Yuushashi Gaiten Bonus

In the cold night, my exhaled breath appeared in an unearthly white.
I looked up at the sky.
Up in the winter sky just before dawn, the moon and the stars were shining.
Stars that were invisible on that day on the way from Nara to Shikoku with Yuuna and Matsuri. Now all I had to do was to turn my face upward to see them. But these stars were not real. They were a false scenery created by Shinju to hide the true state of the world. The Christian Era has made way for the Divine Era, and those of us living in this age may never see the real starry sky again.
I took out a cigarette and put it in my mouth.
“Please don't smoke too much.”
Startled by the remark, I looked behind me. Naturally, the person standing there was not the young Hero with the cherry blossom hairpin.
It was the person at the helm of the Taisha’s Miko – or at this point, of the Taisha itself: Uesato Hinata.
I crushed the cigarette between my teeth and swallowed it.
“It's cigarette-shaped chocolate. Apparently, it was a local specialty of my former home.”
"The strangest things can be local specialties.”
Hinata laughed like a child. From the day we met she was unfathomable to me, but when she rose to the highest position within Taisha in the Divine Era, it became even harder to read her. She may be smiling, but who can tell how she really feels?
“I quit smoking the day I became a Miko. Miko are supposed to be pure, and I was told by the priests that I shouldn't consume anything that would defile my body. Including cigarettes.”
Though I did smoke one cigarette the day Takashima Yuuna died.
“Oh, there you are! We've been looking for you. The regular briefing for the Miko and priests is about to start.”
“We can’t begin without you, Uesato-san,"
Aki Masuzu and Hanamoto Yoshika said as they approached.
„I’ll be right there,“ Uesato answered with a soft smile and turned toward the main shrine of the Taisha.
After the Christian Era ended and Divine Era began, the Miko, led by Uesato, took over the core positions of the Taisha and became the sole decision makers. We priests obey the 'oracles' of the Miko in all matters.
Aki and Hanamoto have become Uesato's right-hand and left-hand women. Although Uesato is the leader and charismatic figure of the Miko, her workload has increased too much to pay attention to all the maidens after she had climbed to the highest rank within the Taisha. Whenever Uesato is busy, Aki is the one who manages the Miko. Aki is now the oldest among the Taisha’s Miko and is well-trusted by the others because of her caring nature. She was made for this position. The deaths of Doi and Iyojima took a toll on her, but time must have healed her wounds. Now she is as cheerful as she used to be. She also seems to have grown stronger mentally by overcoming the deaths of her close friends.
Hanamoto, on the other hand, took up religious and ethnological studies in earnest after the era changed, and now possesses knowledge on par with a professional scholar. As far as I can tell, Hanamoto is very smart and diligent, making her well-suited to be a researcher. When the priests tried to take back control from the Miko, it was Hanamoto who made a stand and faced them, wielding her expert knowledge of religion and the gods as a weapon. In battles of argument and knowledge, Hanamoto never once lost to the priests.
Uesato, Aki, and Hanamoto formed the center of the Taisha’s Miko. A position deserving of the Miko who guided the Heroes, one could say.
I wonder…
Had Matsuri become a Miko of the Taisha, would she have stood there, next to the three of them?
…Probably not.
Matsuri does not have the personality to stand next to Uesato. If anything, she might have come to oppose her.
“Will you be there for the briefing, Karasuma-san? Since you’re a priestess, technically.”
Aki asked me.。
“The ‘technically‘ was uncalled for. But I’ll have to pass. It’s just going to be the old men giving their routine report anyway. Besides, I still have something to do.”
“Something to do? Out of your mouth, I can’t imagine it being anything decent.”
Hanamoto looked at me with suspicion.
“You make it sound like you don't trust me at all.”
“Of course not. Tell me, what is trustworthy about you?”
Hanamoto replied without holding back.
I forced a smile.
“You have a point. Anyway, it's got nothing to do with you this time. I'm going to see an old friend. Can you give me permission to leave, Uesato?”
After all this time, I happened to remember that I didn’t to go see Matsuri when Yuuna had died, even though I meant to.

I hadn't seen Matsuri in a very long time, but figuring out her address was easy using the Taisha’s database.
After I got the Taisha’s permission through Uesato, I drove to the town where she lived. I felt that long drives were more stressful to me than they used to. Back when I was steering the bus with Matsuri and Yuuna, I could drive for hours with almost no sleep. I suppose it was because the situation was exciting and I was on an emotional high.
It took quite a while, but I arrived at Matsuri’s current residence before noon.

