Tokyo Girlfriend Guide

Chapter 864: Miyamizu Sanye and Yamauchi Sakura's Fairy Wand

In some places, rain is called "dripping stars".

It means drizzles of rain, like falling stars.

At this moment, at the edge of Lake Kawaguchi, iron trees and silver flowers are blooming, and gold and silver are in full bloom. Compared with the eternal stars in the sky, the fleeting fireworks are obviously insignificant.

But at least at this moment, in that instant, what was reflected on the lake was no longer the bright moon and stars in the sky, but the smiling faces of the girls holding fireworks on the shore.

The aesthetics of mono no aware that Japanese people admire can only be truly appreciated when you experience it in person.

Life is difficult, with natural disasters and man-made calamities. Even if you are born in a noble family, you may die instantly in a village fight, not to mention the endless natural disasters.

Therefore, humans, who have a short life, turn their attention to things that are even shorter in life.

Fireworks, cherry blossoms...

It is so gorgeous that it takes your breath away, yet so short-lived that it is shocking.

Hojo Kyosuke held a fairy wand between two fingers. Although it was a cold light firework, it could actually burn difficult-to-heal scars on your body if you were not careful.

In his previous life, he had played with fairy wands that were longer and thicker than a broom. In that country, everyone thought that since they were so reluctant to give up this splendor, they should try to prolong it!

The fairy wand, which is more than ten centimeters long and as thick as a pen tip, was made to be more than one meter long and as thick as a little finger. One fairy wand is enough to play with until your eyes are blinded.

But what he was holding in his hand at the moment was undoubtedly a "fairy wand" that was fifteen centimeters long, three millimeters in diameter, and could only emit light for two minutes and twenty-three seconds.

Hojo Kyosuke held the fairy wand and poked the fairy wand in Yamauchi Sakura's hand with the other end that had already burned.

After being stimulated, a few sparks like meteors dropped from the golden magic wand in the girl's hand.

"Beautiful~~"

Yamauchi Sakura whispered softly, her amber eyes illuminated even brighter by the golden firelight.

She, Mitsuha and Kyosuke squatted by the lake together, and would immediately light up the fairy wands as soon as they were about to burn out.

"It's amazing. I've been playing with it since I was a kid, but every time I play it I still find it fun and beautiful..."

Sakura said in a low voice. From just now on, everyone spoke in a low voice, as if they were afraid of disturbing the jumping sparks and making the fireworks, which were already fading very quickly, fade away even faster.

Mitsuha Miyamizu placed the burnt-out metal wire in her hand neatly on the ground beside her, and gently waved the fireworks in her hand, drawing irregular lines in the black sky. Occasionally, she looked at Kyosuke opposite her and Sakura next to her through the "photo frame" composed of golden sparks.

"When I was young..."

She spoke softly:

"At that time, only during the New Year or when the Miyamizu Shrine held a festival, Grandma Kobayashi's grocery store would purchase some fireworks from the neighboring city, but the quantity was very small."

The voice of the witch was full of nostalgia:

"On the one hand, people are not very wealthy and are obviously not willing to spend more money on such children's toys. On the other hand, they are worried about causing wildfires, which would be terrible."

Hojo Kyosuke next to him raised his head slightly and looked at Mitsuha, while Sakura smiled and said:

"I've never had this worry, not even when I was younger. After I met Kyousuke, I've never lacked fireworks."

Someone also laughed. His mother also loved to set off fireworks. Holding two children in her hands, she didn't need to care about other people on the street who might say, "That mother is not stable at all."

Every time there was a celebration, he and Yingliang would buy a lot of fireworks. Playing in the community was not enough, so they would go to play by the Minato River. The management of Minato was far less strict than that of Tokyo, and the dirt road and grass beside the Minato River were the best places for fireworks. Small fireworks and other firecrackers could be played.

At that time, his only responsibility was to make sure his mother and Sakura didn't get accidentally hit by the explosion.

After whispering a few interesting things about that time, Yingliang smiled:

"It was just like a revolving lantern. In the instant when the firelight came on, all the happy things in the past came to my mind!"

Mitsuha Miyamizu listened to the two people talking about interesting childhood stories with a smile. She was not Eriri, so her defense was not broken, because she also had memories that would come to her mind when the firelight was lit.

The miko straightened up slightly, raised her head and looked around over Kyosuke's head.

