Part 17: Shrine Visit 7: Sakuya

Shrine Visit 7: Sakuya



Why did he ask me to come…? Maybe I should check his email again.
“It seems that New Year’s Day is regarded with the foremost importance in Japan. My mother informed me of many bizarre traditions having to do with this day.
As an aristocrat, I wish to study the ways of the locals most closely. Such knowledge might well be useful in a diplomatic mission, or the like.
I designate you as my personal guide. Be grateful. Be at the White Dove Shrine at nine AM on January first.”
How on earth does he manage to type so well when he can’t pry his eyes away from his own nose? I wonder what he’s planning. Le Bel things, probably.
I don’t think much of being treated like an underling by my own classmate, but I don’t have any other plans…
And this is his first New Year’s in Japan, so maybe he’s nervous. I guess I can lend him a hand.


Oh, sorry, Sakuya! So you got here already?
Unlike you yokels, I have a busy schedule. A true aristocrat must always plan his schedule out down to the very last second.
Okay, I’ll be more careful next time… Hey, it’s barely twenty seconds past nine o’clock!
Did I not just say that I plan my schedule out down to the very last second?
Gosh, if you keep nitpicking like that, people will end up calling you a bickery old spinster!
How dare you question my masculinity!?

That’s not the part you should be objecting to!


Yeah, yeah… Come on, let’s go in.


As we were walking to the shrine, I was thinking of ways to explain all of this stuff to someone from outside the country.

I know that much already. I did not come completely unprepared, after all.

Any who see their image on the screen will meet a terrible and bizarre death before long. A terrifying tale, indeed. And yet all these people gather at the shrine once a year… Japan is a mysterious country indeed.
……And you heard that story from--
My mother.
Yeah, I thought so…

Oh, no, I’m getting terribly interested in Sakuya’s mother! What kind of person is she? Did she tell him these things in honest misunderstanding, or was she just setting him up to embarrass himself later in life!?

Unfortunately, I don’t think there are any Onmyouji around anymore. They show up in old stories, but I’ve never seen one.

I wonder about that…
Your mother taught you most of what you know about Japan, right? Have you ever tried asking your butler about things?
Albert? He has never left France before now. I do not think him a reliable source for information on foreign cultures.

I dunno, he seems like the serious type. Maybe if he’d been well-informed about Japan, Sakuya wouldn’t have come here with all these strange ideas…

Anyway, I wish to throw some coin. Where is the target? Direct me.
Th-throw some coin…? You mean give an offering, right?

Sakuya, no! Nobirdie throws money at people now! If you put it like that, it’s like the offering box is some sort of criminal!
I have brought with me some heavy silver coins, of classical Roman manufacture. I believe we will find them impressively lethal. Hoh hoh hoh!
Sakuya, I’m trying to tell you, you don’t throw the money at anybirdie!

I bet he gets “Please listen carefully” written on all his report cards.
Explaining ethics to him from the ground up is going to be hard, but he did ask me for this. I’d better do my best!

And so concludes Sakuya’s shrine visit event.