I looked out the window as I passed through the empty halls of Nindo.

  Down the hill, along the river, was Shugokage.

  It seemed really lively today.

  I could see all sorts of decorations, with countless lanterns being lit already before the sun even set.

  It felt like I could hear the excitement from here.

  It was the weekend, today.

  Normally, even though there weren’t any official classes, students at Nindo could still be seen littering the campus grounds, using their free time to practice, study or spar.

  Not today, though. It was almost completely empty today.

  I sighed as I strolled through the eerily quiet halls.

  I didn’t want to be here either, to be honest.

  I would much rather have spent today doing something with Mother, maybe taking another climb to Vertandhi’s peak or something like that.

  But, alas, that was not meant to be.

  Maybe next year.

  For now, I had a stupid sister I had to take care of.

  I stepped into Nindo’s famed library, and took in the grandeur of its scale.

  Countless shelves and endless floors, winding staircases, ornate tables, weathered, ancient, storied walls…

  It truly was deserving of its reputation as the greatest library on Manusyara.

  I chuckled, the lone sound from my mouth echoing through the empty hall.

  I shook my head.

  I never thought I’d be so sad to see it.

  I had spent many weekends here over the last five years, badgering all of our classmates to come together for big study groups, much to the chagrin of the librarians and custodians.

  There were many good memories here.

  I still sometimes laughed to myself thinking about that one time Gabrielle got so heated in an argument she accidentally knocked over a full shelf, leading to a strange series of events that ended up with Pyphorus taking the blame to cover for his teammate, using a strange excuse that he was ‘excited to show off his girth’, flexing his obnoxious muscles in an embarrassing dance to the teachers that landed him in detention over the weekends.

  I don’t know what he was thinking when he was trying to come up with an excuse, but regardless, I don’t think our cohort would ever stop heckling him about his ‘girth’ and his poor choice of words.

  That dumb muscle-brained boy was a bit too kind for his own good.

  I pushed the countless memories away.

  I wished today could have been one of those good memories, but it didn’t seem like that would be the case.

  Well, it wasn’t myself that I was worried about, but Luna.

  It wasn’t hard to find her.

  There was only one person in the library, and she was a creature of habit in the end, preferring the same kind of spots that she did with Mother’s library.

  As was usual for the past month, there was a mountain of textbooks besides her, with a dozen more haphazardly scattered on the lonesome desk, flipped open to random pages.

  Really, what was this girl doing, choosing today of all days to continue studying?

  I sighed, pulling out a seat across from her and sitting down.

  She didn’t even look up to acknowledge me.

  I moved to swipe away some of the discarded books cluttering the desk to give myself some space.

  “Don’t touch them.”

  She finally acknowledged my presence.

  “And leave me alone.”

  I pouted, but nonetheless complied, propping up my elbows awkwardly against the very edge of the desk.

  “You know,” I started, “Mother was worried about you. You didn’t even take the gryphon back yesterday, on Friday. Usually you can at least manage that much. Surely it isn’t at least too much trouble to at least ask you to come home on the weekends so we can keep an eye on you, right?”

  Really, she was getting worse by the week.

  Even just last week, when I had to forcefully feed her then move her sleeping body back to her room, she wasn’t this bad.

  “I’d be wasting time,” she muttered, still scribbling away, “I get more done if I don’t waste time commuting back and forth. This library works just as good as Mother’s anyways, so it doesn’t matter.”

  She took a small break to shake her aching wrist.

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Have you at least eaten yet?”

  I smiled teasingly.

  “Do you need big sis to feed you again~”

  That gave her pause.

  She blushed and bristled, quickly shaking her head.

  “N-no, I-I’m fine. I-I’ve already eaten.”

  She lightly tapped a small spot on the desk, where paper wrappings littered with breadcrumbs could be seen.

  I frowned.

  “Really, just a couple of sandwiches, Luna? You can’t tell me that’s enough to fill you.”

  “Mind your own business.”

  Luna started to aggressively drag her pencil across her notebooks.

  “And besides, I can always just eat more later when I’m done.”

  “Oh, really,” I deadpanned, “and when would that be? Tomorrow? Monday?”

  I sighed.

  “Why are you studying on today of all days, too? It’s not like you’re on that much of a deadline or anything. You still have plenty of time to make it, taking a singular day off isn’t going to hurt.”