I saw my sister who was chanting a spell around a magic circle, my father who was staring at the lake in a daze while holding a fairy wand that had long been burned out, and I also saw Sayaka and the imperial envoy who were playing and chasing each other by the lake while holding fireworks.

It was embarrassing to say that only a small part of her memories of Hanabi were related to her family. What suddenly came to her mind were almost all the images of Sayaka and the imperial envoy.

"…Actually, Grandma Kobayashi doesn't know how to run a business, because almost every year the fireworks she buys are sold out in a very short time, and the children in Itomori Town even fight over them. Sometimes, if you want to buy a fairy wand, you have to fight with your opponent first, and then get beaten by your parents…"

Miyamizu Mitsuha smiled, her pretty face full of nostalgia.

"Hahaha, these are some very vivid memories of Hanabi."

Yingliang laughed:

"But fireworks bought this way will definitely be more fun!"

Hearing this nonsense, Sanye shook his head and laughed.

"But Sayaka, I and the imperial envoy have never been beaten. There is only one factor that limits us from buying all the fireworks: money.

Although the people in the town call me the mayor's daughter and the construction company's son, the imperial envoy and I don't get as much pocket money as Yaka. "

Speaking of this, Sanye couldn't help laughing out loud. It was obviously a happy memory:

"Saayaka has two older brothers, but it doesn't mean that the pocket money given by her parents will be divided up. On the contrary, there are two more sources of pocket money. That guy didn't seem very smart since he was a child, so her family felt that they had to take good care of her. So her brothers would let her buy more snacks and fireworks even if they didn't have to spend a penny.

Thanks to Sayaka, the three of us... oh, and Yotsuba, the four of us can buy a lot of fireworks every year. But Kyousuke, you know, we are not very popular in the town, so if we play with fireworks in the open space in the town, we will definitely be bullied. So we just go directly to the shrine to play. "

Hojo Kyosuke nodded. He understood it better than ever.

Yingliang laughed and said:

"Kyosuke and I are also unpopular!"

This guy was beaming with pride, and said triumphantly:

"Because Aunt Mikiko is very rich, Kyousuke and I always carry a big bag of fireworks when we go out. The bad kids in our neighborhood set their sights on us after they have played with their own fireworks."

Mitsuha asked curiously: "And then?"

"Then?"

Hojo Kyousuke and Yamauchi Sakura smiled at each other, and the girl spoke:

"If they want it, then give it to them! But it's already lit!"

Yingliang grinned evilly:

"At that time, Kyosuke told me that it didn't matter even if their clothes were all blown to pieces, just think of it as paying them to be targets for fireworks. I was originally very scared, but when I heard it, I immediately felt that it made sense. Even if I was scolded by my parents later, I could just consider it as the price I paid for enjoying it in advance!

Then Kyosuke and I took the fireworks and started to teach those bad guys a lesson. Now that I think about it, Kyosuke and I were just like Rambo!"

"Haha~~"

Miyamizu Mitsuha chuckled and sighed with some envy:

"Unfortunately, although we are considered 'nobles' by the other children in the town, in fact, Sayaka, the Imperial Envoy, and I are not very courageous people. If we were blocked by others on the way back to the shrine from the grocery store, Sayaka would quickly offer a few fireworks as protection money, and then drag me and the Imperial Envoy back to the shrine.

That is the square in front of the front hall of the shrine, do you remember it, Kyousuke?"

Hojo Kyosuke nodded. He had also gotten up early to clean many times. At this time, when he heard Mitsuha talking, the memory of Miyamizu Shrine instantly came to his mind in the firelight.

The grandeur of Miyamizu Shrine is nothing like that of a country shrine. Itomori Town, with a population of less than 5,000, should not be able to afford such a shrine. It is in no way inferior to the famous large shrines in Tokyo.

Whether it is the winding mountain road that winds upward from the foot of the mountain, or the bluestone-paved stone steps leading to the shrine, or the luxurious front hall and shrine hall, or the imposing society office building, none of them should appear in such a deep mountain.

The square in front of the front hall that Mitsuha mentioned is the place where stalls are set up every time the Miyamizu Shrine holds a temple fair. Let alone four children setting off fireworks, even if all the people in the Ito-mori were squeezed in there, it would barely be enough space.