She lived in a detached house in a rural town full of forests and fields. The building was neither large nor small, but rather average in size, a mixture of Japanese and Western style, and entirely devoid of characteristic features. It was the kind of house that a hundred people could pass by without a single one taking notice of it.
As I saw the house, my heart began to dance.
Oh, how fitting for Matsuri. So painfully ordinary.
When I pressed the intercom, I heard a voice saying, "Coming!” from inside the house, and felt someone approaching the front door with hurried steps.
The front door swung open and a woman appeared in the frame.
For a brief moment she stared blankly at my face. She didn’t seem to recognize me.
“It's been a while, Matsuri.”
Once I said that, she seemed to finally understand who I was. She put herself on guard.
“Kumiko-san…!? Why are you here?”
“Don't underestimate the Taisha’s intelligence network. It’s child’s play to figure out where you're living. No need to be so wary of me, I didn't come here to mess with you.”
“Then what are you doing here? After all this time…”
“I just wanted to treat you to my favorite food.”
„Your favorite food…? What would that be, human suffering, blood and violence?"
“Just what kind of person am I to you? Well, I guess I've done things that would make you think that," I said, showing her a bag with flour, bonito flakes, vegetables, pork belly and other ingredients. “It's okonomiyaki. Just in time for lunch, right?"

I borrowed the kitchen of Matsuri's house. First, I mixed the flour into the soup stock, then stirred it with eggs and the other ingredients and cooked it in a frying pan. Since that’s all one needs to make it delicious, okonomiyaki was a breakthrough in the history of Japanese cuisine. I firmly believe that it will eventually join udon as a national dish at some point in the Divine Era.
　After trying the okonomiyaki I made, Matsuri stared in amazement.
“Delicious ......! Who would have imagined that Kumiko-san, lover of screams and violence, had such a special skill?”
“Are you trying to start something? If so, I'll crush you thoroughly this time. There was no opportunity to cook on the bus back during the disaster of 7/30, but since my days in Osaka, I've been making okonomiyaki for people I’m on good terms with. And I haven’t made any for you yet."
“You’re on good terms with me…?”
“That’s the way I feel. I really like you, you know.”
“I’m not glad to hear that. I still resent you.
“For stealing the position as a Miko from you?”
„…“
Matsuri kept quiet and continued to eat her okonomiyaki.
“I didn't think you were fit to be a Miko. Though admittedly, I didn’t steal your Miko status for your sake. I just did it for fun.”
„…I’m aware. You truly are scum.”
"Hehe, I guess so. Thanks to that, I got to enjoy all sorts of absurd experiences that a life in peace and harmony wouldn’t have given me. Like the priests panicking whenever the Vertex invaded Shikoku; lots of them lost all rationality when the fear and desperation kicked in. Like those children called Heroes frequently causing trouble because this screwed-up situation forced them to stand on the battlefield. In the end, I even got to see Uesato, no more than a middle school girl, take control of the Taisha. That’s what they mean when they say fact is stranger than fiction. I had a hard time holding back my laughter.”
"I take it Uesato-san usurping the Taisha was your doing, Kumiko-san?"
Matsuri looked at me with disgust.
“No, I didn’t do anything. In the first place, there's no way the likes of me could manipulate someone as extraordinary as Uesato Hinata. Uesato used me, and I was glad to be used by her. That's all there is to it.”
Matsuri finished her okonomiyaki and put down her chopsticks.
“Thank you for the food. It was delicious.“
“I'm glad you’re satisfied. Still, it’s nothing compared to me getting into the Taisha because of you. I could never thank you enough. I’ll even let you resent me all you want.”