  “You wouldn’t get it,” she scoffed, “and besides, what’s even special about today? Some random festival or something? Like that matters. If everyone wants to celebrate some silly stupid myth or something and waste their time instead of improving themselves, that’s on them.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Luna, seriously? It’s not just some random festival, don’t tell me you haven’t even looked at the calendar?”

  “Why would I need to?” Luna huffed, brushing a stray strand of messy hair away, “it’s all just stupid, pointless, superstitious nonsense anyways.”

  She looked terrible while saying that.

  Her hair wasn’t dirty, per say, but it somehow looked even worse than it did when we were living in poverty. The same could be said for her skin, too.

  At least back then, she was a good kid who went to sleep on time.

  But now, I would be surprised if she had gotten more than ten hours of sleep total in the last week.

  I chuckled, shaking my head.

  “Alright, that does it.”

  I got up from my seat and walked around to the other side of the table.

  I could have excused it if Luna had just taken a look at the calendar and known what day it was.

  If she had consciously recognised the importance of today, and made the decision herself to prioritise her studies, I would have just waved it away as silly teenage behaviour and walked away, just checking in on her to make sure she was eating and sleeping.

  But she was clearly just being reckless for the sake of it, and had no idea what she was doing to herself.

  “H-hey, w-what are you doing!?” Luna yelped, not realising what was going on until it was too late.

  I had wrapped my arms underneath her armpits and physically picked her up, separating her from her studies.

  “L-let go!”

  She thrashed around in my grip.

  I just laughed at her pitiful attempts to get me off of her.

  Her hands slapped and thudded against my cheeks, bouncing off uselessly.

  She desperately kicked around in the air, twisting and turning.

  I pouted.

  “Aw, come on, Luna, if you want to put up a fight, you really need to eat more.”

  I effortlessly pulled her up and down, emphasising her weight.

  Or, well, lack thereof.

  “It’s really not healthy for you to be so light, you know~ You need a bit more meat on your bones, like your sister~”

  “Not all of us are so lucky to be so well endowed!” Luna snarled at me, “You stupid Earth mages! Hag! Cow! Get your stupid udders off of me, fatty!”

  “Aw~” I just cooed, nuzzling my cheek against hers as she protested, still thrashing around in my grip, “you can’t make those excuses forever, you know? Mother’s a pure Fire mage like you too, even if she bypasses that most of the time with rituals, and isn’t she just as ‘endowed’ as I am? You can’t keep running away from reality and blaming things out of your control forever~”

  Judging by the indignant fury that was quickly escalating in her attempts of struggle, she didn’t have a good response for me.

  I laughed.

  “If you care about it so badly, then why don’t you let me feed you, hm? Doesn’t that sound like a fun time?”

  Luna blushed furiously.

  “I-I’m not five years old! I-I don’t need to be fed!”

  I hefted her around as I walked out of the library, earning startled yelps from her.

  “I think your weight says otherwise~”

  “S-shut up!”

  I hummed nonchalantly, carrying Luna through the peaceful halls of Nindo.

  “Let me down!”

  “Nope~”

  “Where are you taking me, anyways!?”

  “Isn’t it obvious, silly? Big sis is taking you out to play~”

  “Let go of me! This is a waste of time! I’m better off spending it alone in the library! If you want to play so badly, go do it with all of your friends or whatever! Leave me out of it!”

  “Nope, sorry! You’ve wasted all your chances to get out of this! All that time around those other witches and studying by yourself is rotting your brain. I’m going to fix that!”

  “Why do you even have this robe prepared? How the hell did you get my measurements?”

  Luna blushed, stumbling onto the bustling streets of Shugokage as the sun slowly started to set and squirming in the unfamiliar outfit.

  She tugged on the sleeve of her black kimono, fidgeting with the red trim as she inspected the fabric and its embroidered flowers and cherry blossoms.

  I myself wore a similar outfit, dressed in a soft white yukata decorated with blue patterns that spiralled around the fabric, resembling great stretches of bamboo leaves and sunflowers.

  I chuckled, gently pushing her along.

  “Where do you think? If you don’t want me to take your measurements, maybe you shouldn’t keep falling asleep in the library~”

  “You took them while I was sleeping!?”

  “Of course! It wasn’t like you were going to let me while you were awake!”

  “Did you plan this!?”

