students’ screams.
The group inadvertently stopped what they were doing and glanced at each other.
Then, from the hallway–
“Uwah. So dangerous!”
“Hey! Who made this chandelier!”
All of them hurriedly ran to the hallway with expressions of dread.
As they expected, Harutora’s lagging chandelier had vanished when they returned to the stairs they had just been. And a simple shikigami charm was dropped on the cracked floor right below. According to what the witnesses passing by said, it seemed like it had suddenly exploded and fallen down.
“.…..Exploded.….. Harutora, what kind of shikigami did you make, really.”
“I made it normally! .…..P-Probably.…..”
“Anyways, we can’t just leave it. Let’s gather up all the other ones! Harutora? How many simple shikigami did you make in total?”
“Let me think… It was probably four.….. no, five.”
While confirming the locations with Harutora, Natsume turned the remainder of the chandelier and engravings back into their original shikigami charms. She stared at one of the charms and said:
“.…..I get it. Originally, the spells the teachers prepared were things made in a hurry.….. Then Harutora put a weird magic on top of it.…..”
Harutora had never been good at precise manipulation, but it was just that his magical energy was extremely powerful. As a result, the shikigami he made lost control very easily.
“They were probably affected by the surrounding magic and the balance of aura went awry. After all, the academy building’s full of simple shikigami right now.”
“Even so, it’s horrifying that it exploded.”
“But this is the fourth. Harutora-kun, where’s the other one?”
“Huh? But isn’t this all the shikigami Harutora made? There are others?”
Harutora said “Ah, right” to the perplexed Kyouko as if thinking of something.
“Come to think of it, I didn’t turn the fifth charm into a shikigami yet. It was a charm with a slightly different magic, and though I put a lot of magical energy into it and finished the processing, I didn’t actually use it.”
“Really? Then we’re safe for now.”
“Incidentally, do you have that charm right now?”
“No, I put it in the classroom before–”
Immediately afterwards came the sound of an explosion from somewhere again.
Also, it was extremely large.
Harutora and the others gasped and all went stiff. Then after the explosion continued a crunching sound of friction, the superposition of a group’s screams and wails, and then the huge sound of destruction of something crumbling.
The group glanced at each other. The more Harutora looked, the more the blood drained from his face. No one gave voice to their ominous premonitions, but it was clearly written on their faces.
“.…..No way.”
“.…..Could it be.…..”
Of course, it was.
“That’s troublesome.”
Principal Kurahashi sighed deeply in front of the gorgeous, fallen Christmas tree.
She was a small, elegant old lady. She wore an informal kimono and, as expected, wore a Christmas hat on her head.
The culprit Harutora along with Natsume and the other four were lined up behind the principal. Like elementary schoolers being punished for playing a prank by being forced to stand in the hallway. Touji’s expression was indifferent, but the others were all listless.
“.…..I didn’t think this charm was going to be the star on the tree.……”
After the unknowing Harutora had left the shikigami charm in the classroom, the other students had taken and used the already finished shikigami charm, creating a simple shikigami. It looked like it had been used for decoration. Then, the star decoration Harutora had made had lost control just like the chandelier, fracturing the tree. It was a fortune among misfortunes that no one had been hurt.
“I thought I would leave putting the star on the top to the students of the academy.….. But it looks like that was counterproductive.”
“S-S-S-Sorry!”
Harutora lowered his head deeply in fear.
The rest of the simple shikigami decorations from the fallen tree had been turned back into shikigami charms and gathered. Leaving them like this was very dangerous, so the tree itself was slated to be taken away.
The problem came afterwards. Of course, there was no substitute tree prepared.
“.…..Could we form the main body of the tree with simple shikigami too.…..?”
After Natsume asked gingerly, the principal replied unexpectedly readily.
“Of course we could do that. But if we do, we’d have to keep it in tune with the decoration simple shikigami. We don’t really have enough time to adjust it in detail.…..”
The principal stared pitifully at the fallen tree with an unhappy expression. Harutora just felt fearful and anxious.
Touji shrugged and said:
“Why don’t we just quietly drag one over from that park?”
“Hey, Touji!”
Kyouko quietly reprimanded him, but Touji’s face stayed composed.
“We just need to plant a simple shikigami tree in its place. It won’t be exposed if we return it afterwards.”
