Part 3
It was four in the morning. The landscape was still dark, still shrouded by night. The 'disciples' softly rose, too busy to speak to each other as they scattered to various places under the firelight illumination of the stone lanterns. Some were going to prepare breakfast, some were going to prepare practice for the ajari, and some were responsible for other chores. They all had their own duties.
Of course, Hokuto's duty hadn't been assigned yet. So, today she was also helping with Akino's share. That share of the duty required the two of them to sweep every corner of the area clean with bamboo brooms in hand. Though it could be easily completed by using shikigami, the 'monastery chores' were also training after all. The ajari had instructed that they were to do them on their own.
The mountain mornings became particularly cold with the coming of winter. The two of them put on thick clothing and arrived at the designated area, then started silently sweeping leaves.
Though it wasn't required to be that way, people usually didn't talk much in the morning. It was also because their sleepiness hadn't fully cleared, but it was more like they felt as if it would be better not to disturb the pre-dawn mountain atmosphere with even an extraneous whispering voice. Perhaps they had noticed the presence of humans, as the sound of insects from nearby was only faintly audible. All that was left were the regular scratching sounds produced by the two of them sweeping their bamboo brooms. Soon after, the faint dawn blended with the morning mist, covering the area. The lit stone lanterns crackled, their light swaying strangely in the darkness.
The cry of a bird sounded in the mountain.
Morning would arrive after a while.
Suddenly, the sound of the bamboo brooms stopped. Though it was delayed by a bit, the other one also stopped. Akino held her broom motionlessly, her head lowered. Hokuto also stopped her hands and turned to look upon noticing.
"......Akino?"
Hokuto spoke up to ask. Even though Akino didn't reply, her body was still motionless.
The two of them almost hadn't spoken yesterday night after the ominous words that the tengu shikigami had left behind. Though Hokuto opened her mouth as if to say something, she ended up swallowing her words back into her stomach.
"Akino. I'll go sweep over there."
Akino instinctively cast her gaze towards there, feeling the gloominess in the words. The face of the Hokuto who met her eye was filled with loneliness - Akino finally mustered the courage. Akino gripped her broom, walking towards the Hokuto who was cautiously keeping her distance from her.
"Akino?" A surprised expression surfaced on Hokuto as she noticed this.
She approached Hokuto and was able to smell her sweet aroma.
But Akino wasn't interested in that.
"U-Um, H-Hokuto."
"Yes."
"Y-You know about yesterday? Um, what Tengu-san said, well, y-you don't need to worry too much about it, so......"
"Eh?"
Hokuto couldn't conceal her confusion towards Akino who was racking her brains. But Akino was unconcerned, going "Nnn" while nodding vigorously as if she intended it for herself.
"I-I only learned that Tengu-san could talk yesterday. I have no clue why he would say something like that. So don't be concerned. E-Even I'm not interested."
Her final words were clearly a lie.
But it wasn't a serious lie.
Akino gazed at Hokuto through her glasses. When she compared them like this, Hokuto was half a head taller than Akino. Hokuto hesitated slightly while looking at the little Akino, but......
Her expression suddenly relaxed.
She took on a mischievous expression, her eyes smiling.
"But...... What would you do if I were really a dead person? Would that be alright?"
"Of - Of course, what's the problem!? There are a lot of weird people here. I-I'm also a rabbit living spirit. That's not anything to be concerned about!"
Akino asserted that completely seriously, completely solemnly.
At the same time, lag appeared on the girl's hair and long rabbit ears poked out. But Akino no longer had any intentions of hiding them. She looked into Hokuto's eyes with moist eyes and a near-crying appearance.
Hokuto quietly closed her eyes.
"......Thank you. Akino...... You're truly gentle."
She calmly said.
Then, she kept saying "I'm sorry".
"I - I'm actually hiding a lot of things from you. If I were forced to say them, I would definitely get you into trouble. But...... The fact that I'm being dishonest compared to you won't change."
"Hokuto."