  I laughed, waving her concerns away.

  “Of course not, buuuut~ it’s always good to be prepared in case of an emergency, you know?”

  “What emergency!?” Luna flushed, waving her arms around and letting her sleeves flutter in the air, “I was studying! That’s a perfectly normal thing for a student of Nindo to be doing! Maybe you should be doing more of it yourself, Sister!”

  “I do plenty of it,” I rolled my eyes, “you know, a barely passing mark at Nindo would be a full mark at almost any other school. Your sister is trying her best, you know? Not all of us are so lucky to be geniuses like you are.”

  I poked her cheek playfully.

  “Stop that!”

  She batted my finger away.

  I wondered if it ever actually processed in Luna’s mind just how abnormally talented she was. She never had much of a good frame of reference for ‘normality’, given that her mother was the impossible Belle Symphonia, and that she was surrounded by the endless crowd of geniuses that littered Nindo’s halls.

  I suppose I was a bit lucky in that regard, given that I was just a young man of completely average intelligence, upbringing, status and wealth in my previous life.

  I would just have to make do as Luna’s reference for normality.

  In more ways than just one, for that matter.

  I would always be there to let her know that the world she knew and the life she lived – being endlessly spoiled by Mother and I, being shown endless affection to the point of annoyance – was nothing but ordinary.

  I would never let her dream of a world in which such things – love, kindness, happiness – were ‘extraordinary’, where they were out of reach.

  This whole thing, pushing her out of her little hole in the library and making sure she spent the day enjoying the festival, was just a part of that process.

  “This is still stupid,” Luna grumbled, “I don’t get why you’re so fussed about this festival. I still think this is a waste of time.”

  She didn’t get the chance to escape though.

  She yelped as I firmly pushed her along, keeping my hand on her back as I dragged her across the street.

  The sky slowly grew dark, bright blues fading into dim oranges and purples.

  I briefly looked up.

  It was cloudy, very cloudy.

  That was good, it meant there would be a good show tonight.

  “Come on, forget about all of your studying and stuff for just a day, okay?” I chuckled, “Just relax, leave it all behind for a bit… it’s only a couple of hours, just unwind and have some fun with your sister, okay!? We don’t even spend that much time together anymore, come on, indulge me just a little bit.”

  Luna rolled her eyes in annoyance, huffing.

  We strolled through the festive city, looking for something to do.

  As the day wore on, and evening approached, soon to become night, the city grew more and more beautiful.

  The endless cascade of lanterns hung across the city slowly lit up, glowing brightly against the darkening sky, popping with dazzling colours as their streamers and bulbs gently swayed in the soft summer breeze.

  The rivers were calm, letting a tide of water lanterns slowly be carried across their streams, fading off into the horizon, slowly blurring until they became a sea of stars far away, mirroring the night sky itself.

  Floating lights were hung across the many protective branches of the Hinanhoro, which themselves almost sung with glee as the wind passed by and made the leaves rustle, as if the tree itself was happy to see all of its wards so joyful.

  Children ran past us on either side of the busy street, laughing as they spun around with food in their hands, or carrying trinkets and toys that fluttered around and shined in the growing darkness.

  Parents chased after them, sighing tiredly as their partners smiled wryly, shaking their heads helplessly as their kids inevitably got injured in the midst of their excitement.

  Lovers giggled as they watched from a distance, resting their heads on each other’s shoulders and leaning into their embraces, feeding each other snacks and playing games together.

  One of Hinanhoro’s branches hung particularly low, extending all the way to the ground, where there was a crowded stall in front of it.

  The bamboo-like branch itself was oddly decorated, with colourful strips of paper and talismans hanging from it like leaves.

  Well, I suppose there was only one way to properly start the festival.

  I worked my way through the crowd, approaching the stall and grabbing two talismans and ink-loaded brushes.

  “Here,” I smiled, handing one of them to Luna.

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  She blinked cluelessly at it.

  “What am I supposed to be doing with this?” She fiddled with the brush in her hands.

  “You write your wishes on them,” I explained, “then we hang them on the Hinanhoro’s branches, which listens to them and accepts them. Then during the night, it carries them all the way up to the heavens themselves and delivers them to the stars, which in turn will bless us with good fortune to achieve our dreams.”

  “That’s silly,” Luna frowned.

