'This rain… it is imbibed with sorrow,' said Hiyoribō.
I paused down to gaze up at the dark sky too, turning my palms upward to feel the rain.
'They are Ameonna's tears,' I told him.
We had come out of the realm of the god of rain through a small river running close to Iwaki Village.
Deep down, I had wished that we would be greeted with a clear starry sky upon our return; this situation was way too saddening.
I sighed.
'Let's hurry up! We don't have much time left ahead of us.'
We were nearing midnight- which would mark the end of the delay accorded by the god of rain. We still had to climb up the mountain.
'Dammit! What is she doing? It's been days since she's gone!' I heard Ayame mutter as we approached the sacred tree.
He was biting at his nails anxiously.
'What's a young and beautiful girl like you doing crying like this?' Hiyoribō declared at Ameonna, who jerked to her feet when she saw us arrive.
Ayame stood up too, his eyes shifting from the Amefurikozō and me, to the yōkai monk.
'A smile would suit such a sweet face better!' the latter said to the female spirit with a meek smile on his lips.
He walked up to her and touched her forehead with two of his fingers, giving her a small tap.
We all went very still, our eyes widening in astonishment.
The sudden calmness was staggering.
The only sounds that we could hear anymore were those of our own heartbeats.
'It-It's stopped raining!' I gasped out in shock, when I found my voice again.
Ayame, the Amefurikozō and I stared up at the sky; the clouds were already starting to dissipate. And in the far distance, we could hear cries of joy erupting from the foot of the mountain. The villagers were so loud that even from this distance we could hear them, though very faintly.
'I don't believe it! You dragged me to this place without fully believing that I'm capable of fixing the problem! I'm vexed!' Hiyoribō muttered at me and I apologized, 'Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. It's not what I meant.'
'The pain in my heart… It has attenuated...' murmured Ameonna, puzzled.
'Well then, I'm so glad!' he said to her with a satisfied smile, then to me, 'If there's a problem again, call me.' Clapping his hands together then, he exhaled, 'Well, well, with this done, I think it's time for me to leave.'
He moved up to me and dug his hand into my bag to take out the bottle of saké. 'I think that this is mine now!'
He squirmed in excitement, rubbing his cheek against the bottle excitedly, a small blush on his cheeks.
I chuckled.
'I'll accompany him back to where he comes from,' the Amefurikozō informed me and I handed the cloth doll to him, asking him to remove the bell and give it to Hiyoribō, before he would make the puppet go down the river.
'Thank you!' I said to both of them. Hiyoribō nodded once, seeming impatient to return home and drink the bottle to the bottom.
'I'm not done with you yet. I hope that you didn't forget what you promised me!' the Amefurikozō warned me in a scary tone, causing me to giggle nervously.
'No! No! I didn't forget and I won't.'
'I'll come back for payment in a few days.'
'Yosh!'
I grinned at him and he averted his eyes, a smile appearing on his lips. It was creaky but still, it remained a smile.
'Hey, about that issue of name...' he mumbled, hesitantly.
My eyes widened at him; it was the first time that I was seeing him behave this shyly. Unable to resist the urge, I gave him a bear hug, exclaiming, 'Ah! You're so cute!'
'Back off, you freak!' he shouted, shoving me off and I apologized to him for the sudden outburst. Clearing his throat, he told me in a low voice, 'I think that it'd be cool if I could have a name of my own. I don't know many names. Maybe you could give me one?'
I stared at him in surprise.
He frowned at me, curving up his lips. 'Why are you looking at me like this?!'
'Okay,' I accepted. 'I'll give you a name.'
'It'd better be a cool one!' he exclaimed, pointing his forefinger at me.
'Why did it sound like a threat?' I wondered, cynically, almost breaking into cold sweat. Becoming serious again, I tried to think of a name for him.
'What do you think of… Ichi?'
'No.'
'Ni?'
'No.'
'San?'
'No!'
'Go?'
'No! No! No! My! These aren't real names! They're numbers! Have you got no imagination?!' he snapped and I squirmed in embarrassment.
Something occurred to me then.
'I know,' I exclaimed, slamming my fist in the palm of my hand. 'What about Natsuhiko?'
'Natsuhiko?' he asked, thoughtfully.
'You're a spirit who plays in the rain. So, definitely, the reference to summer is contradicting and thus, exceptional.'
'Natsuhiko… I like it,' he exclaimed, a grin spreading over his face. He began to hurry away with Hiyoribō then, calling at me, 'See you again for payment!'
'Hai! Hai!'
'Well, I guess that it's time for us to leave too!' declared Ayame when the two male spirits were out of sight.
I turned towards the blond.
'You've accomplished your first mission with success.'
He wasn't looking at me as he said that, facing the opposite direction.
