VOLUME 2

Chapter 9: Red Moon (1)

It was after school on the same day.

I was lounging around in the Production Club clubroom, waiting for my brother to get off work.

After I killed some time, my brother came to pick me up and we went home together.

When I didn’t have enough energy to make it back home, my brother let me ride on his bicycle with him.

On those days, we would stop by the shopping district on the way home and eat diner.

Today, we were at a rotary sushi restaurant.

“I see. Friends with Kagami-san…”

I was sitting side-by-side with my brother at the counter and telling him about what had happened today.

Perhaps I just wanted to tell my brother that so he could hear me being happy.

“I might get a little lonely, but I think this is a good thing. Kagami is pretty on top of things, and she can help you study too.”

“Yeah… I mean, looks like some alteration made it so I can at least not get held back next term, but that doesn’t change the fact that none of the knowledge I need is in my head.”

To be honest, I was completely hopeless when it came to studying.

I was always just locked up in my room playing around, after all.

It wasn’t like I was all-knowing and all-powerful.

“Ahh, oniichan, get the king salmon. Also the sea bream and some of the eel there.”

I pointed at the sushi as it lazily rolled past us, while my brother swiftly grabbed everything I pointed to.

“I can’t eat that much, so split it in half. In half, okay?”

“Okaay~~.”

“Only put soy sauce on the fish. If you get it on the rice I’ll kill you.”

“I know, I know.”

“I hate wasabi. Take it off, take it off.” (2)

“Of course… say ‘ahhh’~~.”

“Ahhh…”

Chomp. Chew chew.

Hm. Delicious.

“Kagami’s test scores are really high, but it doesn’t seem like she really takes notes. I always see her sleeping during cla.s.s too, so how are her grades that high?”

“I heard that Kagami-san can memorize entire textbooks by just seeing them once. It’s also more than easy for her to do arithmetic in her head on seven-digit numbers , so her natural mental abilities should be much higher than that of a normal human’s.”

The other people in the restaurant were watching my brother and my perfectly-normal dinner ritual with strange looks on their faces, but I didn’t mind them and just continued to fill my stomach.

“Oniichan, more tea please. Tea.”

“Of course.”

“It’s hot, so blow on it. Blow on it.”

“Be careful to not burn your tongue. Open your mouth.”

“Nnnn…”

Sip sip.

Ahh, you gotta have green tea with sushi, after all.

“Well, it’s not like I made friends with her so I could get her to teach me stuff like that though. I’m just happy to be her friend. I’ve met and talked to other people online, but this is my first real-life friend.”

I smiled as my brother wiped my mouth with a paper napkin.

And then, I thought back.

Thought back to my lonely, lonely childhood.

To that time when I tried so hard and struggled through every day.

Everyone had placed all their hopes on me while I was young, and either distanced themselves from me or came at me with scandalous intentions, trying to take advantage of me.

I was surrounded by adults, so it was beyond hope for me to be able to play with someone my own age.

I would train, sometimes collapse exhausted into bed, and repeat.

It was a life devoid of any variety.

But, humans were never meant to live lonely lives.

Children want to play with other children, and there were times when my patience hit its breaking point.

I would escape from my harsh training, from the shrine, and descend upon the town outside.

But my little child’s feet could only carry me so far, and all the neighboring towns were under the patronage of the Tsukuyomi Shrine, so the other children around feared me and treated me like some monster.

Or rather, they feared me like some sort of G.o.d, and didn’t try to approach me.

I would call out to them, but they would ignore me and run away.

Sometimes, they would even throw stones at me.

Knocked down and in tears, I would return crying to the shrine…

And of course, my mother would be there waiting for me.

My mother was a strict person, worthy of fear.

But she was also a proud, beautiful, amazing person worthy of respect.

I loved my mother.

I wanted to become like my mother.

As I came home sobbing, my mother would be there in her usual miko garb, without any hint of a smile on her face.

— Sasami.

She always sounded more sad than angry.

— A Tsukuyomi Miko must not make any friends.

She would stroke my head and give me an awkward hug.

It took us less than an hour to finish eating.

My brother straddled his bicycle which he had parked outside, and I clung to the bike behind him. It was a two-person riding style I had become quite used to.

It was still February, so the world was darkening around us.

The moon lingered overhead, looking like a ma.s.s of entrails in the sky.

“Ahh, I’m so full.”

We had just eaten, so both of us were moving pretty sluggishly.

I sat on the luggage rack on the back of the bike, feeling a light breeze tickle my cheeks.

“But, oniichan… I know I usually don’t eat too much, but you ate pretty little today too.”

“I had a huge eating contest with Tsurugi-sensei and the others at lunch… also, just watching Sasami-san so happy is enough to fill my belly.”

“Hmm, well that doesn’t cost any money, so that’s good I guess.”