“The tree will wither if you do that!”
“With magic, we can–”
Touji spoke teasingly, but his proposal seemed half-serious. Tenma smiled bitterly, while Natsume stared at him fretfully.
But.
“.…..Ahh, I see. If we just bring over a different tree for now, we can cross the other bridges when we come to them.”
The all-important principal hit her palm with a fist. Touji who had made the proposal couldn’t help but whistle, and Harutora and the others’ eyes widened.
“W-Wait, Grandmother!? Are you for real?”
“Kyouko, haven’t I always told you to use honorifics in the academy?”
“No, but!?”
The principal chuckled at her panicked granddaughter.
Then.
“Don’t worry, I’ll take it from our residence. Think, isn’t there a cedar in the courtyard. Although it’s smaller than this one, it has a sufficient size.
“M-Maybe so, but how are you going to bring it here?”
“Right, the problem is in transportation.…..”
After saying that, the principal cast a mischievous gaze at Harutora who had been apologizing throughout as well as at Natsume.
After nodding as if agreeing with herself, she announced solemnly to the two confused students:
“Right, allow me to contact the Onmyou Agency to obtain permission, and we’ll try entrusting that to the erring ‘shikigami’ and his ‘master’.”
It was dusk. The streets started slowly becoming packed by people, affected by the Christmas spirit.
The number of people wasn’t exceptionally large in comparison to the day before. But it looked like there were more smiling faces, and that probably wasn’t an illusion. There were cheerful Christmas songs and gorgeous colored lights, and even if one couldn’t see the ‘festival’ atmosphere that filled the streets, it seemed as if it still properly reached everyone present.
A smiling young boy walking on the streets holding his mother’s hands suddenly stopped and looked around.
The sound of bells was coming from somewhere. His mother also heard the same sound and inadvertently stopped. It wasn’t just the mother, as everyone around also noticed that sound and put on expressions of ‘what’s that’.
Not long afterwards, the boy’s eyes widened and he excitedly pointed above his head.
Eh? The mother looked up at the sky and was dumbfounded. As if they were also led towards it, the people around also looked upwards–
Within moments, the exclamations that sounded out evolved into cheers and started continuously breaking out into a chain reaction.
“Uwah.….. N-Natsume. We’re getting a lot of attention.…..”
“Of course we’re getting attention! It’s because we stand out so much!”
“The principal was really tough on us.…..”
“It’s useless to say that now. Anyways, let’s hurry up and go back.”
Natsume replied with an extremely bitter expression to Harutora who gazed downwards. The two were red to their ears.
The place Harutora and Natsume currently were was thirty meters in midair. More accurately, they were in a sleigh that was flying thirty meters in midair. It was the sleigh shikigami that had been circling in the air above the academy building before. Of course, the two had also been forced to properly wear Santa outfits.
Also, it wasn’t reindeer pulling the sleigh — instead, it was a flashing golden dragon.
Natsume’s servant shikigami, Hokuto.
Hokuto was currently swimming through the sky, its four limbs holding a cedar tree. The tree that they had pulled up from the courtyard by using peculiar magic of wood and earth-element charms that the principal had prepared for them. It was difficult for a simple shikigami to transport it due to its weight, so they had used Hokuto. Natsume and Harutora controlled it from behind.
That said, they didn’t believe there was no other way. Half of it was a punishment for Harutora who had broken the Christmas tree, and the other half was definitely the principal’s interest. The fact that she had especially forced them to wear Santa outfits was evidence of that. Of course, the two of them hadn’t had any right to refuse, but they had become complete laughingstocks.
“Honestly, this is all because your mistake, Harutora-kun!”
“I know, I’m sorry.”
“It’s so high and scary, and the wind’s cold, and people have been pointing and staring at us since a while ago.”
“U-Ugh.”
“And it was.….. finally Christmas.”
“I-I’m really sorry. Incredibly sorry.”
Harutora could only apologize with all his might to the sniffling Natsume.
Natsume’s wording had returned to ‘normal’ since there was no one else. Natsume normally posed as a male due to the main family’s ‘tradition’. Never mind when she was posing as a male, but Harutora couldn’t fight back when she was reproached by the ‘girl’ Natsume like this.