"To be honest, the Teshishi and I were a little scared of setting off fireworks at the shrine. After all, I'm a shrine maiden, and he's from the Teshishi Kawara family, the most devout believers at the Miyamizu Shrine. But what was unexpected was that Sayaka, that idiot who came to the shrine to play with me every morning and had to pay incense money, didn't care at all."

Mitsuha smiled, her left eyebrow raised, and a "stupid" smile appeared on her face. Hojo Kyosuke, who was very familiar with Sayaka, realized that Mitsuha was imitating Sayaka.

"'Oh my! The gods sometimes want to have some fun!' He said that, and he placed a box of fireworks in front of the coin box and lit it. The crackling fireworks lit up the square of the shrine.

I was shocked, but then I actually felt that what she said made some sense. I thought, even gods have to go to Izumo Taisha for a meeting every year, right? Isn't that the equivalent of celebrating the New Year?"

Yamauchi Sakura nodded solemnly, and while helping Mitsuha to refill the fairy wand, he said seriously:

"Yes, but the fairy wands that gods play with can definitely stay lit for a very long time!"

Hojo Kyosuke said seriously: "Maybe the thunder and lightning were the fireworks they set off!"

"Eh... wouldn't that be even shorter than ours?"

Mitsuha wrinkled her nose in disdain.

The three of them laughed and discussed for a while what the fireworks that the gods would play would look like. Would they be as bright as the little boy's? Then they heard the exclamations of Yotsuba, Sachiko and others not far away. Turning around, they saw that Yotsuba had finally lit up the magic circle that was being built.

The little guy used more than a dozen kinds of fireworks, and it was not easy to light them all up. Miyamizu Toshiki, who was standing by the lake looking sad, was pulled over to help without knowing when.

The three of them simply stuck the fairy wands in the ground, then stood up to admire Yotsuba's masterpiece.

"Speaking of which..."

Looking at her sister, Mitsuha showed a sly smile:

"Once, when Siye was playing with fireworks, she accidentally lit the bell on the coin box."

"Oh--"

Even Yingliang couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, she had never gotten into such a big trouble before.

Hojo Kyosuke was skeptical. After all, given the miko's personality, it was not impossible for her to frame Yotsuba for something bad she had done. No, it was more likely.

Miyamizu Mitsuha and someone had such an amazing tacit understanding that she immediately noticed Hojo Kyosuke's suspicious look and shouted:

"That time it was really Yotsuba who did it!"

Hmm, so there were other times when Yotsuba was framed? Hojo Kyousuke nodded in understanding.

The miko also realized that she had said something wrong, and angrily hit someone on the shoulder twice before continuing:

“Then that guy got scared and started crying, ‘Wow wow wow—next time, when I’m making knots, I’m going to tell my kids about the Four Leaf Blaze’…”

"Hahahahaha..."

Hojo Kyosuke burst out laughing instantly, and in an instant he thought of the first time they swapped bodies, when Yotsuba had the expression of pity on her face when she heard about Sekigoro's fire.

While laughing, he explained to Sakura beside him what the Guan Goro fire was.

After laughing, Hojo Kyosuke suddenly realized his blind spot: "Wait a minute? So Yotsuba heard about the Sekigoro fire when she was very young?"

Miyamizu Mitsuha nodded and said as a matter of course:

"Of course. Since there is such a legend, how could adults not use it to scare children?"

"Too……"

Hojo Kyosuke nodded with a sympathetic look. The children's stories in Japan cannot be described as cult stories at all. They are pure horror stories. For example, the story of a raccoon cat cooking an old lady tells of a mischievous raccoon cat that was caught by an old man. The raccoon cat killed the old lady and then transformed into her appearance, tricking the old man into drinking the soup cooked by the old lady.

Then a super rabbit appeared, first burned the raccoon's back, then smeared chili peppers on its back, and finally tricked the raccoon into getting on a mud boat and drowned it. The key point is that until the rabbit paddled it into the water, the raccoon thought the rabbit was its friend...

This story is actually used to teach children not to make trouble or lie. Compared with this, the Guan Goro Fire is really mild.

Mitsuha Miyamizu continued:

"I know what you want to ask, Kyousuke, but Yotsuba is an idiot. How good do you think her memory is? Even if she got into trouble, if you ask her now, she will probably think that I framed her."

"..."

Hojo Kyosuke twitched his lips. These two sisters are a complete mess and it is impossible to sort them out. (End of this chapter)