Summer, yukata and passing showers
"Miss Hell Guardian, please wear this and come with us to the Bon Odori festival next week."
"······Everyone?"
It was the night of July 23rd. After everyone had finished eating the dinner that JacK had made, Yona spoke up. Blushing in embarrassment as he stuttered.
For context, we argued over who should start the conversation, but in the end we decided by rock-paper-scissors.
"There are posters up in various places, right? The organizer is an old man, and since we're here at the human realm, let's all go."
Kikunosuke snatches the package from Yona's hands and hands it to her. “'Wear this'...are you guys scheming something strange again?"
Damn, they messed up on their first try. Calling it a scheme is a bit of an exaggeration, but due to various circumstances, she had been forced to wear things like a high school girl's uniform and a suspicious demon swimsuit in the past.
Although, in the end, she seemed to enjoy all of those things.
"No, no! It's our love for you so don't worry."
“You idiot, Jack, that makes it even more suspicious," I thought but instead, I said calmly, "If you're worried, just take a look. We chose it together."
Still, somewhat skeptical, she opened the package and froze.
"Yukata, obi (belt), geta (shoes), bag…”
"I'll tell you right away that this is not wasting money and we’re not asking for a refund, ever."
Everyone nodded deeply in response to Sharaku's words.
"This is our apology and gratitude to you. So please accept it graciously."
"Apologies and thanks... did something happen?"
So Kikunosuke leaned forward and answered,
"You see! When we first came to the Human Realm, we caused you a lot of trouble, didn't we? We want to apologize for that."
"That's right! Besides, we all split the cost, and we got the reward for completing the mission, so it's not like it's a waste, so take it, okay?"
Sharaku forces the yukata onto her arms as if to show his strength.
"After all this time? You guys didn't need to worry about that." She was confused.
If I could guess what she was thinking, it would probably be "I'm very happy, but praising someone for being wasteful is not good for their education."
I gave her the final blow. "It's not like you're only going to wear it once. I think you'll be happy if you wear it every year to the summer festival."
"Wow, as expected of Lord Ishikawa. You really understand the princess's character. It's a perfect plan to stimulate her ‘don’t waste money’ mindset and automatically ensure that the promise for next year and beyond will come true."
Jack said as he picked up the fallen leaves. This is the hell hot spring that springs up in the courtyard of the shared house.
She rarely comes in, so here or the torture room in the basement is where we have our secret meetings.
"That's true, Goemon is the one to be on the safe side."
"But I'm glad we can go together. I wonder what we should eat at the food stall."
"The only thing I'm worried about is the weather. Let's hope it doesn't get cancelled due to thunderstorms or anything."
"Oh, I want to hang a Teru Teru Bouzu!"
"Kiku is such a child, do you really believe something like that?"
"Sharaku! You're treating me like a kid again! You're only one year older than me."
"I just checked the weather forecast and it says it's sunny for the next week." Yona continued in a good mood, placing a towel on his head.
"But it's amazing how modern times are now, you can even see what the weather will look like by looking at an app."
"But, Murakami-san, a forecast is a forecast. What's ahead a week is still just a guess, so I think we should make a Teru Teru Bouzu. I'm sure she and Tama will be happy."
"Y-You're right... she’ll be happy."
We live to make her happy. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, we're dead after all, but we just want her to smile.
"Okay, let's all make it when we get out of the bath."
"Ahh! Tama!"
"Nya? Nya nya nya...!?"
The next morning, the remains of the Teru Teru Bozu were scattered on the living room windowsill. They had been torn apart in multiple places by sharp claws, and the cloth and the strings that had been used to hang them had lost all semblance of their original form.
Indeed, even hell cats were still very cat-like.
"I'm sorry, Goemon! I'll make it all again, so please don't scold Tama."
"You should scold me. It's not that serious."
"I'm sorry, I was having so much fun swaying back and forth that I realized... I'd like to die to apologize, but I'm already dead.”
“Don’t worry about it, Tama.”
"Hahaha, so Tamaemon did it. It must have been fun to play with." Sharaku arrives with a broom and starts clearing away the remains.
Unfortunately, we don't understand the pleasure of scratching, but if Tama enjoys it, that's fine. He always tries to be close to her, so he is definitely one of our "friends".
