Chapter 2: Winter (Front Half)

Sasami-san @ Ganbaranai

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VOLUME 3

I saw a world colored silver.

Spring break happened in March… but even so, it was rare to see such large amounts of snow in this area.

You could almost say it was unnatural.

The Yagami sisters were walking along in that silver world where everything was made hazy by the acc.u.mulating snow.

The youngest Yagami sister, Tama, was twirling around without an umbrella while going, “waaii~~ waaii~~.” But then, she glanced up in my direction.

“……?”

Tama c.o.c.ked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes like some kind of hoodlum, staring up at me.

“Is something wrong, Tama?”

Kagami was only wearing her school uniform despite the fact it was snowing… at any rate, she sent Tama a puzzled look.

“Mmm, might be just Tama’s imagination.” Tama seemed a bit troubled, but then she opened her mouth up wide and stuck out her tongue, starting to catch the falling snow. Not very hygienic, that…

“Stop that. That’s filthy.”

Kagami narrowed her eyes at her little sister’s strange behavior and scolded her, acting quite like an older sister.

“Also, pay attention to where you are walking. I suppose there will not be many cars on the streets with the weather like this… but you’ll become nothing but a huge eyesore if you start wandering into the middle of the road with that huge, obstructive body of yours.”

Kagami poked her head out from her j.a.panese-print umbrella and looked up at the sky, which continued to endlessly send down snow.

“But, this is quite awful weather… why are we getting this kind of weather here and in this season? Something feels quite unnatural about all of this… it’s possible this is the workings of an alteration. Perhaps it’s just a spot of unnatural weather though… but maybe…”

“Funyaa.” Kagami seemed a bit tired after saying that much out loud, and she yawned.

“Sasami-san possesses the power of the Supreme G.o.d, and she is quite depressed right now, so it’s possible her state is having an influence on the world. According to legend, when the Sun G.o.ddess Amaterasu fell into depression, she shut herself in the Ama-no-Iwato, and during that time, the world was plunged into darkness… it became winter. Amaterasu had that kind of disposition, so in other words… gfahh?!”

Tama’s s...o...b..ll hit Kagami smack dab in the middle of the face, breaking her out of her serious thoughts.

“Kyahahaha~~”

Tama let out a triumphant, innocent smile as she began to roll up another s...o...b..ll with her mittened hands.

“Kagami-nee worries way too much~~! It’s snow! Tama has never seen this much snow except on the TV! Let’s have a s...o...b..ll fight! And then, Tama wants to make a snowman!”

Tama held her two hands in front of her looking at the snow gathering and melting in her hands like she had found some treasure.

“Tama loves the snow! It’s cold and makes all the warm things go away, but it’s pretty! Tama doesn’t think it’s good if it snows every day, but it’s nice sometimes! It’s nice when it piles up! Nature is so great… just like when the world turned all into chocolate once, it’s like the entire world is made of shaved ice now!”

Tama continued to spout out nonsensical things, before she suddenly stood stiff as a rod.

“Ah…. fuwaah…”

She suddenly put her hand to her mouth, and her shoulders began to tremble.

“Sneeze!”

“… Eh? What was that just now?”

“Sneeze! Sneeze!”

“T-Tama, your sneezes literally sound like the word ‘sneeze’? Normally sneezes sound like ‘achoo’ or something similar to that, do they not…?”

“Hm? Tama doesn’t say anything like that… hnn… hah… sneeze!”

“Funaa~~…”

Kagami’s frigid expression melted like snow into a gentle smile, and she suddenly seemed enraptured by her little sister as Tama wiped off the snot which now began to dribble from her nose.

“When you sneeze, you sound almost like an animal… it’s quite wonderful… it’s as if I’ve found a strange creature… suddenly Tama seems a lot more cute…”

“? Tama is cute? Ehehe… kyahh?!”

Kagami held a s...o...b..ll with both hands and began to fiercely hurl them at her little sister.

“More! Sneeze more, Tama! Fall prey to all these s...o...b..a.l.l.s, catch a cold, and then cry out in that cute voice again!”

“Ow! Ow owow?! s...o...b..a.l.l.s hurt more than Tama thought! Kagami-nee is really strong so stop throwing those s...o...b..a.l.l.s so hard! Remember Pearl Harbor!”

