My eyes follow the specks of dust floating in the sunlight coming through my window.
Yesterday's events play on repeat in my mind. While Chiye herself is drifting towards the heavenly realm, I have to help the lunar princess who took her body, to complete her tasks on true love. It sounds so incredibly absurd, that I want to close my eyes and continue sleeping. Hopefully, the next time I wake up everything was just my fantastic imagination. As if some fairy tale like princess from ancient times really took over Chiye's body of all things, pushing her into some other realm. On top of that it is also unknown what that even exactly means.
There are too many what if scenarios. The thought of failing to meet the deadline until the spring festival makes me feel anxious since we don't have any information on how long Chiye still has until she reaches the heavenly realm. I want to see Chiye during the festivities.
Apparently, Airi retained all memories from Chiye, therefore it should pose no difficulty for her to blend into Chiye's life.
This notion comes with a sour aftertaste.
No one should have the audacity or power to take over anyone's life.
Not even a divine spirit.
My eyes wander to the drawings above my desk. Colourful scribbles of animals, people and landscapes decorate the otherwise dull, white wall.
There is one that shows a boy and a girl on a beach.
"I want to see the ocean one day."
It was a particularly hot summer day when we were laying on grandma's porch. The cicadas were chirping loudly and the heat was stifling.
"We should go when we are older."
"Do you promise?" Chiye sprung up and hovered her face above mine.
"I promise."
She smiled and fell back next to me.
"We will go to the ocean one day." She hummed happily.
Now that we are older, we still haven't seen the ocean together. There was just never a possibility to leave the mountains and go to a beach.
Though, there were probably enough opportunities to do so. We just never went and now it almost feels futile to even think about it.
I'm not even sure if I can get Chiye back.
Chiye's humming resonates in my ears and I jump up from my bed.
Getting Chiye back is the only available option. There are no other scenarios. I will get her back for the spring festival, watch her dance and we will laugh about this entire incident.
In the meantime, Airi will normally continue with Chiye's obligations so that her parents and the other temple servants won't notice the replacement. All the while trying to free her schedule, to have more time for the tasks.
The problem is the tasks themselves. According to the tale, Airi lacks an understanding of love. She graves it endlessly, without really comprehending the emotion. She just wants to be loved.
Ironically, it's me who has to help this divine spirit understand love.
At the same time this explains why I'm able to see the red threads of fate in the first place. But it also creates more questions regarding the details of this entire situation.
However this is not important now.
In which circumstances can my ability be of help to make someone understand what genuine love is? The threads have one sole purpose: to show who is fated to be a pair.
It doesn't explain how or what reasons define destined lovers. I, for myself, am not even really believing in this concept. So, how can I teach Airi something that I don't even know or understand myself?
"Do you have a clue on what your tasks could be?" I carry some baskets with decorations over with Airi to a smaller building. It's only the early hours, but there are already some visitors on the temple grounds.
"Unfortunately, not. I tried to mingle with all kinds of people and watched as their relationship developed, bloomed and ended. Some were tragic. Others superficial. In the end, I still didn't understand love." She shrugs her shoulders and slides the door open.
"The only thing that I can think of is helping those unable to be with their fated partner."
Airi places the baskets onto the shelf and turns to me.
"We should look for a fitting case then. I was able to get some free time in the afternoon."
There is a weird attachment between us, since she still looks and partly sounds like Chiye as well as her retaining all of Chiye's memories. It's the subtle difference on how Airi behaves that I can draw a line between us, but it still gives an odd feeling.
"Alright, I will come pick you up in the afternoon. We could go to the city centre and observe some people."
Airi closes the door behind us and walks back towards the main temple. I follow behind her with a small distance. It's only minimal, but Airi surely walks in a slightly more sophisticated manner.
I wonder how it must have been for her all these years unknowingly trying to solve her task without a chance of success. So long until she even lost her human form, waiting to receive more information.
I pick up my pace to walk beside her.
"What about your parents? According to the tale, you have been waiting for another letter from your parents."
She stops and turns towards me.
"It has been a while since the last messenger travelled between both realms." She tries to maintain a neutral expression, but her eyes reflect great disappointment. Chiye has never shown such emotion, not even implying it. So it feels strange to see it now on her face.
"What does that mean? Is it impossible to even send a message during a full moon?"
"It has gotten entirely impossible. There are simply no divine messengers anymore. The humans have hunted them for centuries, until not even one was left. Stubbornly believing that their divinity will pass on by consuming the messengers, they relentlessly hunted them. In the end all lunar messengers were eradicated." Her expression changes into anger and she turns away.
"What about your parents' sadness? Weren't they supposed to bring disorder?"
Airi bows down politely to welcome some passerby visitors and waits until they are out of hearing distance to answer me.
"The tale made it sound more dramatic, but the disorder they cause nowadays shows through the numerous earthquakes and tsunamis."
Indeed, that may explain why our country in particular was haunted by these catastrophes.
I nod and she continues to walk.
"Chiye! Yuu!"
We both turn around and see both of our friends approaching us. Ninako and Kyouta have been our friends since elementary school. We exchange a brief surprised glance at each other. None of us expected their visit. ''What a coincidence that you are here as well, Yuu! We wanted to check on Chiye before the festival.'' Kyouta wraps his arms around my shoulder. "We should hang out together if Chiye has time after the preparations."
