Chapter Ninety-Six: Amamiya Sagiri's Plot

Ordinarily, the sacred kagura dance would be held at dusk or deep in the night, but there were exceptions.

Since there were only three visitors, and because it was the heart of winter with snow falling heavily, the shrine, out of concern for the travelers’ safety, discussed the matter and finally decided to move the ceremony to the afternoon.

That way, the guests could still experience all the shrine’s events and make it back down the mountain before dark.

When Anhe and the others arrived, Nobue Ito on the stage slowly lowered herself into a crouch. Only when the two shrine attendants beside her, dressed in white ceremonial robes and holding wooden clappers, sounded their flutes did she rise again.

Her sleeves swayed. Two feet wrapped in white tabi moved lightly and unhurriedly across the stage like nimble butterflies.

At every step, the ornaments in her hair and the kagura bells in her hands trembled, giving off a clear, ringing chime.

Her scarlet lips, petal-bright; the delicate whiteness of her collarbone; her narrow lashes; the intoxicating beauty mark at the corner of her eye; and, set against all of it, Ito Nobue’s refined, tranquil expression at this moment, made her look exactly like the shrine maiden of legend who dances for the gods.

Of course, it would have been better if the flute accompaniment could simply be removed.

Anhe cast a helpless glance at the two priests on stage who were blowing with great enthusiasm into their Japanese flutes.

He had never been able to appreciate this sort of music.

Just as the heroine Miyamizu Mitsuha once complained in a film he had seen in a former life.

If the sound of the Japanese flute drifting out of a shrine at night were heard by city people, they would probably find it rather eerie.

He selectively filtered out the flute, shifting his gaze to the Amamiya sisters nearby.

It seemed they were seeing this for the first time as well; both were watching with rapt attention.

For some reason, a wicked image suddenly surfaced in Anhe’s mind.

Sagiri Amamiya, wearing a shrine maiden’s outfit, lay on her side in bed with one hand propping up her head. Her collar was slightly open, revealing a pair of round, snow-white curves. With her other hand she gently held down the hem of her skirt, her fingertips stroking the smooth, tender skin of her slender leg, lifting it slowly all the way to her thigh...

“Hiss...”

Anhe drew in a sharp breath and quickly turned his head away, trying to drive the unhealthy images from his mind.

But the opposite happened: the more he tried to forget, the clearer and more vivid they became, until in the end even Saori Amamiya appeared.

On the other side, Saori Amamiya suddenly shivered for no apparent reason. She pulled her scarf tighter around her neck and, turning instinctively, saw that her sister seemed to be looking in Anhe’s direction. Unable to help herself, she asked curiously, “What’s wrong with Sis?”

Hearing her voice, Sagiri Amamiya came back to herself, glanced at her, and smiled as she shook her head.

“It’s nothing.”

“Really?”

Saori Amamiya looked unconvinced.

Sagiri Amamiya had been about to explain further, but then she seemed to remember something. Her eyes flicked, and she stepped forward two paces, bending her mouth to Saori Amamiya’s ear and whispering softly.

At first, Saori Amamiya was a little uneasy from the warm breath brushing against her ear. But when she made out what Sagiri Amamiya was saying, excitement gradually lit her eyes.

Time passed slowly. On stage, Nobue Ito returned to her original position, the flute music stopped, and with that the kagura dance came to its close.

“So, what did you think?”

The sudden female voice startled Anhe. He turned and saw that the girl who had first guided him here was standing beside him at some point, while the Amamiya sisters were nowhere to be seen.

Noticing the confusion in his eyes, the girl pointed into the distance and explained, “Those two guests said they had something to discuss with the chief priest.”

“Something to discuss?”

Anhe raised a brow and followed the direction of her finger. Sure enough, not far away beneath the eaves stood three figures: the Amamiya sisters and Shinichi Miyamoto.

No one knew what they had said, but Miyamoto’s face was full of smiles.

After watching for a while, Anhe was just about to look away when the voice of the narrator suddenly rang in his mind.

A plot against you is quietly unfolding. In order to wring you dry tonight, Sagiri Amamiya has even gone so far as to involve her younger sister. But she has clearly overestimated herself. Once she cannot continue and you are still going strong, the remaining Saori Amamiya...

Anhe was greatly alarmed by the narration.

Sagiri Amamiya planned to wring him dry tonight, but wasn’t she in her monthly period? Could it be that... she had never been on it at all? That she had only said so in order to create a chance for him to spend time with Saori Amamiya?