As the two sisters played, someone crept up behind them…

–

“Ufufu. You two look like you’re having lots of fun together~~.”

–

It was a pretty girl who looked like she came straight out of a kid’s anime. She spoke in a kind, pleasant voice.

She sounded like a princess from a fairy tale.

“……” “……”

Kagami and Tama stopped kyakya-ufufu-ing all over the place and looked at the person standing behind them. Kagami had a deathly unpleasant look on her face whereas Tama seemed a bit at a loss.

It was the eldest Yagami sister, Tsurugi.

But she was acting strange.

This midget teacher’s trademark was acting like a sketchy middle-aged man while looking like a small kid… but right now she was completely acting like a child.

She tottered back and forth while she walked, and the normal hint of deliberate mischievousness was missing from her face. She was bundled up warm and her breath turned white in front of her. She honestly seemed like a puppy you’d just want to protect.

Tsurugi didn’t seem to mind the suspicious looks she was getting from her sisters and instead just looked at the snow with her eyes glittering. “Snow is kind… it sucks in and makes everything go away… like hatred…” she began to mumble.

Tama seemed a bit frightened as she turned towards Kagami with teary eyes.

“U-Umm, Kagami-nee…”

“Don’t mind her, Tama. I would like to believe this is a pa.s.sing illness… so let’s leave her be.”

Kagami looked a bit unsettled as she reached out and pulled on her older sister’s cheeks, almost as if testing whether or not she was real.

“Neesan has been strange ever since she followed the Ame-no-Murak.u.mo back from the Underworld… perhaps something went wrong when she revived in this plane, or maybe something happened while she was trapped in the Underworld…?”

“I-Is Tsurugi-nee broken? Maybe she’ll get fixed if Tama hits her?”

“I’m not quite sure what the cause of this bug in her programming is, so we should refrain from shocking her in any way until we diagnose the problem. It’s not like she’s causing harm to anyone other than being annoying so we should just watch her for the moment.”

Kagami let out a deep sigh and quickly began to walk.

“More importantly… we have to resolve the Sasami-san issue right now. There are still many details I am not aware of… so for now I’ve invited sensei to a family restaurant, and we will talk over it there.”

Kagami pointed to a family restaurant sign which now was visible in front of them. It seemed the restaurant was still open in the middle of all this snow.

Tama and Tsuguri both snuggled up to Kagami.

“Tama is hungry~~. Hey, Kagami-nee, Tama wants to eat a hamburger!”

“Kagami-chan, I want some omelette rice!”

“Shut up…”

Kagami cruelly shook off her two sisters and rapidly walked in a straight line towards the restaurant.

“For now, I would like to find a warm place to rest. If I accidentally fall asleep out here, I will just end up freezing to death, and there’s nothing more troublesome to me than not being able to indulge in my own lethargy.”

There was so much snow falling that it was actually piling up outside, so it was no surprise that there were few customers in the restaurant.

Her cheeks a bit flushed at the artificial warmth coming from the heater, Kagami brushed off the snow from Tama’s hair and clothes while the youngest Yagami sister made a racket all over the place.

“Welcome! Table for three?”

Kagami looked at the waitress who had come to greet them and spoke curtly.

“My name is Yagami, and I am here for a meeting. With sensei… umm, a man named Tsukuyomi, who should have arrived already. He’s a suspicious-looking character who is always covering his face…”

“Over here~~.”

Ah, looks like the waitress understood.

The waitress began leading the sisters through the restaurant with her best waitress smile on her face. Tama smiled widely at all the nice smells floating through the air and began to talk loudly.

“Howawawa… it’s so waaaarm~~. It’s too cold outside, and Tama thought she would catch a cold… snow is pretty scary!”

“You should have just taken an umbrella. I offered you one, but you were set on ‘making friends with the snow’ or some ridiculous thing like that. Also, stop making such a fuss in the middle of the restaurant please.”

“Kagami-nee is always complaining~~. Tama’s ears are about to fall off~~. Ah, there he is! Kagami-nee, over here over here! It’s paparin!!”

Tama seemed to completely ignore Kagami’s instructions to stop raising a fuss and waved both her hands frantically.