Ameonna inquired, 'This is your first mission?'
I nodded, smiling shyly.
'You've saved my life. Thank you.'
I flushed up, and Ayame's cheeks took a shade of red too, as she thanked him for having kept an eye on her.
After the blond had packed up, we bid Ameonna goodbye. She was a bit melancholic at our departure but she forced herself to smile. I promised her that I'd visit her whenever I could. I was relieved that for my first real mission, I hadn't had to kill anyone but instead, I was able to save somebody. Despite the situation in which we met, I was glad that I've met the female spirit.
'Here!' I said, handing the scale of dragon Ryuhei had given me, to the villagers who had grouped up to meet Ayame and I when we came down from the mountain.
Now that the rain had stopped, it was time to fix the damage caused.
'If you sell it, I'm sure you'll earn big money from it. It'll be enough to repair your houses and feed the village for sometimes until you can grow crops again.'
A scale of dragon was worth a little fortune these days. It made me happy that the scale Ryuhei had given me so generously was going to serve to help people.
'And if a problem arises again, Hiyoribō will come back,' I reassured them, before Ayame and I took the road, heading for the train station to get back to Toda.
It was still night. I would have waited for morning to leave, but Ayame disagreed. I guessed that he was impatient to have me off his back and I couldn't blame him for it.
I began thinking about Ameonna.
She was going to be all alone again. What a sad destiny! I wished there was something that I could do for her, that there was a way to change that. But there seemed to be none.
Ayame and I walked for a small while until a smell of burning wood grabbed my attention. I wrinkled my nose, taking in a deep breath.
'Can you smell that?' I asked, pausing down. Something floated across my peripheral view at that moment. It was cinder which turned to ashes as it landed onto one of my sleeves.
The small wind blew more cinders in our direction, and Ayame and I flung around to look towards the village, alarm bells going off in our heads.
At first, I didn't see anything. There were no houses burning. But then, when I lifted my eyes onto the mountain, dread twisted my insides. There was a tree burning on Mount Iwaki and judging from its emplacement, it was the sacred tree!
'Oh no, Ameonna!'
I turned back onto my heels on the spot, rushing for the mountain to find the female spirit; Ayame tagging along.
No, it can't be the sacred tree! Not the sacred tree!
I stilled and paled when I came across of Ameonna a good distance away from the tree. She was in a pitiful state. Extremely weakened down, she was crawling on the ground, and her body was beginning to disappear, turning translucent.
'Shun...' she croaked out and I rushed to her side.
Dropping my bag and a sleeping Kōmori-san down, I picked the female spirit piggy back; she was too far from her safe zone.
My throat constricted.
It was the sacred tree which was burning, I had no doubt about it anymore.
Ayame and I hurried onto the spot where the tree was situated and there, what greeted our sight was an abominable view.
All the villagers of Iwaki were grouped around the sacred tree which was burning in wild fire. They had bows and inflamed arrows in their hands, which meant that they were the author of the fire.
'Stop it!' I cried, in hysterical panic. Putting Ameonna down, I interposed myself in-between the villagers and the burning tree. 'What are you doing?! It's killing Ameonna!'
'She's a nuisance! She deserves to die!' they shouted, furiously.
'What?!' I gasped.
My eyes landed onto Seishi Narusawa who was part of the mob too, having a bow in hand.
My heart shook.
'No, please, stop it!' I begged the villagers, breaking into tears.
Out of the blue, I received a terrible block at the back of the head and my breath got knocked out of my chest as my stomach hit the ground.
I heard somebody gasp in shock and I believed that it was Ayame.
I was too stunned to feel the pain at first but my hair was becoming wet at alarming speed. My hand went for the back of my head and I winced at the sharp pain that hit me at last, my hand turning red with blood.
'This girl is taking Ameonna's side!' muttered one of the villagers, the same man who had hit with a plank of wood at the back of the head.
'She's defending a monster! She's a disgrace to us humans!' muttered another, and some of the villagers began to assault me with kicks.
Instinctively, I covered my head with my hands protectively, unable to think of what to do.
'That's enough! Stop it!' exclaimed Ayame, who broke out of his trance-like state. He had been as shocked as I was confronted to the general hysteria which had taken over the villagers.
My assailants stopped dead.
'Back off!' he shouted, throwing his enchanted kunai at their feet, forcing them to back away from me completely.
I was surprised; I hadn't thought he'd intervene to help me.
'Shun!' Ameonna called out, weakly, having crawled up to me. She stretched her arm towards me, her eyes glazed over. I reached for her hand to grab it but just as my hand was about to close around hers, to my horror, she faded into speckles of light that vanished.
My heart skipped a beat.
