今日の予定は?
What's the plan, today?


Kei: So then, Uzuki-san, what are you doing today?

Uzuki: Why do you ask...?

Kei: I was wondering if it would be okay to look around the town together.

Now that I'm on good terms with her, it sounds like a good idea.

Uzuki: Ah, sorry to decline your invitation, but I came to this place on an errand.

Kei: I-I see...

A quick and honorable death...

Uzuki: Sorry about that. We can meet again for dinner or something.

Kei: Okay...... Later, then.

My eyes follow her back as she returns to her room.
Uu... that was a bit of a shock.

Hostess: Oh my, no need to droop your shoulders so.

Kei: Uhyaa!?

Being addressed from an unexpected angle, I jump in reflexive surprise.

Hostess: Oh dear.

Kei: Please don't surprise me like that, Okami-san!......

Hostess: Please forgive me, Hatou-san.

Hostess: But, having your invitation refused, perhaps you needn't mind it so much?

Kei: But, I don't really mind......

Hostess: It seems that Senba-san came here on a family errand, and she's probably quite busy.

Kei: Eh? Work for her family?

Hostess: There's a festival in three days, you know. You actually came here at a good time.

Kei: Huh... a festival...?

What does that have to do with Uzuki-san?

Hostess: A while before, there was a family that presided over the festival duties, you see... But, it seems they disappeared suddenly, so...

...So, since the festival was based on old customs, they couldn't hold it for several years, then.
And since a person associated with that family reported to preside over it this year, they have a magnificent special in the works, so she said.

Kei: And that would be Uzuki-san?

Hostess: That's probably it. After all, Senba-san is always carrying that woven bag around... what was it called... a kinran?

Kei: Yes. When I first met her at the station, that was the only thing she was carrying, so I thought for sure she was from this area.

Hostess: Senba-san had the rest of her luggage mailed here.

Kei: Wah, I forgot that option.

I'll copy her on the way home.

Hostess: So then, when she was checking in I asked her what was in it, and she let me see.

Hostess: And dear me, it was a katana, colored gold from sheath to hilt like a buddhist altar. What's more, it was an inCREDible goshintou from far back in the Heian Era. (TN: Goshintou - In other words, a sacred sword that a shrine uses as an artifact.)

Kei: Well, that does sound like someone connected to a Shintou shrine, doesn't it...

Hostess: Senba-san really has some atmosphere about her, doesn't she?

............
......I wonder... what if Uzuki-san is a shrine maiden?
Her black hair is so beautiful and long. I bet she'd look good in that kind of outfit.
And her gestures and conduct are so clean and graceful, if she danced the mikomai I bet she'd be amazing. (TN: Mikomai - Literally "shrine maiden dance." It's a festival activity where a miko dances to a drum beat, and is said to require remarkable stamina and grace.)
That would be so nice, I wanna see. I really wanna see!

Hostess: ...And so... Hatou-san, are you listening?

Kei: Ah, yes! I'm listening, I'm listening!

This isn't good. I've done it again.

Kei: Ahaha, so, where were we?

Hostess: That's right. About the festival, it's in reverence of a god we call "Ohashira-sama," you see.

Kei: Ohashira-sama?

Hostess: I don't really know what it would be the god of, but it's in reverence to a large sacred tree.

Kei: Huh, sacred tree......

Hostess: And that's way up in the middle of the mountains. I hear it's quite an exertion to go there.

Kei: In the middle of the mountains, you say......?

Hostess: That's why there's hardly anybody who visits there. Perhaps that's why no one knows the details.

Kei: A sacred tree...... in the mountains......

---Tokun.
I can hear my own heartbeat.
Tokun, tokun, intermittently, my heart sends an image to the middle of my head.
A mountain of green---
A big tree---
Someone pulling me by the hand---
Being told to forget that dream, by someone who knows my name---
If I go there, I might learn something.
If I go there, I might remember something.
If I go there.
Before I can even collect the blurred thoughts in my head, I ask the hostess.

Kei: That sacred tree... where can I find it!?

And, just a little bit, I thought it would make a good topic to discuss with Uzuki-san over dinner.

Continue...