She was looking at… a seat in the smoking section, and the same seat that the waitress was now pointing towards.

The seat was shrouded in grey smoke, with my brother in the middle of it all. He was sprawled out over the table as if completely dead.

Kagami walked up to the table. “Uwah, he’s dead,” she spat out with a displeased look on her face.

There was an ashtray next to my brother, and it was filled with a mountain of cigarette b.u.t.ts.

“S-Sensei? Are you okay?”

My brother looked so worn down that even Kagami seemed genuinely worried.

Kagami shook my brother by the shoulder, and he began to groan with his face still flat on the table.

“… It’s been thirty-four hours since I’ve talked with Sasami-san… it’s been seventy-six hours since I’ve touched Sasami-san… it’s been one hundred and twenty-seven hours since I’ve taken a bath with Sasami-san… Sasami-san… Sasami-san…”

It was like watching a drug addict going through withdrawal.

“Uwah…”

Kagami seemed completely repulsed by my brother. At that point, my brother seemed to finally notice that he wasn’t alone, and he slowly raised his head (still managing to hide his face with both his hands) and gazed at Kagami.

“Sasami… san… Sasami-san… Sasami-san…?”

“U-Uhh… unfortunately, I am not Sasami-san.”

Kagami and I had similar physiques, so my brother seemed to be hallucinating that I was there. He suddenly leapt up… and enveloped Kagami with a hug!

“Sasami-san! I wanted to see you so bad!”

“Gyah?!”

“Sasamisansasamisansasamisan! Sasami-san would never throw her poor oniichan away, would she?! A-Aaaa… this is Sasami-san’s smell, Sasami-san’s warmth, the feel of Sasami-san’s skin… Sasami-san I love you! I love you!”

“Gyah!! Gyah!! Gyah!!”

Held in my brother’s death grip, Kagami tried desperately to push him off but to no avail.

Seeing her sister like that, Tama put one hand on her hip and pointed with the other, a smug look on her face.

“See? See~~? Kagami-nee… you shouldn’t make such a fuss in the middle of the restaurant, right? Right~~? And you’re the one who scolded Tama, hmph! Kagami-nee, you’re such a bad girl! Ehehe~~.”

“Stop being an idiot and he-… help me!”

Kagami ruthlessly brought her elbow down on my brother’s head and then backed away, shaking as if she had just met an axe murderer in a dark alleyway.

“S-Sensei… y-you idiot…”

She was even tearing up a bit.

“Tama will sit next to Paparin!”Tama shouted right next to Kagami and then plopped herself down in her seat. Tsurugi had already sat down in the seat opposite my brother and was gazing at a menu.

Everyone was just doing their own thing, weren’t they…?

Kagami drooped her shoulders before going up to Tama and beginning to take off her coat for her.

“You don’t have to wear all this heavy clothing indoors, right? The restaurant is heated too, so you might feel too warm in this. Also, your table manners are still quite awful, so you might get this dirty… neesan, you can handle your clothes by yourself, right?”

“Ufufu, of course!”

Tsurugi began to take her clothes off like it was the most natural thing in the world. And by her clothes, I meant all her clothes.

It wasn’t just her coat… Tsurugi was also casting off all the things that you really should be wearing to be a functional member of polite society.

She was left topless.

“Hey you! Stop that!”

Kagami had been preoccupied with Tama, but now she ran over to Tsurugi and smacked her in the head.

“I tell you so often to stop doing things that will get you arrested! Also, you’re supposed to be bugging out right now, so I let down my guard, but… why is it that your perverted side is still fully intact?!”

“Kagami-chan… I have been thinking about this. I feel that everyone has one important part of themselves that defines their very being. For me, that part is probably the perverted part…”

“Neesan, that goes past the realm of ‘unfortunate’ and into the realm of ‘pitiful’…”

“… Anyways, shall we order something? Kagami-san… please sit down as well…”

All the noise seemed to have brought my brother back to his senses, and he called out weakly to Kagami.

“Yaay~~.”

Tama opened a menu with her usual childlike innocence, and then began tugging on my brother’s clothes.

“Paparin, what’s this word?”

“Ah, that one’s ‘clam.’ And this is ‘flounder.’ And here you have ‘abalone.’”