"Kumiko-san," Matsuri glared at me. “I don’t resent you because you took my place as a Miko, but because you didn't stop Takashima Yuuna-san from becoming a Hero.”
"...... That girl became a Hero of her own free will, you know?"
“You should have stopped her anyway. Yuu-chan was still a ten-year-old child at the time. Adults are supposed to stop children when they’re making a mistake.”
“You think Yuuna becoming a Hero was a mistake…?”
„Yes.“
There was no hint of hesitation in Matsuri’s voice. She must have pondered it over and over, from the moment she parted with Yuuna to this very day. And each time, the conclusion she arrived at was the same: that Yuuna becoming a Hero was a mistake. With every time she traced this line of thought, her feelings must have started to turn into convictions.
“I can imagine the priests at the Taisha passing out if they heard that.”
„They can pass out for all I care. The fact is that it was wrong.
“Countless lives were saved because Yuuna fought as a Hero. It’s all thanks to Yuuna that the people of Shikoku live in peace now.”
„… I don’t know the details of what happened inside the Taisha. Just based on what I was told as a regular citizen,” Matsuri let her know, “the Heroes lost against those Vertex monsters in the end. Apart from Nogi-sama, all of them died in battle. It was some ritual called Fire Offering or something that stopped the Vertex invasions. Did Yuu-chan die to buy time until the Fire Offering? If she was just buying time – did she really have to be sacrificed? Could the peace in Shikoku not have been kept without her dying?
Matsuri was probably right.
Still, it’s an opinion based on hindsight. Back when events were unfolding, it was the best option for Yuuna and the other Heroes to fight.
“If only she hadn't joined the Taisha – if only she hadn't become a Hero, Yuu-chan could have led a long and happy life, just like the people in Shikoku today.”
"… She might have been able to live longer, but that doesn't mean she would’ve been happy. It’s not just Yuuna – every last one of the Heroes put others before themselves.
Nogi Wakaba. Part of her reason for fighting was a personal desire for revenge, but she always stood at the front of the group and was not afraid of getting herself injured.
Doi Tamako. She loved Iyojima like a sister and sacrificed her own life to protect her. Doi might have survived if she had not tried to save her.
Iyojima Anzu. She was not physically strong and reluctant to fight, but she kept fighting as a Hero, perhaps because she was worried about Doi. In a way, her death was also for Doi's sake.
Koori Chikage. Although she was not as obviously self-sacrificing as the other Heroes, she is said to have died died protecting Nogi in the end.
“All the Heroes appeared to have a disregard for their own lives, Takashima Yuuna included. That’s why I think – had Yuuna not become a Hero, she would have regretted it all her life.”
„…“
Matsuri did not talk back, her eyes fixed on her clenched fist in her lap.
“I've been watching the heroes and those around them ever since I joined the Taisha. And not only the Heroes, but also the people around them, were all far from ordinary. Uesato, a mere middle schooler that took control of a powerful organization. Hanamoto, who never lost her deep veneration for someone she had only met once. Aki, who firmly stayed true to herself in the most turbulent of times.”
　Matsuri would not know, but the strength of will of the Miko who were sacrificed at the Fire Offering likewise surpassed that of ordinary people.
“And it's not just the Heroes and Miko. The priests of the Taisha, however petty and repulsive they may be, also took up positions they weren’t used to to protect this country. You know what, Matsuri? I used to call you ordinary. But when I think about it, the fact that you were able to maintain your ‘ordinariness’ after the world was destroyed and you gained power beyond human comprehension is in itself extraordinary. I wonder where the boundary between normal and unusual lies.

