Hanabi

Chapter 27: Test

INFO:

Mt. Kurama – is a mountain in northern Kyoto where the Reiki practice was born. It's a very important place with shrines and a festival that happens every October, and a very important temple (Kurama-dera). There is also a small town called Kurama at the base of the mountain, famous for its hot springs. In folklore, it is said to be the place where the tengu king Sojobou lives.

Kurama-dera – located at the base of Mt. Kurama, this temple is a national treasure of Japan and was founded in the 8th century AD. A lot of people visit this temple, give its importance.

Sojobou – in legends he is said to live in Mt. Kurama and to have the strength of a thousand regular tengu, being their king. The most famous legend featuring him is the one telling about how Minamoto no Yoshitsune (a famous warrior) learned how to fight with swords and use magic from him. So he's known mostly as an ancient and powerful master.

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The sound of crunching leaves was everything the four of them could hear for a while, as they fell silent in their walk. The atmosphere of the forest was peaceful and yet they could see and hear spirits running amidst the huge trees, jumping the exposed roots as if they were human. There weren’t many of them though, and Mami suspected it was because of her.

Mount Kurama was a festival of green and sounds of different birds echoing and breaking the silence. Tomomi had never been there before, not in the actual forest. She just remembered the big stone stairways, the vermillion bridges and the shrines from when she was little, and also visiting Kurama-dera with her parents. Of course, it was all before that night when she saw an Oni for the first time. After that, she was never taken to Kyoto again until Haruna showed up.

Now she remembered why she missed the place, despite the horrible memories. Kyoto had this different aura surrounding it, as if all the spiritual things gathered in that city. Mount Kurama had it even stronger.

She was still in a bit of pain while walking, but she didn’t particularly care right now. This was the first time she could simply take a walk with Mami out of her house, it felt good and important even despite the fact that they were going to seek a solution for their huge problem.

Tomomi was holding the blonde’s hand while they walked, both of them following Rina and Haruna through the woods without speaking. Occasionally, she would feel Mami squeezing her hand a little, but when that happened the blonde just kept looking ahead or at the leaves on the ground. She wondered if Mami was also thinking that this was their first time simply taking a walk together, even if it wasn’t just a regular walk.

Every time Tomomi looked at Mami’s feet, she felt like groaning. She couldn’t understand how someone could walk on those zori all the time, especially now. They were in freakin Mt Kurama and everyone was wearing sneakers except for the blonde. Of course Tomomi brought it up before they left the house, but Mami simply said she didn’t have any shoes of any kind, just the zori, and that she already went to Mt Kurama wearing those once before and it didn’t kill her. After everything she had already seen, Tomomi believed it.

It took a while, but by one point the pain really did start bothering Tomomi a little too much. When she risked looking at Mami again, the blonde was already staring at her knowingly. She didn’t want to make them stop since it seemed like Rina was having some trouble in finding the right path for them to take, but she knew Mami wouldn’t let her keep walking if the pain was bothering her.

- We should make a stop. - the blonde said for all of them to hear, and Tomomi blushed right away. She didn’t want to be the one slowing them down, but it seemed like that was exactly what was going to happen.