  “Maybe it is,” I giggled, “but what’s the harm in writing your wishes? Why, do you not want to do it?”

  “Of course not, it’s childish.”

  “Oh, what’s so childish about it?” I playfully nudged her with my elbow, “is it because your hopes are childish? Were you thinking about writing down something embarrassing? Do you not want to let me see?”

  She stiffened, slowly reddening.

  “N-no…”

  I grinned and continued to tease her.

  “Don’t worry, I don’t care whatever it is you hope for. Are you scared of other people judging you, maybe? Do you think someone will look at your wish and laugh at you and think it’s stupid?”

  “...”

  Her fingers slowly curled into fists.

  “Is it not something to be proud about? Is it shameful and private? Is it really not something that you can just say out loud and declare?”

  “Of course not, shut up!”

  Her blush deepened as she quickly took the brush and wrote something on it.

  I glanced down curiously, observing what she wrote.

  I probably didn’t need to, though.

  Luna was a very simple girl in the end, so it was obvious what it was she hoped for.

  ‘I want to become a witch that matches Mother.’

  My sister scurried forward, hurriedly tying the strip of paper onto Hinanhoro’s branch, which bowed lightly towards her in greeting, humming and rustling politely.

  I approached her, moving to hang my own talisman higher up.

  She glared at me as the embarrassment on her cheeks slowly died down.

  “What the hell did you write down, anyways?”

  I giggled and winked at her.

  “That’s a secret~”

  “Y-you!”

  Luna glared at me and gnashed her teeth, stomping the ground in frustration.

  “Why the hell did you say all of that if you weren’t going to tell me anyways!?”

  I just laughed and turned around, dragging her away with me.

  Well, it wasn’t really a secret at all.

  There was only one hope I ever had.

  If Luna thought about it for even a moment, she would have been able to guess what I wrote easily, but it seemed like she was too tired to even manage that much.

  Really, what a silly girl.

  Where would she be without me?

  “No, it isn’t fair!” Luna complained as I dragged her away, “You have to tell me, Sister! Why aren’t you saying anything? Are you embarrassed!? Is what you wrote shameful!?”

  “Nope!” I responded cheerily.

  “Then why aren’t you telling me!?”

  “Because I think your complaining is cute!”

  “Y-you!” She froze for a moment, before devolving into an incoherent mess, “Jsdkjghplk!”

  I laughed at the look on her face.

  I brought her towards one of the stalls, where a game was being played at a water tank.

  I handed the kind, elderly stall-owner a small fare of coins, receiving a paper racket and a bowl from them.

  “Here,” I handed them to my sister, like I did earlier with the talisman and brush.

  And much like earlier, she just blinked cluelessly at me.

  I nodded towards the water tank in front of the stall, filled with an endless swarm of spirits taking the form of goldfish.

  “It’s a traditional festival game, to test how loved you are by the spirits, and how well you can coerce nature. Just use the racket to catch as many goldfish as you can and place them in the bowl.”

  “Is that all?” Luna brought the racket up, inspecting the flimsy paper net closely, “so it’s just a child’s game, is it?”

  “You’re really obsessed with this whole ‘childish’ thing, aren’t you?” I remarked dryly, “You know it’s okay to give in to your inner child every once in a while, you know? Don’t need to be so uptight and mature all day.”

  She glared at me.

  “I wish you could be a little bit more mature.”

  “What are you talking about?” I blinked at her ignorantly, purposefully letting the point of her words go over my head, “Weren’t you just complaining a bit ago about how you were jealous of my figure? I thought you would want me to be less mature.”

  Luna just sputtered.

  I chortled at her response.

  “Anyways, if it’s really such a simple child’s game, then shouldn’t you, a genius witch, be able to overcome it easily?”

  Luna groaned and rolled her eyes.

  “Look, Sis, I’m not going to keep on falling for that provocation. Even I can see through it by now, you know?”

  She said that, but her eyes kept darting to the swimming bright blue fish spirits in the tank, which almost seemed to be giggling and teasing her about our conversation.

  She scowled, her grip on the racket and bowl tightening.

  “Well, it’s working, isn’t it~” I chimed.

  She shot me another glare before tuning me out and focusing on the game, and at the spirits which seemed to be mocking her.

  Her hand furiously swiped downwards, dragging through the water at staggering speeds.