Thinking back on the deliberate things Sagiri Amamiya had done over the past few days, Anhe felt as though he had finally grasped the truth.

What he could not quite understand was what had caused Sagiri Amamiya, who had originally pretended to be on her period in order to create an opportunity for her sister, to suddenly change her mind, confess everything, and even decide to wring him dry.

Could it be jealousy?

For no reason at all, the image of Nadeshiko Kurosai surfaced in Anhe’s mind.

The last time he had been wrung dry seemed to have happened only after Sagiri Amamiya discovered what had gone on between him and Nadeshiko Kurosai.

But Kurosai Nadeshiko wasn’t here either.

Could it be...

Anhe subconsciously looked up at Nobue Ito, who was just about to leave.

As though she noticed his gaze, she also turned to look back.

Their eyes met, and for one fleeting instant Anhe saw a sly smile on Ito Nobue’s face.

So that was it. The other woman had deliberately kissed him while Sagiri Amamiya was watching, all in order to drive him into Sagiri Amamiya’s revenge! What a cruel woman. Since the other party had shown no mercy first, there was no reason for him to remain honorable!

At the thought of it, a fierce glint flashed in his eyes, and a perfect revenge plan formed in his mind: there would be no guards at the shrine at night. He only needed to go to the back courtyard, find Ito Nobue’s room, and then slip inside secretly...

The narrator’s sudden voice confirmed Anhe’s suspicions.

No wonder.

That woman, Ito Nobue, had never taken the initiative before, so why had she suddenly kissed him today? It was because Sagiri Amamiya had been watching.

No wonder Sagiri Amamiya’s gaze toward him had felt strange today.

As for being wrung dry, Anhe did not really care about that, but being set up by Ito Nobue for no reason still left him rather displeased.

As he was thinking, the girl beside him, seeing that Anhe had not spoken for a long time, spoke up again.

“Do you know Miss Ito?”

She had noticed the look Anhe had exchanged with Ito Nobue just now. That was not the look two strangers would have shared.

Her words pulled Anhe back from his thoughts. Looking at Ito Nobue’s retreating back, he hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

“Yes. She’s my teacher.”

“Huh?”

The girl covered her mouth in surprise, then asked excitedly, “Then do you know who Miss Ito’s boyfriend is?”

“Boyfriend?”

Anhe raised a brow and turned to look at her. Seeing his reaction, the girl assumed he did not know and explained, “I mean the father of Miss Ito’s baby. When she first arrived, the chief priest specifically reminded us that she was expecting a little one and told us to take extra care of her. You didn’t know?”

Her words made Anhe freeze. Then he thought of the phone call with Ito Nobue’s father in her house before, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

He knew not only that, but, according to the girl, he was also the father of that unborn child.

Though he was thinking this, Anhe lied without blinking.

“You mean Miss Ito’s boyfriend? I know him. He’s an especially, especially handsome guy.”

“Seriously? How handsome?”

The girl’s eyes sparkled with gossip.

Over the past half month, Ito Nobue had gradually grown familiar with the people at the shrine, and likewise, everyone had become intensely curious about the boyfriend of this young lady from a shrine family.

Seeing the girl’s expression, Anhe suppressed a laugh, pretending to think it over before smiling faintly.

“As handsome as me.”

“Ughhh.”

The girl gave a sound of mock disgust, though she did not contradict him.

Indeed, in her eyes, the young man before her was extraordinarily good-looking. If she preferred someone a little older, and if the two girls who had come here earlier holding hands with Anhe did not exist, she probably would have gone up to confess her feelings by now.

After chatting a while longer with the girl, the Amamiya sisters returned from their conversation with Shinichi Miyamoto.

Seeing this, the girl tactfully ended the topic and, once the sisters reached them, spoke again.

“Where would the guests like to go next? For blessings, or for the match-making tree?”

At that, Anhe looked toward the Amamiya sisters. Their expressions had not changed much from before. When he looked at them, Sagiri Amamiya thought for a moment and answered, “Let’s go ask for a match first.”

“Very well.”

The girl nodded, stepped aside with a polite gesture, and said, “Please come with me.”

Following the girl through the shrine, the four of them soon returned to the long corridor they had entered by.

“Here we are.”

As she spoke, the girl raised her hand and pointed to the withered trees on either side of the corridor, introducing them.