No! No, no, no, no! It can't be! She can't die! She can't be dead!
The sacred tree stopped burning and it collapsed into a dark pile of ashes on the forest floor.
It was over.
The villagers became utterly silent and neither did Ayame nor I spoke.
In all of a sudden, a bolt of lightning shattered the sky, followed by a loud and terrific crash of thunder.
Everyone's eyes became glued to the sky- at the imposing and dreadful dark figure hovering there, threateningly.
'It's the god of spirits! It's furious against us for what we did to Ameonna. It's here to punish us!' the villagers cried amongst themselves, terrorized, and they stampeded away to put themselves into safety.
The dark figure descended towards Ayame and I, where we were frozen into place at the sight of the dragon. The latter was none other than the god of rain.
Kōmori-san joined us in the same instant and it clung at my chest. I held the small animal against me and struggled to my feet, but my head swirled. I began to fall backward when, unexpectedly, wings sprouted out of the sides of the god of rain and the latter caught me with one of its wings, preventing me from falling. The wing was as cold as ice, and even if it was composed of water, I was surprised that I didn't traverse it nor did I become wet.
The dragon steadied me before it took a glance backward at the pile of ashes that remained of the sacred tree.
'What a tragedy!' it said, before it looked back at me, asking, rhetorically, 'You're crying for a spirit, young human?! You're ready to take blows from those of your race to defend a spirit?!' It sighed. 'Decidedly, I'll never be able to understand humans.' Then, it added, 'If you can do all this for a spirit, then I guess that I can break one of my rules.'
I was confused.
'Come to me, Ameonna!' he ordered, and to my stupefaction, the ashes changed into dusts of light which converged, and combined, to form a small shining seed in the palm of the god of rain.
'Here! It's the essence of Ameonna,' the dragon told me. 'Sow it somewhere that seems appropriate to you!'
I stared at the god of rain for a minute, before I hesitantly reached into its open palm and took the seed from it.
Without saying another word, the dragon flew off in the sky where it disappeared in the dark of the night.
Ayame and I stared at each other, puzzled.
***
The next day…
What am I supposed to do with the seed? I asked myself while we were walking; we weren't very far from the train station anymore.
The sun had risen since a long moment now.
The god of rain hadn't given me much instructions. He had simply told me to sow it.
What will happen when I do that?
Is it what I'm thinking?
As we came across of a small stall on the side of the dirt road, I noticed the beautiful flower pots which were being sold there. They were made of mud and well decorated.
I looked down at the shining seed in my possession, then at the pots.
Please, it's got to be what I'm thinking!
'Can we stop for a moment, please?' I asked Ayame who looked around at me, with an intrigued expression.
Making for the stall, I bought a pot before I went back the way we had come to be away from any curious eyes. Picking up some soil, I filled the pot with it.
Ayame arrived behind me, watching me do.
It was the moment of truth!
Taking a deep breath, I sowed the seed in the pot and waited a minute for something to happen.
And happened, it did!
The seed began to grow into a plant at phenomenal speed, giving birth to a beautiful white flower which opened its petals right in front of our eyes. The flower then released what resembled a bubble of soap which began to expand and expand and when it had reached a certain size, it exploded.
Ameonna appeared out of it, falling on her behind on the ground; startling Ayame, Kōmori-san and me.
'A-Ameonna?!' I gasped out in shock, my eyes nearly popping of their sockets.
She stared back at the three of us, equally, astounded.
'Sh-Shun?!'
'How do you feel? Are you alright?' I inquired, drawing closer to her.
'Ye-Yes, I feel alright,' she replied, baffled, shaking her limbs to check.
I sighed in relief.
'How can I still be alive?'
'It's thanks to the god of rain. I think that you should visit him to thank him in person.'
Tears welled up her eyes and I took her hands, squeezing them comfortingly, giving her a tender smile. I helped her to her feet then, handing the plant to her.
'From now on, you won't be alone anymore. You're free. You can go anywhere that you wish. Meet as many people as you want.'
She was no longer bound to a single land. Her new home was transportable.
'Come to see me whenever you can!'
She nodded, shedding her tears.
'Sorry for your head.'
Reflexively, I touched my bandaged head.
'Oh, it's okay,' I assured her.
'Thank you for defending me. Thank you for everything.' Unexpectedly, she hugged me. 'You're my first real friend.'
She-She considers me as her friend?
My heart swelled and I hugged her back, telling her, 'Take care of yourself!'
After shaking hands with Ayame, she took the road, en route to discover this vast world, and the blond and I bid her goodbye. She had no real destination in mind and was going to travel from place to place at random, embracing her freedom to the fullest.
This was definitely a better conclusion to Ameonna's story and I thanked the god of rain in my heart.
Thank you for reading!