  The goldfish didn’t even bother to dodge, just continuing to lazily swim straight forward, recognising they were at no risk of being caught.

  The paper net broke, leaving behind a useless racket.

  “W-what!?” Luna flinched, quickly bringing the racket out of the water to figure out what had gone wrong.

  “It’s made of paper, silly,” I chided her, “you can’t just use your full force. Well, to be honest, I’m a bit surprised you have enough strength with those frail bones of yours to even manage to tear a paper net~”

  “Shut up!” She growled, quickly snatching a new racket being offered to her by the elderly stall-owner, who laughed at our antics.

  She snarled at the cackling, glaring at the grey and wrinkled stall-owner on the other side of the tank.

  The elderly woman just laughed alongside me, brushing off the childish anger with practiced ease.

  Luna narrowed her eyes, focusing on the movement patterns of the fish in the tank.

  Her movements were slower, more deliberate this time.

  But still, they were useless all the same.

  The goldfish saw the approaching net, and then proceeded to suddenly flip one-hundred-and-eighty degrees and perform a U-turn through the water, ducking underneath the trap with supernatural grace and agility.

  Luna just blinked owlishly at the unnatural behaviour, gaping at the spirit which seemed to look her in the eyes and mock her.

  “Yer gonna hafta try a bit harder than that if ya wanna cajole my spirits, kid,” the elderly woman running the stall let out a boisterous laugh.

  “Grrr,” Luna snarled, and blinded by her emotions, made another desperate attempt to catch the goldfish, only to fail just as spectacularly.

  “This is impossible!” She loudly complained, tossing the racket aside in a fit of frustration, “How the hell is anyone supposed to be able to do this!?”

  I laughed, before gently taking the bowl from her hands and accepting a new racket in her place.

  “Of course it’s possible, silly, you’re just not doing it right. Come on, watch your big sister do it.”

  I smiled, and turned my attention towards the goldfish, which met my challenge with an arrogant spin, daring me to catch them.

  I effortlessly flicked my wrist.

  “There’s no point! There’s just no way to win! Their swimming patterns make no sense! Their anatomy should make that turning speed and flexibility impossi-”

  Luna blinked.

  In that brief moment of time it took for her to rest her eyes, one of the goldfish suddenly disappeared from the tank.

  “...”

  She stared at the tank, confused.

  Her head snapped towards the bowl in my other arm.

  “H-how!?” She gaped at the goldfish trapped inside of it, which blinked turned side to side, as if not understanding where it was.

  She shook her head furiously.

  “N-no, there has to be some sort of trick to this! What the hell are you doing!? Did you pay the old woman off!?”

  “Of course not,” I rolled my eyes, observing the water tank once more, “I won fair and square.”

  To demonstrate my point, I extended my wrist, and in one smooth motion, scooped another unsuspecting spirit into the bowl.

  “H-how!?” Luna’s eyes widened, “How are you doing that!? You have to teach me what your trick is!”

  I giggled.

  “Weren’t you the one calling this a children’s game just a minute ago?”

  “Shut up! That doesn’t matter anymore. Just show me already!”

  “Alright, alright, I’ll show you how to do it, come on, you have to move your wrist like this.”

  “L-like this?”

  “No, Luna, that’s too rigid of a movement. It has to be one smooth motion, don’t just snap your wrist, remember to turn your elbow too.”

  “T-this is impossible!”

  “Well maybe if you weren’t all just bones.”

  “Shut up about that, would you!?”

  “Bwahahaha!”

  “Shut up, you decrepit skeleton, hag! Mind your own business!”

  “Nah, lass is right. Ya hafta get some more meat on yer bones.”

  “Oh, Sol. There’s two of them…”

  “Aw, don’t worry, Luna, I’m sure there’s a way around it, here, let me guide you through it.”

  “H-hey, get your hand off of mi-! H-huh?”

  “See, it’s not that hard!”

  “W-wait, I didn’t see it! Show me again at once!”

  “You have to ask nicely, Luna.”

  “P-please… s-show me how to catch the fish, E-Estelle…”

  “Aw, of course, since you asked so politely! I’d do anything for my cute little sister!”

  “G-get those stupid blobs of fat off of me!”

  It was a good evening.

  Despite her many complaints and feigned indifference, Luna could not help but get absorbed into the many activities and games that I showed her around.