“Funyaa.”

Kagami was applying a wet towel to her forehead, cooling herself down, before opening a menu herself and beginning to read.

“It’s quite pleasant to not have to cook myself, but for some reason it also makes me feel slightly lonely…”

“Paparin paparin! Tama wants hamburger! The hamburger is Tama’s! Ham Tama!”

“Please calm down, Tama-san. Ah, I think the kid’s meal comes with hamburger and also a toy. How about going with that one?”

“Howawawa… Tama wants that toy… but Paparin, for some reason when Tama orders a kid’s meal the waitress people tell Tama she’s an adult and don’t let her…”

Well, that’s not surprising.

“Tama-chan, I’ll order the kid’s meal for you.”

Tsurugi gave Tama a kind smile.

“But in return, order the omelette rice for me, okay? Deal? And then we can switch. I look like an elementary schooler after all, so they’ll probably let me order the kid’s meal.”

This was strange. In the past, Tsurugi had always gotten angry when people treated her like a child…

Eventually, everyone ordered what they wanted.

“Well then, allow me to summarize the current situation.”

Kagami teetered sleepily from side to side as she got the conversation rolling.

“Right now, we can broadly separate our current problems into two main issues.”

Kagami held up two fingers, as if she was giving the peace sign.

“Of course, there’s the possibility that these two issues are connected and originate from the same source, but let’s shelve that thought for now. First, there’s the problem I do not really care much about right now: why neesan’s programming seems to be bugging out.”

“Me?”

Tsurugi sipped at her cold water and cutely c.o.c.ked her head to the side.

After that, she began wriggling her body around as if struggling against something.

“Hnngh, Kagami-chan… you’re still saying I’m broken or bugging out or things like that? My personality has always been like this, hasn’t it?”

“I will just ignore her annoying questions for the time being. In any case, allow me to make a few conjectures… it is possible that neesan faltered in some way when she returned to this plane from the Underworld, and some type of disorder emerged in her psyche. Also, there is the possibility that the Tsukuyomi priestess polluted and distorted her psyche in some way…”

Kagami grumbled as she looked at her sister who was just acting slightly off. She had a bit of worry in her eyes.

“At any rate, I am convinced that neesan is like this because of the events from the other day. It’s like she has switched places with someone else, or more like, she has lost her memories… or that she has regressed to a childlike state… that is what it feels like, at least.”

“Was Tsurugi-sensei like this in the past?”

My brother asked that with a confused look on his face, but Kagami shook her head.

“I do not know. Both Tama and I have only known neesan for a few years… what things were like before then are a complete mystery.”

Kagami seemed a bit annoyed at the situation.

“I did ask her about this, and it seems that neesan has retained all her memories and her personality, but only from the time when she was the Supreme G.o.d Amaterasu. That is why I said this feels almost like memory loss. It’s almost as if the majority of her memories have completely vanished.”

Memory loss.

This was the Tsurugi from a long time ago… from before she had rescued Kagami from that evil organization, from before she had made Tama to serve as a G.o.d of the next generation, from before she had christened the three of them the Yagami sisters.

“I see…”

“I’m going to go grab some drinks~~.” Tsurugi probably headed off to the drink counter since she couldn’t really contribute much to this conversation. My brother watched her leave with strong emotions in his eyes and began to mutter.

“I see… Tsurugi-sensei was that innocent back then… it feels a bit strange since I’m too used to Tsurugi acting like a sketchy middle-aged man, but she seems quite harmless like this, or maybe more like just a normal, cute girl.”

“Well, in truth she’s an old woman who has lived for a very long time, so it’s natural that her experiences would have warped her personality. Although, according to the myths, the Supreme G.o.d Amaterasu was temperamental, easy to offend, and spoiled by her relatives, so even in the olden days she acted like a young woman.”

“Hm? What what? Are we talking about me?”

Tsurugi came back carrying a tray with four drinks on it in her tiny hands, and gave the people at the table a smile.

“Here you go everyone. I brought back a few different kinds of drinks, so just pick the one you like~~.”

“……”

Kagami seemed like she was in a sour mood, but still picked up the drink nearest to her.