"Don't be discouraged, Miss Hell Guardian and Tama. I'm sure we can make it better the second time."
When JacK stroked his head, Tama replied with a serious look on his face. "Please, Please, keep it out of my reach.”
"Then what about the roof? The roof or the railing."
Kikunosuke, who had just woken up, proudly suggested.
"Is this an execution?" I almost burst out laughing at Sharaku's remark.
"Well, it's true that hanging them side by side looks a bit like a hanging execution, but it's a safe place. What should we do, Mr. Ishikawa?"
And finally, the Bon Odori festival begins on July 30th at 4pm.
"...It’s a storm."
“Indeed…”
The rain and wind that began falling at dawn have grown so violent that you can even hear the rumble of thunder.
"I guess the Teru Teru Bouzu didn't bring any good weather because he was hung like an executioner…… I'm sorry for saying that." Kikunosuke shrugged.
"Uga-kun and everyone else, cheer up. Maybe it'll stop by the evening." Jack, who ended up living here for various reasons, was unexpectedly a caring guy. Or rather, he was the most normal among the group of people who didn't listen to each other.
"I'm going to finish cleaning the bathroom." She said this with her usual expression -- or so I thought -- but unfortunately I realized that she was disappointed.
Hell also has its own Bon Odori festival, but according to Tama's information, as the daughter of King Enma, she has always been given VIP treatment and only ever sat in a luxurious box seat, and has never had the chance to join in with everyone.
Also, it seems that she was given a matching yukata with the old man, but it was so flashy that she put it away after only wearing it once.
I can understand the feelings of a parent, but please think about your daughter's feelings too. So this summer, I thought we will spend our first summer together at the Human Realm and have a fun summer festival…
I chose a yukata that would look good on her so that she could relax. Since this was the first time for everyone except Jack to attend the Human Realm’s summer festival, I researched what kind of food stalls there were and what the common sense behavior at the festival was, and came up with a detailed plan.
"Surely... this isn't some old man's curse? Something like, don't flirt with my daughter."
"Well, maybe he can even control the weather..."
"The Great King Enma would go that far? Even to the humans who are participating in this Bon Odori festival? It must be just a coincidence. You guys are overthinking everything."
"If you hang out with this guy for another six months or so, you'll start thinking like this."
And then, to add insult to injury, a new broadcast came in.
"The Asakusa Bon Odori Festival, scheduled for today at Honegahara Square, has been postponed to next week on August 6th."
"Ah..."
"It didn't work out after all..." Kikunosuke and Sharaku collapsed on the living room floor.
"Uga-kun, Toshuusai-kun, please be refreshed. It's not a cancellation, it's a postponement."
"By the way, where is Yona?"
"Oh, you’re right..."
Suddenly, the man himself came in, drenched. "Hey guys! The rain will stop soon!"
"What? What's wrong? Are you half asleep because you wanted to see the Miss in a yukata so much? And what’s with that look?! Don’t tell me you were on the roof this whole time!"
"This doesn't count as wet, believe what I, Murakami Yona, have to say!"
"I wouldn't mind believing you, but it looks like the Bon festival has been postponed."
"Huh...?" Just as Yona's mouth dropped open, carefree music began to play from the monitor.
"Hello to everyone reading "Jigokunet Takamura"! Today we will be introducing some great items!"
"Ah...! This!" We were glued to the screen.
"Goemon, this is..."
“I have no choice but to do it.”
"Leave the funds to me."
"Everyone? Are you done cleaning..."
"Miss, we're going out for a bit."
"Eh? Goemon? Kikunosuke and the others too? Where are you going in this storm? Could it be a new incident?"
"The rain is supposed to stop soon, so let's go for a walk. You put on that yukata, get all dressed up and wait for us. We'll dress up too."
"We're not going out for a walk, are we? Explain the situation. What is it suddenly?"
"If you’re free while waiting, I'd be happy if you could make some dumplings for us."
"Hey! Listen to me!"
“We’re going first~”
And when we opened the door to our house, we saw the clear blue sky after the rain.
"Come in, Miss! The corn and squid are grilled! Please don't hesitate to eat!"
"Which syrup would you like for your shaved ice? I recommend matcha."
"W-what’s this...?"
"We can't wait a week, so we thought we'd hold a summer festival here tonight."