  But, it couldn’t last forever.

  Before long, the sun had almost completely set, meaning that it was time to move on to the real celebration.

  I dragged her through Shugokage, slowly making our way to the crowded core of the city, eventually ascending up Hinanhoro’s roots and trunk and climbing all the way up to its massive outer branches, which were all large enough to form entire streets and districts on their own.

  “Ugh,” Luna panted and groaned tiredly as we made our way up, “this sucks.”

  She moaned in pain, feeling the aches and burns in her legs slowly start to build up.

  I briefly considered healing her legs for her, but eventually decided against it.

  It would be a good lesson for her.

  “Well~” I perked up, “if you’re that tired, you could always let big sis carry you up like she used to~”

  “N-no!” Luna blushed furiously, “I-I’m fourteen! I don’t need to be given p-piggyback rides!”

  “Then~ you better start building up your stamina, then! If you don’t want me to carry you everywhere for the rest of your life, you have to build up some strength of your own~”

  “Grrr…” Luna grit her teeth.

  She winced in pain, but nevertheless bit down on her lip to stifle the aches and mustered up whatever willpower she had left to endure the harsh ascent.

  Before long, we made it to our destination, a massive amphitheatre-like ring surrounding a small stage, packed to the brim with countless families.

  It was on the very last of Hinanhoro’s branches which were large enough to be built on top of, higher up and further out than any other place in Shugokage.

  There were very few scant branches and leaves covering us.

  As dusk’s last light continued to fade behind the horizon, the clouds above were still thick and heavy, concealing the night sky from view and smothering away the moon and the stars.

  As we made our way across the many rows of seats, we ran into a familiar face.

  A familiar head of bushy red hair stood in front of us.

  “Oh, hey, Estelle!”

  Luna flinched at the voice, immediately retreating behind me shyly like she used to.

  I almost wanted to laugh at the sudden change in her behaviour.

  All it took was one sentence from her crush and she suddenly became that shy little girl again.

  Hayate jogged up to me, greeting me in a formal, elegant yukata.

  “Didn’t expect you to actually be able to make it! Nice to see you out here! Hope Shugokage has been treating you well, tonight.”

  “It’s nice to see you too, Hayate. You look good in that yukata, almost like a proper ducal son,” I smiled and nodded politely in greeting.

  “Really, you think so!?” Hayate’s azure eyes brightened, “Thanks! You look really good too!”

  He bristled, realising what he just said.

  A blush almost immediately crept onto his cheeks.

  “E-err, n-not in a… w-weird way or anything, just, like… y’know as a f-frie-...”

  I laughed, only making him more embarrassed.

  I felt Luna stiffen behind me, clutching onto my clothes, anxiously listening to the exchange.

  “It’s fine, I get what you mean,” I waved his awkwardness away.

  Hayate then blinked, realising something.

  “Wait, if you’re out here, dressed like that, then that means…”

  He leaned out to the side.

  “Oh, wow! Hey, Luna! How are you doing tonight?”

  My sister stammered and blushed, retreating even further behind me.

  I rolled my eyes, and gently pushed her out in front of me, tightly gripping her and forcing her to confront Hayate.

  “N-no, I don’t want him to see me wearing this, it’s embarrassing!” she hissed at me, writhing as she tried to push against my arm and hide behind me.

  “You look really good in that yukata too! I know it might be weird to be wearing traditional Tenmai robes, but don’t worry about it! You’ll fit right in with everyone else.”

  That simple sentence from him made Luna freeze.

  She robotically turned around, flushing and staring at Hayate’s feet.

  “Y-you mean it, H-Hayate-senpai?”

  “Yup!” Hayate nodded, grinning cheerily and cheesily as usual.

  Luna brightened at his answer, almost managing to muster the courage to look at his face directly.

  “I was a bit confused when Estelle asked if I could look through my little sisters’ wardrobes and borrow something, but it all makes sense now! I almost mistook you for one of them, haha!”

  She froze.

  “L-little s-sister’s…” she trailed off.

  I giggled.

  “Of course, I had to get the clothes from somewhere. What, did you think I got that robe made in just a week? Of course not, silly. I just borrowed them from a good friend of ours!”

  “...”

  Luna stared off into the distance, struggling to process something or other.