“Well, compared to the undisciplined, foul-mouthed, bad-mannered neesan I’m used to, it’s true this new neesan can certainly be described as more ‘cute.’ But in the end, I have to say I prefer th- pffuuhh?!?!”

Kagami spat out a mouthful of her drink.

“What a terrible, awful flavor! Neesan, what in the world did you put in this drink?!”

“Ahahaha~~. Kagami-chan got the grand prize! That’s my special patented ‘Tsurugi Blend,’ brewed and tested with diligent care to taste worse than vomit! Fear its power, ahaha~!”

“You d.a.m.n hag! I regret ever feeling worried about you… ugh! You lost your memory but that mischievous brat inside you is still alive and well, isn’t she?! I’m going to punch your face in, so be sure to stand still right there!”

“Fuhaha! Kagami-chan, you’ll need much more training if you want to take your older sister on! Take this, the Supreme G.o.d Amaterasu’s super secret ultimate skill… Ama-no-Iwato!”

Tsurugi ducked impolitely under the desk, evading Kagami’s attempts to get to her.

There was no evil intent in her behavior; they were just pure, innocent acts.

“You little… ugh.”

Kagami wiped her mouth with a napkin while she grumbled menacingly.

“Well, neesan has always been a clever one, so I am confident she will figure something out even without us worrying about it. Her situation also doesn’t seem to be too urgent… so to be frank, it is quite low on the priorities list.”

“Ahhh, Kagami-chan, so you are worried about me, aren’t you? I believed it to be true… Kagami-chan is truly a nice girl.”

Tsurugi’s eyes sparkled as she sat up on her knees and hugged Kagami around the head, stroking it.

Kagami didn’t look too happy with that and pushed Tsurugi off before changing the subject.

“More importantly, there is a much larger issue at present… and I am talking about Sasami-san.”

The waitress brought everyone their food, and the conversation continued as everyone dug in.

“Please take a look at this.”

Kagami picked up a gla.s.s of cold water before casually spilling it on the table.

The transparent water didn’t go flying everywhere, but instead formed into a perfect circle.

And something appeared in the middle of that round, mirror-like ma.s.s of water.

It was a bird’s eye view of a city.

“This is the city we live in, Ame-no-Nuboko City. (1) The snow may make things difficult to make out, but this is Konohana Sakuya Academy over here, and here is where we live, the Corpse Ahakihara, and this is sensei and Sasami-san’s home… over here.”

Kagami pointed to the city view shown in the water.

But when she pointed to our home in that water… all you could see was darkness.

A huge, black circle was hanging over our home.

The fact that everything else in the image looked like a normal town made this mountain-sized black circle all the more surreal.

“Wahh! It’s so round! And so black!”

Tama just blurted out her impressions as is.

“It is, isn’t it?” Kagami brushed aside Tama’s comment effortlessly and continued.

“According to neesan, this black circle here is the Ama-no-Iwato. It is something like a barrier that forms when the Supreme G.o.d Amaterasu cuts off all ties with the outside world and shuts herself in.”

Everyone turned to look at Tsurugi.

“Umm…”

Seeing everyone’s eyes turned towards her, Tsurugi flushed a bit red and spoke.

“The Supreme G.o.d can influence the very foundation of the world itself, and so, when she cuts off her connection with the world, a barrier forms in the s.p.a.ce between her and the world. That is the Ama-no-Iwato… it’s a manifestation of the Supreme G.o.d’s desire to see nothing else in the world outside, and to have no dealing with that world anymore.”

“This is the ultimate barrier formed from the power of the Supreme G.o.d. So, theoretically it is impossible for the G.o.ds of this land to break through it. It is also impossible to tell what is going on inside of it from the outside.”

Kagami continued where Tsurugi left off and sighed.

“Although we cannot even be sure if this barrier was formed out of Sasami-san’s free will or not, even if she does possess the power of the Supreme G.o.d, all we can say is that this is a sign the Supreme G.o.d has abandoned her duty to maintain the world; thus there is a danger that problematic alterations will run rampant and throw the world into chaos.”

Problematic alterations like this seriously unnatural snow…

“Because of this, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t curious about what Sasami-san is doing right now… so I would like to break through the Ama-no-Iwato and take a look inside. It is not too unusual for Sasami-san to shut herself in, but if she does not take care of the world, we may be looking at a catastrophe waiting to happen.”

