The Neat and Pretty Girl at My New School Is a Childhood Friend of Mine Who I Thought Was a Boy

Chapter 39 - What's The Meaning of This!?

The night in Tsukinose, where there are very few street lights on the road, is very deep.

With no entertainment in sight, the residents quickly turned off their lights, deepening the darkness even further.

The full moon, rising into the dark eastern sky with many stars in its wake, shone like it’s the master of this world, illuminating the mountain village from its darkness.

“…”

In the middle of such a mountainside shrine, a girl was dancing in the worship hall in front of the main shrine that enshrines the deity.

She’s a beautiful and mysterious girl.

Although she is still very young, her well-developed face, lightly pigmented white skin and flaxen hair, which is far from Japanese, create the ethereal and fragile beauty of a young girl.

She was dressed in a miko costume of white kosode sleeves and a scarlet hakama, and over that she wore a thin white silk Chihaya, with a sakaki and a bell in each hand. As she moved, her long hair, tied in two, flowed through the air.

[TL/N: Kosode is a type of short-sleeved Japanese garment, and a predecessor of kimonos. Although, kosode seems to be roughly similar to kimono, the difference is their proportions, kosode have a wider body, a longer collar and narrower sleeves.

Hakama is a Japanese traditional pants.]

[Chihaya is a cloth that is used to tie back at the sleeves of a robe (imagine it like a bag, but has an X at the back), primarily used by women to get the sleeves out of the way for work ranging from important shrine ceremonies, to just humble kitchen work.]

[Sakaki (Cleyera japonica) known as Japanese cleyera, is a broadleaf evergreen shrub or small tree viewed as sacred in Japan’s original Shinto religion (in this scene, she’s only holding the branch).]

The beautiful and elegant dances performed with such unhurried gestures were truly worthy of being dedicated to the gods, and I could see how much heart and soul the girl had put into her training.

A plea to God. 

The truth is, as you can see from the girl’s serious expression, she is praying and wishing for the gods she serves.

―I hope that Hime-chan’s mother will get better soon.

This was the sincere wish of this priestess, Saki Murao.

(I moved when my mom was hospitalized, but the house and my stuff is still there. I’ll return to Tsukinose when she gets better…)

When Hayato thought about it, he felt even more passionate about the dance Saki had offered to the gods.

Saki was born from the daughter of a shrine maiden that had been in Tsukinose for over a thousand years.

There was a custom that placed importance on her bloodline, and Saki was required to act as a shrine maiden whether she wanted to or not.

She was not allowed to leave the house until she was in elementary school, and the training she received from her grandmother and parents was so severe that it could hardly be counted or described as training.

In her personal life, she’s a loving and nurturing person, and when it comes to her dance training, she is uncompromising and transforms into a different person.

Even though her grandmother and parents, who were usually kind to her, said they were doing it for the sake of the gods, Saki couldn’t see the point of dancing for something invisible, so dancing was nothing but pain for her.

That awareness changed when Saki was seven years old, at her first unveiling as a shrine maiden.

『Wow, that’s amazing! Not only is it beautiful, it’s cool!』[PRN: This is a line from the past.]

It was a boy who was in the front row of the festival hall.

With a twinkle in his eye, he directed those words at Saki.

TL/N: Of course, we all know who he is lmao

At first, Saki didn’t understand what the words meant, as she had never been given anything but harsh stares and words before, but when she came to an understanding, her whole body was instantly filled with emotions that she had never experienced before.

Her face was so hot that she thought it would burst into flames in any second, her chest was pumping so violently that she thought her heart would burst out of her mouth, and she remembered jumping out of her skin because I didn’t know what to do.

But she was sure that this boy – Hayato, her best friend’s brother, had become someone she was very interested in since then.

TL/N: Aight. You guessed it right.

~~~~♪

Suddenly, Hayato’s phone, which he had placed beside the pillar of the shrine, announced a notification.

Saki immediately interrupted her dance and checked the contents with a quickness that was unthinkable given her usual brusqueness.

“I’ll be back there for the summer festival, Onii and I are looking forward to seeing the kagura this year.”

TL/N: Kagura is a dance performed by a shrine maiden.

“Aah!”

Just knowing that Hayato was coming back for the summer vacation made Saki’s face hot and her heart soar to the heavens. She was so happy that she even turned her sakaki into a smart phone and performed an impromptu dance of thanksgiving.

(I’m so naive!)

Saki thought so, but she froze when she saw the next image sent by Himeko.

“Oh and also Onii got bitten by a strange insect. It’s scary to be careless just because you’re in the city.”

It was a prank mark that Haruki had made.

Himeko thinks it’s a strange insect bite, but to Saki, it’s a kiss mark no matter where you look at it.

(Huh, wait, what’s the meaning of this!?)

Saki’s voiceless scream echoed in the shrine’s hall of worship late at night.