Sakuya: No, not necessarily. But to assume that I’m coming to report, that must mean something is happening, right?
Hostess: Oh my, you haven’t heard about it? There’s a festival occurring in three days, you know. And this year is special, in particular.
Kei: Special, you say?
Hostess: There was a household in town that was taking charge of festival duties in the past, but those people disappeared a long time ago, you see…
Hostess: And so, since then we have continued holding the event, but for little more than habit’s sake.
Hostess: I think it’s just superstition, but this place has ever been in decline since it happened……
Kei: Huh… so it’s because they couldn’t hold a proper ceremonial festival?
Hostess: It’s just a superstition. But when you run a business, you want to have some manner of symbol, right?
As she mills about while speaking, the hostess flips through the pages of her hotel register *para para* and breathes a short sigh.
Hostess: Asama-san, could I have your signature here, please?
Opened to that page, she hands the register to Sakuya-san along with a calligraphy pen.
Kei: In that case, what is it that makes this year special?
Hostess: Well, I can hardly believe it, but a person connected to that family, and deeply knowledgeable about the festival, came to us. She’s so young, but she really has a good head on her shoulders.
Sakuya: ……Geh!
Sakuya-san leaks out a noise like a flattened frog.
Hostess: Oh dear, whatever is the matter?
Sakuya: Oh, no, nothing at all! Is this good enough?
Hostess: Let’s see…… yes, yes, this is fine. Now, Asama-san, your room can be found…
I was wondering if she gripped the pen too tight and leaked ink drops all over the register— but it seems that fear was unfounded.
Regardless, Sakuya-san was making one amazing face just then… I wonder if it’s really alright to think nothing happened?
…………
At any rate, I decide to pretend I didn’t notice.
Kei: In that case, what kind of festival is it?
Hostess: Yes, about that… I know little beyond the event being in reverence to a god called the Ohashirasama.
Kei: Ohashirasama?
Hostess: Could it be the “hashira” from “daikokubashira,” perhaps? (TN: Daikokubashira – mainstay. The character she gives to guess the meaning, “hashira,” means “pillar.” But “hashira” has a special meaning in Japanese. It’s used as a counter for Shintou gods, so it’s a natural guess on her part, since the Ohashirasama is a Shintou god.)
After saying she wasn’t very knowledgeable about it, the Hostess-san doesn’t look very confident with her guess.
Hostess: You see things like the <a “href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OnbashiraOnbashira”” target=”-blank”>Onbashira Matsuri at the Suwa Grand Shrine on television and the news, but, perhaps customers would come next year if we had a festival like that?
Kei: Huh……
Even with a festival happening in three days, the air in town is still so carefree, so I doubt they can manage the kind of uprush you see for the Onbashira Matsuri or the Nebuta Matsuri.
Hostess: Right, right, as for the Ohashirasama, in the mountains of the Hazama area, I heard there is a sacred tree.
Kei: Eh?
Hostess: It’s a type of tree called Enju that you often find on roadsides, but as a sacred tree, I heard it’s amazingly large. More than twelve-hundred years old, they say. (TN: Pictures of Enju here and here.)
Hostess: Perhaps it’s fortunate that it’s growing in a place where people rarely go. Just the act of going there is quite an exertion…
Kei: Hazama…
My father’s house is in a region called “Hazama.”
Kei: In the mountains…
When I came to, I was climbing a mountain…
Kei: A sacred tree…
…And found a tremendous tree letting white flowers bloom.
Kei: ——–
My memory revolves around in circles.
That tree in my dream exists, and is worshipped in this region as a sacred tree god. And at that place, I met a boy with the same name as me…
Kei: …*kushun*! (sneezing)
With one sneeze, the insides of my head fade to white.
With those words as the catalyst, that something in my head that tried to solidify is blown into nothing with the most trivial of impulses.
And now, I can’t get that something back.
Much like when I try to remember a dream, nothing floats to mind but a few vague impressions.
Kei: Ahh……
I hang my head in disappointment.
Hostess: Oh my, I’m so sorry. After all that, you two should be changing clothes, and yet here I am keeping you with these stories of mine.
Kei: Ah, it’s okay, it’s okay.
Sakuya: Kei……
Kei: Don’t worry, everything’s fine. I’m a-ok.
I gather the strength in my face and show a smile. But, no, it doesn’t look like it’s working very well.
Kei: Although, I suppose if I don’t change soon, I might not be fine anymore…
Sakuya: Yeah……
Kei: Well then, Okami-san, I’m hoping for another delicious dinner tonight.
Just as things come as they go, that sudden evening summer shower was no exception.
The thumping sounds of the rain on the roof soon changed into uninspired applause, and faded completely before long.