"Oh! We should definitely do that, when will you be free?" Ninako excitingly takes Airi by her hands.
Ninako's red thread on her pinky finger sways around by the sudden movement. It is unmistakably connected to Kyouta. The thing is that they are not a couple and worse than that, Ninako has a boyfriend. They have been together for four years already. Happily at that. Hence, I didn't feel the need to act.
It was one of the reasons why I ultimately decided to stay out of other people's relationships. It is perfectly possible to be in a good relationship with someone who is not your soulmate. Who am I to judge about that?
Having both Ninako and Kyouta growing up close with me made it more difficult to intervene in their decisions. I take a quick glance at Airi.
What if this is an opportunity to complete her tasks on understanding love? Helping those two soulmates to connect with each other while also having to end one happy relationship?
What if both Ninako and Kyouta will miss out on real true love? Bound by fate and their souls. Even if Ninako is in a happy relationship with Ren, it wouldn't be as fulfilling as being in a relationship with her genuine soulmate. Same goes for Ren. Ninako isn't his fated partner.
So, wouldn't we do them a long term favour?
As if she had heard my thoughts, Airi glances back at me questioning.
Though, I haven't made up my mind about Ninako and Kyouta yet, I subtly nod.
"I'll be free this afternoon, let's go for some coffee and dessert." Airi answers happily and swings her hands with Ninako keeping up with acting like Chiye.
"You should have told us that you were here for the festival as well." Kyouta jokingly punches my arm. He is the only other person who is close to me besides Chiye. Naturally, I want him to be happy. But in this case it might be more difficult than only having to end another relationship. There is no point in putting in any effort, if their feelings aren't mutual. What I've learned from seeing the red threads is that being connected doesn't necessarily force the people to be in love with each other. In their case it's even more complicated. I'm sure that Kyouta does feel affection or even love towards Ninako, but it is clouded by guilt.
It was before Ninako became our friend. Kyouta was a child with just too much energy. He would do a lot of mischievous things. It was the last day of our summer vacation and before we would then start our second grade. We played by the river, throwing rocks into the water from a small hill trying to see who could throw the farthest.
At some point Kyouta started to throw the rocks with less power, so that they wouldn't land in the river but instead on the path below us. Chiye and I tried to prevent him from throwing more rocks on the path since it could hit people trying to walk past. Feeling more agitated he would continue to throw the rocks until it finally happened. He hit a girl on the head. She fell over and started to cry, holding the left side of her bloody forehead. Chiye and I ran downhill to the girl, but Kyouta froze up and wouldn't move. Luckily, her parents were nearby and took her to the hospital. We went home quietly and the next day in class our homeroom teacher introduced us to our new classmate: Ninako. Her forehead was wrapped in bandages. It was the girl that Kyouta hit with the stone.
Due to her bandages and her shy nature, she wasn't able to connect with the class and remained isolated for the entire week. During the weekend we met at the temple and Chiye announced that she wanted to befriend Ninako. Kyouta was stubbornly against it, probably also terrified of the repercussions of his action. That didn't stop Chiye, so for the following week we approached Ninako. She was incredibly thankful and was able to connect really easily with Chiye whose nature is generally warm-hearted and approachable. I also befriended her since her shy attitude would match my rather quiet personality in contrast to Chiye who tended to be more lively. Kyouta had a hard time, but eventually joined us as well.
At some point the bandages were removed and Ninako retained two scars. One in between her left eyebrow and the other on her hairline above it.
It took two years after that incident until Kyouta overcame himself and asked Ninako why she didn't tell her parents about him being responsible for her scars. She answered very calmly that on that day she wanted to join us since her family would move around a lot, she was ever able to make any friendships. She didn't want to cause any issues with us in the future, so she remained silent about the incident and told her parents that she fell down on some rocks herself.
We became her first friends. Though, the scars greatly influenced her self confidence a lot, making her more shy and trying to avoid making eye contact with other people.
Since then Kyouta took it upon himself to make up for his wrongdoing and gave his all to make her happy. They would become an inseparable pair, he followed her everywhere. But it was stained with his guilt and his sense of responsibility. Which is probably why their relationship never developed further than friendship. Eventually, Ninako met Ren after we graduated from high school. He was good to her and made her feel less self conscious about her scars. Kyouta remained by her side as much as allowed ever since.
"We'll see each other later then."
Ninako and Kyouta leave the temple grounds and we watch their figures disappear while they go downstairs after passing the gate.
"It's probably unconscious but he always stays at her left side." Airi looks up to me and smiles warmly. She must've seen Chiye's memories.
"They are connected by the red thread." I return her gaze. Her eyebrows widen imperceptibly.
"This is going to be rather difficult." She laughs slightly and walks towards the temple. "I'll see you later, I still have to work in order to get the afternoon off." She waves as she moves away.
"I'll come pick you up!"
Upon hearing my words she turns around and bows politely while also laughing.
The sun comes out from behind the clouds and lights up the temple grounds. I remain where I'm standing until Airi disappears inside the main building.
Helping to connect our friends Ninako and Kyouta according to their fate marks the beginning of our journey.