  “Don’t sweat it, Estelle,” Hayate continued, not looking at Luna’s dumbfounded expression, “no need to pay me or my sisters back or anything. If you want to repay the favour, just have a good night tonight, yeah? I understand that tonight’s usually a special night for you. I know you usually don’t come out with the rest of us to celebrate this festival, but you’re still taking the time to show Luna around… don’t let anything get in the way of tonight, okay?”

  I nodded.

  “I won’t. And tell Kagura I said good luck.”

  Hayate laughed as he turned around, running back to where he came from.

  “Yeah, I will! She’ll be glad to hear it too! She’s been a nervous wreck for the past few hours!”

  Once he disappeared from view, Luna came back to her senses.

  “H-huh?” She blinked.

  She looked up at me, tugging on my sleeve with a bit of urgency in her eyes.

  “W-what was he talking about? What’s the deal with tonight, anyways?”

  I rolled my eyes.

  She still didn’t get it, hm?

  “Come on, Luna,” I sighed, “don’t tell me you still haven’t figured it out?”

  She just scowled and looked away, regaining that earlier petulance.

  “I don’t get it. What’s so important about this stupid festival?”

  Oh. There was a good seat.

  I beckoned Luna to sit down next to me.

  It didn’t take long for the rest of the seats to fill.

  Slowly, the chatter died down, and the atmosphere was filled with an intense air of excitement and wonder.

  The lights around the seats died down, submerging the world in darkness.

  It was fully night-time now.

  Then, the stage at the centre of the ring lit up with a lone, hauntingly beautiful beam of moonlight, miraculously making its way past the clouds as Hinanhoro’s leaves parted to the sides to make way for it.

  Luna blinked at the singular figure on the stage.

  “Tsukiyo-senpai?”

  Kagura knelt peacefully with her eyes closed as incense sticks burned in front of her.

  A collar of pitch-black magpie feathers draped off to the side, covering her left shoulder like a cape, with her right shoulder being covered by her sweeping brown hair, held in place by an enormous red headdress that fanned out with a small crown resembling the sun.

  She stood up, letting the draping white sleeves of her dress hang in the wind, transparent red sheets of fabric crossing and streaming all around her.

  A bare foot moved, peeking out from the elegant tangle of the immaculate ritualistic dancer’s outfit, framed with exotic fabrics that danced with the breeze.

  She turned, making one slow, deliberate movement after another.

  One foot in, a twirl, a flourish of the ritual staff decorated with a flowing river of star-like patterns.

  She started to dance.

  I smiled, looking at my sister’s puzzled face.

  She still didn’t get it, hm?

  Well, I guess I would have to spell it out for her.

  I chuckled and shook my head.

  “You wanted to know what this festival is about, right?” I smiled, looking at my friend fondly as she danced alone on the stage, surrounded by enraptured gazes, like the entire population of Tenmai was watching her.

  Luna just blinked at me.

  “Well, a long, long time ago, before even the days of Calybcor, when there were only nomads wandering through the stars… there were two elves, distant ancestors of Tenmai’s people, worshipped today as divinity in their own way.”

  I closed my eyes, recalling the story.

  It was strange.

  The story had somehow persisted across two different lifetimes and worlds almost completely intact.

  I guess the night sky was full of wonder for everyone, everywhere, no matter which world they came from.

  They looked upon those infinite stars, and told the same stories, and saw the same miracles.

  Maybe that was why I loved them so much.

  Because I could look upon those stars, and take comfort in the fact that my parents back home on Earth would look upon them too, sharing those same legends and tales with each other.

  No matter how far away we were, we could always share this same view.

  “There was a princess known as Orihime, who spent her days weaving robes from starlight, taking from the endless stream of the River of Heaven. She was so diligent, so absorbed in her own work, that she cared for nothing else, not for love, not for others, not even herself. She hardly bothered to even eat or sleep.”

  Luna bristled, finding the description familiar.

  Well, I wasn’t trying to target her, it was just a coincidence.

  “One day, her father, the king, ordered her to take a break from her work, concerned over his daughter’s health. Reluctantly, she was forced to accept, and wandered away from her starry palace, eventually meeting a simple cow herder, Hikoboshi.”

  Kagura came to a brief stop.

  Everyone held their breath.

  The staff in her hands lit up, a stream of celestial moonlight wisping across the flowing veil of stars attached to it.

  She held her hand out to an invisible partner.