Akino's eyes widened as she gazed motionlessly at Hokuto.
"I-It's fine. Everyone's like that here."
Everyone had their own reasons for coming to the monastery. Akino knew nothing about anything outside the monastery, and it was very difficult for her to imagine. More importantly, asking about the pasts of others was tabooed in the monastery. This could only become the final destination for people with no one else to go because it was a place far removed from worldliness. In that sense, it was as expected for a so-called 'monastery'.
It would be a lie if she said she didn't want to know. But there were things that she wanted to protect even if she lied.
But Hokuto's frankness didn't stop there.
"Akino. There's something I hope you can understand. I came here with a goal."
"A-A goal."
"Yes. Also...... I'll leave this place when things finish."
"......Eh?"
Those were unexpected words. Even the shock she had received at hearing that Hokuto was a spirit definitely hadn't been as large as what she received from hearing that sentence.
"B-B-But, leaving the monastery isn't that easy...... T-The only ones who can leave are basically priests who became ajari, you know? You have to go through many years of training to be recognized if you want to become a priest......"
Akino instantly explained that, but at the same time, she knew that wasn't the truth.
Many people who entered the monastery entered because they had nowhere to go in the outside world. Hence, there were very few people who wanted to leave. There were people who sneaked out because they got tired of life at the monastery, but these people ended up returning to the mountain and returning to their previous life after receiving punishment.
But the monastery wouldn't especially pursue a fugitive who sneaked out. Even more so if the fugitive was a 'disciple' and not an ajari. To homeless practitioners, the monastery was their last stronghold and not their prison. In principle, non-ajari people were forbidden from going outside, but that was just to keep up discipline. They wouldn't purposefully call back people who could live on outside.
Hence, if Hokuto wanted to sneak out of the monastery, perhaps she would succeed. Even if it were known beforehand that she wanted to escape, nothing could be done at all.
Hokuto said that she was being dishonest. Then maybe she stubbornly wanted to tell Akino that she was going to 'leave this place' to at least compensate her a bit.
"Even though I decided that by myself, I'm really sorry."
Hokuto apologized again. This time, Akino could no longer make a reply at all.
Her rabbit ears silently drooped. Hokuto stayed agonizingly silent as she watched from the side.
"H......How long will it be until it's over?"
"......I don't know. But since my father read the stars a week ago, perhaps it will happen very soon...... In a few days, I guess."
"How?"
Akino didn't understand what 'reading the stars' meant. But that kind of thing didn't matter now that she had heard something like 'a few days'.
How lonesome. How depressing.
But, at the same time,
......I guess that's right.
She thought.
Hadn't she always felt that she was a rare type that couldn't be found in the monastery? She should have known long ago that she wasn't someone who would be content with the monastery. A pretty, gentle person like her wasn't suited to this kind of remote world. More importantly, it's even more impossible for her to stay next to someone like me.
Hokuto had only come to the Seishuku Temple that didn't suit her because she had her own goals. Then I just happened to lead her around. That's it. Why am I so depressed at this simple matter? Also, what exactly was I looking forward to? My expectations were so foolish.
"......"
This won't do. Since Hokuto is very gentle, she might feel responsible if she sees my sorrowful attitude. There's finally someone who trusts me and told me a few secrets. This won't do.
"Is......"
"Eh?"
"Is there anything I can help with? Anything?"
Hokuto's eyes widened.
She smiled a bit bitterly and shook her head lightly.
"I really can't win against you, Akino."
She spoke quietly, her voice filled with a gratitude that couldn't be hidden. Akino became confused with an "Eh? Eh?" when she heard those unexpected words.
Hokuto changed the way she held the broom in front of her chest and spoke quietly but happily.
"Then, Akino. Can I ask you for a very embarrassing thing right now?"
"W-What is it?"
"Please be friends with me."
Her rabbit ears stood up.