Actually, the faces of the two weren’t red purely from embarrassment, it was also due to the cold. Also, just like Natsume said, there was also the height. Though the two of them weren’t afraid of heights, their feet still shook when they looked down. Why were they being treated like this when it was finally Christmas? Harutora didn’t have anything to say to that.
He shrank into a ball of extreme apology as he sat next to Natsume.
But suddenly.
“Ah.”
He said that, and after hesitating for a moment, his expression tensed up.
“Natsume.”
“.…..What is it?”
“As an apology — it might not be enough, but I have a gift for you.”
Natsume turned to the side because of Harutora’s serious tone.
“A gift.….. Harutora-kun, didn’t you say you forgot it in the dorm?”
“Yeah, the one to exchange with everyone. This is something that I decided to give you since long ago — maybe it’s a surprise rather than a gift — well, it’s something like a thank-you gift.”
“A thank-you gift?”
“Yeah.”
After saying that, Harutora took out a charm. Natsume stared.
“A charm? Could it be the one Kon mentioned before.…..?”
Harutora smiled a bit embarrassedly as he nodded to respond to Natsume.
“Though I’m from a famous branch family, I’m no different from an outsider, right? I’ve always been causing trouble for you since I entered the Onmyou Academy too. Today was the same. Even I felt sorry. .…..But even so, I was still able to make a simple shikigami. Although it was just a bit, I recognize that I’ve grown. So I wanted you to know that, or maybe I wanted to express my thanks.…..”
Harutora’s drew off dumbly, maybe because he hadn’t been able to successfully weave his words. But Natsume continued looking at that Harutora, listening carefully.
“A-Anyways, I prepared this, so please look.”
Harutora stared at the charm and focused his mind after speaking, starting to carefully pour in magical energy.
The charm was a water-element charm of the five elements.
“.…..R-Ready? Order!”
Harutora chanted an incantation and released the charm above his head. Natsume’s eyes followed the path of the charm.
Then.
“.…..!”
The charm bloomed–
Rainbow-colored bubbles danced in the sky.
Soap bubbles.
Natsume was shocked, her eyes going wide.
On the other hand.
“Huh, what!?”
Harutora gaped, stunned, and then his cheeks reddened.
“W-Why bubbles — th-that’s not it, Natsume! I actually wanted to make snow! I wanted to make snow fall to make it feel like Christmas.….. T-That’s strange? What did I get wrong for snow to turn into bubbles.…..!?”
Harutora exclaimed in a panic and desperately explained himself, his seriousness from before gone out the window. In that time, bubbles of various sizes floated on the wind and drifted to their heads.
The bubbles immersed in the colorful lights on the street shone like gems.
One of the bubbles dancing in the wind floated around Natsume as if playing with her–
Pop, it popped as if laughing.
At the same time, Natsume also laughed. Then, she giggled with a happy, reconciled sound.
Harutora looked strangely at Natsume, but even so, Natsume continued laughing. Tears formed in Natsume’s eyes as she laughed so merrily that she couldn’t stop.
“.…..Honestly.”
After laughing thoroughly, she gazed gently at Harutora.
“Bakatora. With that, my ‘arrangements’ also went to waste. You really are.…..”
She smiled and said as if she were mad.
Then, Natsume happily continued speaking to Harutora, who didn’t know how to respond and was waiting for the verdict.
“Harutora-kun. Merry Christmas.”
By the results of the drawings that were redone afterwards, the gloves that Natsume had prepared went to Tenma, Touji’s champagne went to Harutora, Kyouko’s bracelet went to Touji, Tenma’s socks went to Natsume, and Harutora’s scarf went to Kyouko.
The other gift Natsume had prepared stayed in the state of being ‘for herself’ and was put back in the drawer of her desk.
Translator’s Notes and References
1 A spiced medicinal sake drunk during New Year celebrations. Said to flush away the previous year’s maladies and to bring long life.
2 A seven-herb soup.
3 Literally ‘person day’, the day believed to be when humans were created.
4 Soybean-throwing.
5 The day before the beginning of Spring in Japan.
6 I dunno and I’ve given up.
7 Have you had enough of these tags yet?
8 September ninth.
9 Literally this in English. I believe she means to say something more along the lines of ‘no white Christmas’.
10 This is meant to be a run-on.
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