  Her hand tightened around the phantom, and she danced alongside the imaginary person, seeming completely natural despite only fulfilling one half of the dance.

  “And before they knew it. They fell in love. Hopelessly, at that. They completely forgot about their own duties and responsibilities, and things in the world around them almost began to fall apart because of it. The nobles and royalties complained that their robes were falling apart. And the farmers bemoaned that Hikoboshi’s unwatched cows wreaked havoc on their crops.”

  Kagura held her hand out to the nothing, sorrowfully watching as the nothing then fled, retreating back into imagination.

  She resumed her solemn, lonely dance.

  “So the court banished Hikoboshi to the other side of the River of Heaven, separating the two lovers. But that did not fix the issue. Orihime was left with only heartbreak, spending every day weeping, filling the River of Heaven with her sorrowful tears. Her father watched on, and moved by his daughter’s love, he prayed for a miracle. He prayed that his daughter would be able to reunite with her lover, if only for a single day in every year, and swept away his daughter’s tears, collecting them in a bowl.”

  Kagura’s dance grew more emotional.

  Subdued steps became grand leaps. Small pivots became blurring twirls. Sheets of fabric danced and spun and the shrine maiden swayed from side to side, crossing from corner to corner of the stage she stood on.

  “And then one day, on a clear day with no clouds, he took the tears, and scattered them into the River of Heaven. And his prayers were fulfilled. The tears turned into magpies, forming a bridge between the two sides of the river, allowing Orihime to cross it, and for just a singular day, reunite with Hikoboshi.”

  I smiled, reaching out to hold Luna’s hand with my own.

  I caressed her wrist gently.

  Luna had almost forgotten about her irritation and her worries, becoming entirely absorbed in Kagura’s ritualistic dance.

  “That’s why, every year… on the 7th of July, the people of Tenmai gather, and pray for a clear sky with no clouds. For when the night is perfect, and the sky is clear, when no rain falls… the magpies will come, and the two lovers will reunite.”

  Luna froze, recognising the date.

  Kagura reached the climax of her dance, and threw her arms into the sky, falling to her knees and praying.

  And the heavens answered her.

  A pillar of light encompassed her from below, shooting straight into the skies.

  Hinanhoro’s branches and leaves gently parted to the side, clearing the way for the sky itself.

  The light ascended into the sky.

  And the clouds parted, dissolving like silk.

  Luna’s lips slowly parted and her eyes widened, as she stared up in wonder at the unveiled night sky.

  I slowly leaned against her.

  “It’s an important day, you know? It means a lot of things. It’s a reminder that love is eternal. That no matter what, no matter how far apart you are, those who love you are always within reach, that the stars which shine upon you connect you to all those you know. All you need to do, to remember that you are loved, is to look upon the stars and pray for a clear sky. There, across the bridge of magpies, on the other side of the River of Heaven, among the endless sea of stars… you will find home, you will find comfort. You will find the person you know you can always return to, you will find the strength that lets you keep on living, no matter the struggles you endure, no matter the hardship that threatens to crumple you.”

  A flock of magpies flew across the sky, as if spurred by divine intervention.

  Luna, as if hypnotised by the heavens, reached out with her fingers, gently stroking the starry, silver river, gathering that well of divine water in her hands.

  A choir of angelic lights sung, glimmering and showering her with endless affection, brushing her fingers with warm starlight.

  I laughed.

  “How is it, Luna? This is the sky that Mother dreams of. The sky that she loves, the sky that she wants us to touch with our own two hands. You don’t need to do anything as silly as pass a test for her to love you, you know? If you want to live up to her expectations, all you need to do is look up and know she loves you.”

  I looked up along with her, admiring the Silver River.

  That familiar stream of celestial ink, remnants of a divine brushstroke that painted the world at its very beginnings, crowded on either side by an endless curtain of dazzling lights.

  I tightened my grip around my sister’s hand.

  All the lights in the sky watched over us, containing all the hopes and dreams of those who came before us, taking the wishes we had written onto those silly talismans and carving them into their memories.

  As long as they shined, my sister and I would not be alone.

  I laughed.

  “I’ll always love you, you know?”

  I reached out with my other hand.

  I flicked her forehead, banishing her worries and tiredness.

  “Happy birthday, Luna.”

  And that’s Episode 3.

  Lot of interludes coming up.