Now that I thought back, there was an incident in the rotary sushi when my brother got jealous that I was talking so much about Kagami and jumped on the table half-naked, putting sushi around his nipples and asking me in a deranged voice to “Eat me! I’m the one who can love Sasami-san the most!”

Ugh, my brother is such an idiot…

He should just go die.

“Hm?”

As I talked with my brother like I usually did, I suddenly felt a chill.

“Hmm…?”

We had already left the bustling shopping district and were riding through the spa.r.s.ely-populated residential district.

The streetlamps illuminated our way eerily like a row of jack-o-lanterns. And I felt that something was off.

The town looked just as plain and normal as it always did.

But…

I smelled blood.

“What’s wrong, Sasami-san?”

My brother might not have any ability to detect spiritual phenomena, but he was still very sensitive to my own changes in mood. He quickly brought the bike to a screeching halt, and looked at me with worry on his face.

“Maybe we shouldn’t have gotten on the bike right after eating? Are you feeling a bit sick?”

“No, it’s just… oniichan?!”

I suddenly felt a bit dizzy, got off the bike, and almost leapt to face the side.

n.o.body would usually give this normal town scenery a second look. But today, enshrouded in twilight…

Illuminated by the streetlights and the strangely red-glowing moon…

–

Was sitting a blood-strained Kagami.

–

She was squatting down in the shadow of a street lamp.

Her black hair, pale skin, and school uniform… all of it was stained here and there the color of blood.

Her long, labored breaths turned white in the chilled air, belying her exhaustion.

I blinked my eyes again and again.

I had no idea what was going on… but this wasn’t normal at all.

“Kagami?!”

I yelled out. Kagami seemed to notice me and lifted her head.

“Ahh-…”

This situation was just so unnatural.

“I was sleeping.”

She said the same thing she always said.

I quickly rushed up to Kagami and reached out to her.

“Are you okay, Kagami?! What happened?! Those wounds look serious!”

“Oh h.e.l.lo, Sasami-san… how strange to see you here. Right, you do live around here, don’t you? Why are you walking around all alone at this hour? A girl your age shouldn’t be-”

“Kagami-san?!”

At that point, my brother also came running over. Kagami blinked a few times.

“Oh h.e.l.lo, sensei… ah, Sasami-san is still in her uniform? Are you on the way home from school?”

Why was she acting like nothing was wrong?

“It doesn’t matter what we’re doing… Kagami, are you okay? W-We need to get you to a hospital… oniichan, what should we do?! Kagami is…”

“No need to worry about me.”

Kagami didn’t even pay me a single glance as she unsteadily got back up to her feet.

She clearly had wounds all over her body, but her face was still perfectly calm.

“Unlike you, we’re built to be a bit more durable, so these wounds will heal soon enough. Ah, it’s already so late… I have to get back or neesan will worry.”

“Hey, Kagami?!”

Kagami brushed me to the side and tried to walk off down the road.

Of course, I couldn’t just leave her alone like that, and grabbed her by the hand.

“What happened, Kagami? Let me know… we’re friends, aren’t we?”

She couldn’t have possibly gotten those wounds from a simple trip or fall.

“What does this have to do with you?”

Kagami sounded irritated as she spat that out while rubbing away a few bloodstains on her body with the back of her hand.

“Also… wasn’t the agreement that we would be friends only during school? You want to learn how to be a ‘normal’ human, and I’m just someone to practice with, correct? I’m not sure what I misunderstood about those terms, but really it’d be annoying for me if you get too clingy.”

Kagami knocked my hand away and swept a hand through her hair, looking rather annoyed.

“I didn’t have a choice but to accept you as my friend because neesan told me to. But other than that, I would appreciate it if you keep our interaction to a minimum. This is just a piece of advice… but if you would like to live a ‘normal’ life, then you’d best not become involved with people like us.”

She was right.

I was just a normal human who housed the power of the Supreme G.o.d.

And she… was different.

She wasn’t misunderstanding anything…

“Kagami.”

I looked down at the floor, holding back tears, and just called her name… like some small child, I just called her name.

Kagami didn’t answer, but just turned her back on me and began to slowly walk away.

— Ahaha. Guess I spoiled the mood a little, huh?

— Sorry for talking to you when you were in a bad spot.

— Bye bye. I’ll see ya at school tomorrow.

I should’ve just said something carefree like that.

“… Kagami!”

But all I could do was shout her name.

And like that, Kagami left.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) The word is p.r.o.nounced as “red moon,” but the kanji used literally means “moon the color of life.” I decided to go with the p.r.o.nunciation for the translation here.

(2) For those of you who might be confused, in authentic j.a.panese sushi restaurants the wasabi comes already put on the fish. Usually, you don’t have to add any more to your soy sauce.