“These are the shrine’s red-string trees. You can also call them the tree of love. People write down their hopes for the future, or their wishes for a partner, on wooden plaques, then thread them with red string and hang them on the tree. With a sincere heart, they pray to the gods, and the gods will grant them blessings.”

“Does it actually work?”

Saori Amamiya suddenly asked. What the girl had said made her a little tempted.

Before the girl could answer, however, Sagiri Amamiya reached out and tapped her on the head, scolding her.

“No talking back. You must not question the gods.”

Feeling the blow to her head, Saori Amamiya pouted and muttered under her breath, “I’m not saying I don’t believe. I’m just curious whether it actually works.”

Hearing this, Sagiri Amamiya was about to say something more, but the girl held her back and explained with a smile, “It’s all right. Everyone who comes to the shrine is curious whether match-making really works. To be honest, I don’t know either. But the chief priest says it works, so we say it works too.”

“Uh... well, that’s honest of you.”

Anhe felt a little embarrassed on her behalf. Even Saori Amamiya, who had been annoyed a moment ago, and Sagiri Amamiya both fell silent at the girl’s bluntness.

Seeing their expressions, the girl looked somewhat bashful and said with a playful flick of her tongue, “It’s just the truth. If gods really do exist, then even if I secretly said a few bad things, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.”

With that, the girl waved her hand, led them to the tree, and stretched up on tiptoe to rummage through the plaques hanging there. At last she found three blank ones and took them down, handing one to each of them. At the same time, she fished a carving knife from her pocket and said, “Write the name of the person you like, or what you want to say to the person you like, right here.”

Anhe accepted the plaque and turned it over curiously before asking, “Don’t we need to leave our own names?”

“No need. The moment you walked through the torii gate, the god already sensed your presence.”

As she spoke, the girl handed the carving knife to Anhe. He took it, nodded, and began carving characters into the wooden plaque.

Saori Amamiya, standing nearby, was curious and tried to lean in to peek, but the girl stopped her with an outstretched hand.

“The match plaque cannot be seen by anyone before it is hung on the tree. If someone looks at it beforehand, their aura will cling to it, and the god may make a mistake when granting the blessing.”

“Huh?”

Saori Amamiya was dissatisfied and put her hands on her hips. “If the gods would make a mistake over something this small, then are they still gods?”

“Th-”

The girl was at a loss for words and did not know how to answer. Fortunately, by then Anhe had already finished carving the words on his plaque.

“Let me see!”

Saori Amamiya eagerly tried to reach for it, but he simply lifted his hand and dodged her with ease.

“Didn’t you hear what the priest said? Before it’s hung on the tree, nobody is allowed to look.”

Saying that, Anhe turned around and, ignoring Saori Amamiya’s protests, stood on tiptoe and tied the plaque to the highest spot he could reach.

When he was done, he withdrew his hand and stepped to the side, looking at Saori Amamiya with a teasing smile. “All right, go on. You can look now.”

“You!”

Staring at the plaque perched several heads above her, Saori Amamiya was furious. She turned to her sister, hoping for help, but Sagiri Amamiya only spread her hands and shook her head with an apologetic look when she saw Saori looking at her.

Apparently, she could not reach it either.

In truth, if Sagiri Amamiya jumped, she could have reached it, but she simply did not want to.

If possible, she hoped to hear the answer from Anhe himself.

Seeing that even her sister would not help her, Saori Amamiya ground her teeth in frustration, but there was nothing to be done.

With a cold snort, she took the carving knife from Anhe and turned away to carve her own words. After she was done, she also wanted to imitate Anhe and hang the plaque as high as she could, but after standing on tiptoe and stretching, she discovered that she could not even reach the lowest branch. In the end, she could only hand the plaque back to Anhe with a flushed face, though her voice remained stubbornly stern.

“You are not allowed to look!”

“Fine, fine.”

Anhe brushed her off casually, but the moment he took the plaque, he still glanced at it at once.

As expected, the name carved on it was none other than Anhe Yusheng.

A meaningful smile spreading across his face, Anhe winked at Saori Amamiya, whose already crimson face instantly bloomed into a deeper scarlet.

After hanging Saori Amamiya’s plaque on the tree, he took the plaque Sagiri Amamiya handed him as well. It too had the name Anhe Yusheng carved into it.

Anhe hung it beside Saori Amamiya’s plaque. As the cold wind passed through, the two wooden tags swayed together in the breeze.