“Sasami-san said that she only needed a break before coming back, so I wanted to just leave her be… but it’s quite lonely without her.”

My brother mumbled and then c.o.c.ked his head to the side.

“But that Ama-no-Iwato is the ultimate barrier, isn’t it? How exactly are you planning to break through it to see inside? I tried to break in with my bicycle many times, but I would always. .h.i.t an invisible wall and get thrown back…”

“Sensei is quite an incredible person to be trying to break the Ama-no-Iwato with a bicycle. I suppose ignorance is bliss… in any case, normal methods will not make a dent in that barrier.”

Kagami stood up out of her seat as she continued to speak.

“Is everybody finished with their meals? If you have all had your energy replenished, then I would like to begin immediately. Umm…”

In a show of poor manners, Kagami climbed on top of the table.

“What?! What’s going on?! Is Kagami-chan telling us that we’ll be having the inside of her skirt for dessert?! Just the thought makes my heart jump! Thank you G.o.d for this feast!”

“Neesan, shut up. Everyone, please come up onto the table with me.”

Kagami’s voice was very cool and collected, so everyone obediently went up onto the table.

Of course, the waitress came over to warn these rude customers to get off the table, but Kagami glared at her. Maybe there was also an alteration involved, but instead of yelling the waitress just gave everyone a smile and walked away.

“It would be troublesome to try and travel through the snow, so I would like to use this water mirror as an entrance to begin our invasion into the Ama-no-Iwato.”

Kagami pointed to the pool of water on the table (the “water mirror”) which was still showing the image of the town.

“This will be a rather violent trip, so I urge everyone to hold on so we do not get separated.”

“Okaay~~.”

Tama gave an energetic response and latched tightly onto Kagami’s arm.

“… Sensei, you as well.”

Kagami tried to act casual and reached out a hand towards my brother.

“Understood!” My brother energetically took that hand.

“Funyaa.” Kagami seemed satisfied for some reason. But then…

“H-Hmm? Am I too late? What should I do…?”

Both of Kagami’s hands were now taken, so Tsurugi didn’t know what to do.

“Tsurugi-nee, Tama has a hand free!”

Trying to be a good girl, Tama reached her palm out to her oldest sister, who had been left out.

“Thank you, Tama-chan!” Tsurugi smiled and then grabbed tight onto Tama’s torso, diving right under her clothes while her breathing grew more and more ragged.

“Hyaauunn?!”

Tama seemed surprised.

“W-What is it, Tsurugi-nee? Aren’t we going to hold hands? Kyahaha, that tiiickles~~! Ahhnn… Tsurugi-nee, stop moving so much under my clothes~~…”

“A-Amazing! You’re so soft and warm… it’s like my entire face is being enveloped in kindness! Tama-chan, you’re seriously amazing! You have the ripeness and s.e.xual appeal of an adult woman, but the sensitivity of an elementary schooler! To think that heaven existed so close to me!”

“Neesan, please shut up or go die.”

Tsurugi was wriggling around under Tama’s clothes and holding her two bulges up with her head. Kagami glared at her as if she was looking at something dirty.

Tsurugi gripped her fists tight even as she sighed in pure bliss.

“Don’t you worry, Kagami-chan! You don’t have to be jealous! I’m close enough to fully protect Kagami-chan’s extremely refined body as well!”

“Neesan, why exactly won’t you die? Or rather, why are you alive anyway?”

One of Tsurugi’s greedy hands reached out and searched for Kagami’s b.r.e.a.s.t.s as Kagami let out an extremely resigned sigh.

“Well, I suppose it’s not a bad thing that you are so energetic. We will begin our invasion now, so please refrain from doing anything idiotic. It will feel like sinking into water, so when I give you the sign, please close your eyes and hold your breath.”

Kagami gave those instructions, and then issued the command.

The group leaned forwards precariously, like they were about to leap into the small puddle of water…

“Well, here we go… one, two, three!”

–

Splash!

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES

(1) The Ame-no-Nuhoko is the spear used in j.a.panese mythology to create the first land on the Earth.

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