Her cheeks reddened right there. Before her mind had reacted with what to say, her mouth had already made strange stuttering sounds by itself. It was nothing to brag about, but she had never had a 'friend' since she had been born. If you had to say, Sen probably counted, but this was the first person of a similar age. 'Friends' were one of the many things she had missed out on as a useless person who had grown up in the monastery and who knew nothing except for the monastery.
Even so......
"No good?"
"T-T-T-That's not - what - I mean--!"
Her tongue almost got tied up in her rushed state of nervousness and excitement. Akino barely managed to reply. The ears on her head also jumped left and right. Hokuto smiled while happily saying "Thank you."
...What should I do?
I have a friend. I made a friend. But what should I do with a friend? She started becoming confused and agitated after she started getting happy. Akino desperately dug through her lacking knowledge. Anyway, she should start with bread. She ought to go buy some yakisoba bread. But she didn't have any money on her, and she didn't even know where to buy yakisoba bread.
With a curious face, Hokuto looked on at the flustered Akino from the side.
"Right. Hey, Akino. As thanks for becoming my friend, I'll let you see something strange."
"Eh?"
Hokuto laughed brightly, suddenly extending her right hand to the side. "Keep it a secret," she said to Akino. Then, she spoke as if to the area above her palm.
"......It's alright. Come out."
She wasn't speaking to Akino - the instant she thought that, a faint light flashed above Hokuto's palm. A golden light about as large as a temari [34] . That light slowly extended into a ribbon. Akino gulped as she watched the light. A 'dragon' about one meter long came from that golden light - rather, that light condensed together to form it.
No, Akino wasn't sure whether it was truly a dragon or whether it was something else. Because its size was too small no matter what. But just like the dragons Akino knew of, it had two horns and a mane, along with four short clawed limbs. It was covered in bright golden scales that flashed like jewels in the mist as it twisted elegantly.
"......"
Akino couldn't say anything, her attention stolen by the dragon that had appeared before her. At the same time, the dragon also gave a similar gaze at the girl with rabbit ears on her head that was looking at it. Its expression seemed to be saying 'What's this? This person's really strange'. The dragon floated lightly in the air like that.
...How amazing.
What a beautiful creature. It was like a living piece of art. A shikigami, probably. But it probably wasn't the manmade kind of shikigami that could be seen everywhere. Though the aura she felt from the being before her definitely wasn't very strong, she could feel a noble air.
Then, Akino suddenly turned to look at Hokuto.
"Hokuto, this, is it Hokuto's?"
Hokuto had said that she had been a water dragon living spirit. And water dragons were a kind of dragon [35] . They looked very similar to dragons on the outside.
"It is, right? Because look how small it is. This is a 'water dragon', right?"
"...Ah, um......"
Hokuto didn't reply to her immediately. But as Akino said that with such naive confidence and innocence, the dragon's movements seemed to suddenly turn different from before.
It glided through the air in front of Akino. Akino was reflexively taken aback, but she still continued staring enthusiastically with a childlike curiosity at the dragon. Her ears twitched as if to express Akino's excitement.
The dragon stared at those ears for a while.
It bit down all of a sudden.
The rabbit ears buzzed with lag, ignoring Akino and Hokuto who were momentarily petrified. One second later, Akino wailed with an "aah".
"You!? Hey, Hokuto! What are you doing!?"
"M-My, e-e, e-ear......!?"
"Let go! Let go right now!"
Akino wailed as if begging for her ears to be spared, running around back and forth. The dragon biting her ear flew around like a banner.
Akino's agility was shocking.
How fast.
It was just unconscious, disorderly movement, but they were frighteningly fast. It was already at the level where she could see afterimages, no joke. Though Hokuto desperately pursued, she immediately gave up. Or rather, it was already tiring to keep up with her eyes. She moved like a fleeing rabbit.
"Hokuto!" [36]
The dragon finally released its jaw upon hearing that angry bellow. At the same time, Akino's feet tangled together and she fell down with a thump. Hokuto hastily ran towards Akino.
"Akino! Are you alright?"
"Ueeh...... My ear......"
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