Her eyes widen, with a mixture of happiness and embarrassment on her face. It's 8pm on the rooftop of the shared house.
"You've been doing this without telling me again... I knew you were up to something..."
I wanted to make her happy. Apparently she was happily telling Tama about the food stalls she wanted to eat, and she was also intently researching hairstyles that would go well with her yukata on her smartphone.
She's so brave, but it's so typical of her not to show us that. So I can't wait a week, our summer festival is tonight after all.
"Luckily, we have a BBQ set here. And, you see, they also sell shaved ice shavers and cotton candy machines at Jigokunet Takamura."
"...You wasted money again, didn't you?"
Although she spoke in a bossy, slightly scolding tone, her whole being exuded an excited mood.
"That's fine, now we can eat shaved ice every day."
Kikunosuke laughed as he scooped up some pineapple-flavored ice with a spoon.
"And now... always... adding more things to this house..."
A beach bed, darts, a hanging chair, a hot plate, a suspicious vacuum cleaner with a tsukumogami installed, and recently a stone oven have joined this house that had nothing.
"Miss, how about some cotton candy? You like that sort of thing, don't you?"
The next moment, Yona happily turned on the switch. "Whoa!?"
The pure white cotton candy spurted out and got tangled up in Yona's arms.
"Damn, this is harder than I expected... Hold on a minute, I'll do it right next time..."
"Yona, it's in your hair." Smiling and innocently, she stretched out her finger. We didn't miss that.
"Eh... Ah... Ah, thanks..."
"I'm going to kill you, Yona."
I'm sure everyone was muttering the same thing in their minds.
"Hey, Yona. I'm more skilled than you, so let me take your place." Sharaku runs over to the cotton candy machine, but Yona pushes him back.
"No, you said you wanted to be in charge of baking, because you thought we would make a mess."
"Then let me roast the corn."
"Wait... that's not it!"
"Yeah, let's break open a watermelon later. They sold some big ones, so I'm cooling them in a bucket."
Kikunosuke's words caused sparks among us again. In order to split the watermelon, we had to go around blindfolded several times.
I was the one who tied the blindfold, I put my arm around her shoulders and turned her around, and there was a pointless argument when we bought the watermelon.
We also had other arguments, like wanting to be the one to feed her shaved ice, or share the yakitori sticks, and so on.
"Miss, that yukata suits you well." Damn Jack. I wanted to be the first to praise her, but he beat me to it.
After much deliberation, we gave her a beautiful yukata with flowers dyed with shibori. Today, she has her long hair braided with ribbons, and her pure white nape is clearly visible.
I want to kiss her right now.
Suppressing this desire, I turn over the corn that was left lying around.
"Thank you, this yukata is so beautiful. I will treasure it forever. This is the first time I've seen everyone in yukata, and it looks good on you. It matches the color of the cups."
At the killer line, Yona spilled the sugar all over the place, Kikunosuke turned red and turned his face away, Sharaku gulped down his cider in one gulp, and Jack began to shave ice in silence.
Just like her, they all had such honest pure reactions.
"But I'm glad the rain has stopped. I wonder if the Teru Teru Bouzu did us a favor." We all turned our gaze to the banister. There, where we had all been gazing at the first star of the evening sky, were six Teru Teru Bozu hanging from the railing. Because they were all soaking wet, they felt more like cursed dolls than executed ones but perhaps, they had done a good job. We’ll praise them later.
"Goemon, let me use that later. I'll roast some dumplings for dessert."
My hand suddenly stopped moving.
"Don't make that face, you said so before."
"N-no... you're right, sorry."
Flashback: "I've been told that I'll be going to a distant temple as a servant. My parents... are always worried about the rumors. If that happens, I won't be able to bake you any more dumplings."
Oh no, I might cry. I've become really emotional lately.
"But it's been a while, so I might burn it to a crisp. ‘She’ is dead after all."
Smiling softly, she turned away and her back faced me.
"The Jigoku tree is burning brightly again tonight. The view from here is just amazing."
What is life, what is death, what is good, what is evil?
"Sister! Lord Fujimori will be arriving shortly!" Tama ran up the stairs happily.
We died. But we're here, alive again. Carrying all our lies, sins and karma, we’ll continue to live.
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