„There’s no such thing,“
Matsuri asserted. The boundary between the ordinary and the extraordinary. Another matter Matsuri must have been thinking about since the day she left Yuuna and me. In her voice, I could sense the conviction that only someone who has pondered something long and deeply can possess.
“You may be strange, but the world is teeming with people even stranger than you. All humans are different, so everyone is normal in some ways and odd in others. Everyone is extraordinary, and everyone is ordinary.
“Sounds like a line from a book. As expected of a writer. I heard that you made it as a picture book author.”
"Thanks to you stealing my position as a Miko, and me being excluded from the Taisha as a result. You have my gratitude."
Matsuri remarked, not sounding grateful in the least.
Later, as I was clearing the table, I heard the front door of the house open.
„I’m home!“
Running quickly down the hallway, a girl stormed into the living room. She was about the same age as Matsuri was when I first met her.
When she noticed me, she gave me a flustered look and bowed her head.
“I'm sorry, I didn't know we had a guest! …I guess I'll ask them to come back another day…"
As the girl was mumbling to herself, I heard other girls talking from the doorway.
„Yokote Matsuri-saaan! We’re the Hero Club, and we’re here to ask you for an interview that will shock the world!
“Not so loud, Lily! You're bothering Yokote-san and the neighbors!”
Both voices sounded familiar. Uesato and Nogi must have threatened them quite a bit, these two Yuunas...
The girl standing in the living room explained with a somewhat troubled look on her face.
„They are acquaintances of a friend of mine, and they've been going around researching Christian Era. I don't know how they did it, but they found out that you were with Takashima Yuuna when she arrived in Shikoku, Mom. Now they want to hear your story. …But if you have a guest, should I decline?"
“It's okay, Suzu. Tell them to come in,” Matsuri said gently. Her motherly love for her daughter could be felt through her voice alone. “They’re Fuyou-san and Yuzuki-san, right? Yuzuki’s mother is a friend of mine. She told me they were coming.”
„Is it really okay?“
The girl she called ‘Suzu’ seemed apologetic as she looked at me.
I don’t mid. I was about to leave anyway. Besides, I’m not deserving to be considered your guest.
Just as I got up from my chair and was about to head towards the doorway, two girls came running into the living room.
"Yokote Matsuri-san! We know that you’re a living witness to the Disaster of 7/30! Please grant us a chance to get the voice of the truth on record!"
“Don't enter her house if you haven't gotten permission yet!"
As the short blonde girl was charging ahead, the tall black-haired one was trying to restrain her.
Matsuri welcome them in with a smile, revealing wrinkles befitting her age on her once young face.
“You’re Fuyou Lilienthal Yuuna-san and Yuzuki Yuuna-san, correct? I've heard about you from Asa-san… Yuzuki-san's mother.”
I was trying to leave the room while Matsuri was talking to the girls, but she grabbed my hand and stopped me.
“Kumiko-san, please stay. Fuyou-san, Yuzuki-san, this woman is a priest of the Taisha. What’s more, she's the Miko who guided Takashima Yuuna. I'm sure she can tell you more interesting stories than I could."
Upon hearing Matsuri's words, Fuyou looked at me with sparkling eyes.
„Unbelievable! The famous legendary hero, Takashima Yuuna! Please tell us your story!
"...... I'm interested in hearing about Takashima Yuuna, too. She's the one Lily and I have our name from..."
Yuzuki also turned towards me, as did Matsuri's daughter Suzu, who stared at me in surprise.
"Oh, so you're Karasuma Kumiko-sama ...? I'm sorry, I was rude to you earlier!"
I wanted to get out of here quickly, but now I had been caught in the middle of it.
Then, Matsuri shot a questioning look at Yuzuki.
“Yuzuki-san, did your mother never tell you? I don't know about Fuyou-san, but in your case, your name isn’t simply Takashima Yuuna-sama’s. Asa wanted your name to match her own… ‘morning,’ so ‘Yuuna’ [夕奈, with the kanji for evening]. But when you performed the reverse clap after your birth, she decided on Yuuna [友奈, same kanji as Takashima Yuuna].
The Taisha also did a background check on these two ‘Yuunas,’ so I was able to look into the origin of Yuzuki's name myself.
As Matsuri said, it seems that Yuzuki's mother originally had ‘Yuuna’ [夕奈] in mind for her daughter’s name. Apparently, had she not already intended to name her ‘Yuuna’ [夕奈], Yuzuki's mother would have refused to let her be named ‘Yuuna’ [友奈].
“In other words, Yuzuki-san got half of her 'Yuuna' from Takashima Yuuna and half from her mother Asa-san.”
Matsuri’s words left Yuzuki and Fuyou speechless for a moment.
Finally, Fuyou opened her mouth.
„Eh-eeeeh!? We came to hear about the old era and ended up learning about Yuzuki-kun!?”
„I’m surprised too. ...... I never knew."
Yuzuki seemed shaken as well.
“I'm sure you knew about the origin of Yuzuki-san’s name, Kumiko-san. After all, you’re a priestess of the Taisha, and a high-ranked one at that."
Matsuri gave me a sideways glance. I thought about ignoring her, but gave in to a bad habit that I can't seem to suppress at my age. That is, I thought it amusing to secretly leak Taisha information to regular people.
“What Matsuri said earlier is true. As a priestess of the Taisha, I can vouch for it. The fact has been investigated and confirmed by us."
With each word I spoke, Yuzuki and Fuyo seemed to become more and more interested in me.
"Amazing! I bet you know tons of other stuff we have no idea about! Come on, please tell us more!"
"Calm down, Lily."
Me, Matsuri, her daughter Yokote Suzu, Fuyou Yuuna and Yuzuki Yuuna.
The five of us start talking in the living room.
Seeing Matsuri chat with her daughter and her friends made me feel relieved.

I couldn’t say many hours we ended up talking.
Before the sun began to set, the two Yuunas went home. They lived in Kanonji, Kagawa Prefecture, which was quite a distance from Yokote's house, so they had to leave early.
After the girls were gone, I left Yokote's house as well.
As I stepped out of the front door, the sky was already glowing in the color of the setting sun.
The melody of “Goin‘ Home“ reached me from somewhere in the distance.
It seems like “Goin‘ Home“ was played at dusk in this area as well.
When Matsuri came to the door to see me off, I asked her.

"Are you happy right now?”

“Yes. I'm happy.”

She answered without hesitation.
That's good – I really thought so. Then it was worth it to let Matsuri get away from the Taisha.
“I hate the way you live, but I like the way you stay true to that life against all odds. I think I’ll drop by again when you’re on death’s door, to ask you if you were happy with your boring life."
I imagine you’re going to die first, Kumiko-san. You’re almost 60 now. You ought to take it easy,” Matsuri said with a smirk. “Besides, my answer will always be the same. Even with my last breath, I will smile and answer ‘I was happy.’”