The Time Traveler of Kyoto: A Century-Old Bond Sleeping in the Ancient Capital - Shattered Mirror, Night at Rock Bottom

The sound of Chiyo being slammed against the stone pavement echoed endlessly in her mind. A dull *goshack*——that sound alone looped through her head. Tachibana Yui remained on her knees on the floor of the main hall of Kaguramorori Shrine, unable to move. Both hands pressed against the wooden floor. She looked at her fingertips. Four of them were transparent. The wood grain of the floor was faintly visible beyond her fingers. More clearly than last time. They weren't coming back. Thirty seconds passed. A minute passed. They were returning so slowly. It had been a forced return. Not of her own will. Even though Chiyo was still there, surrounded by those men, collapsed on the stone pavement, Tokiwatari had gone haywire on its own. White light, ignoring Yui's will, had dragged her back to the present day. *(Chiyo-san is still there like that)* Something rose up from the back of her throat. She stifled her voice. Her father might be outside the main hall. But she had reached her limit. A muffled sob leaked into the dark interior of the shrine. She didn't know how long she stayed like that. Suddenly, she remembered her phone. She had to contact Sousuke. With trembling hands, she fumbled in her pocket and pulled it out. The lock screen was wet. Tears had been falling from her cheeks. She opened LINE and found Shinonome Sousuke's contact. She began typing a message——when a problem occurred. Her fingers were transparent. The touchscreen wouldn't respond. "Ha......" The voice escaped her involuntarily. With transparent fingers, the smartphone screen malfunctioned. When she tried to type "I went to the Taisho era," it came out as "Big life long ago degree ri mashi." She deleted it and tried again. Malfunction again. She deleted it. Using only one finger whose transparency had faded, she typed out the message one character at a time, taking an agonizingly long time. *'Chiyo-san is surrounded by men in the Taisho era. Something might be happening with the mirror. Checking now'* She sent it. She couldn't laugh. She couldn't laugh, yet somehow she thought the situation was laughable. Chiyo was in danger, but because her fingers were transparent, she couldn't use her phone properly, and tears were streaming down her face while she muttered strange things to herself. Emotions with nowhere to go swirled inside her body. A thermometer. It was on a shelf in the shrine office. When she tried to stand, her arms wavered. She placed her hand against the wall and slowly got to her feet. Outside the main hall, it was an autumn night. The cedar trees swayed in the wind. Cold air touched her skin. Her temperature might be over 38 degrees——the heat seeping out from inside her body felt much heavier than last time. ＊ She approached the Musubi mirror. An ancient bronze mirror about 60 centimeters in diameter——with spiral patterns carved on its back surface——this mirror was the medium for time-crossing, or Tokiwatari. On that first night, it had emitted a pale blue light and pulled Yui into the Taisho era. Until tonight, with each purification ritual, it had emitted light and sent Yui to 1924, where Chiyo was. This mirror. The moment she approached, she noticed something wrong. Fine cracks ran across its surface. Cracks spreading like a spider's web radiated outward from the center of the mirror. Each one was thin, but there were many of them. When light hit them, each crack glowed faintly white. Yui gently touched her fingertip to it. The edge of the crack was slightly chipped. "......This can't be real" Her voice didn't come out. Only a faint sound escaped. She sat in seiza position and placed both hands on the edge of the mirror. She closed her eyes and prayed. Please let me go. Let me go back to Chiyo-san—— Light flickered weakly. It blinked once, then went out. Again. Praying harder this time. Chiyo is surrounded by men. Lying collapsed on the stone pavement. That sound is ringing in my head. I have to go—— The light didn't come. Again. And again. Again—— No matter how many times she tried, the mirror didn't answer. Eventually, something inside Yui snapped. She grabbed the edge of the mirror with both hands and shook it. It didn't move. It was heavy. But she shook it anyway. "Please let me go, please let me go! Chiyo-san——Chiyo-san is still there——!" She was screaming. She no longer had the composure to muffle her voice. She pounded the edge of the mirror with her fist. A dull sound. She pounded again. And again. Her palm hurt. But Chiyo, Chiyo—— Yui's voice echoed through the main hall. The cedar trees outside seemed to rustle. The mirror, quietly bearing its cracks, did not glow. Her phone rang. With trembling hands, she looked at the screen. It was a reply from Sousuke. *'Black car in front of the shop. No license plate. Been there since last night. Can't move'* That was all. Yui placed her phone on the floor and couldn't move for a while. Sousuke was being watched. The notebook had been stolen and hadn't been returned. The mirror was cracked and Tokiwatari wouldn't activate. Chiyo was alone, collapsed in the Taisho era. Her fingertips were still transparent. Her fever was rising. Everything was blocked off. She knelt on the floor of the main hall once more. ＊ The sound of someone knocking on the shrine office door came a short while later. Knock knock, twice. Then bang bang, four times. There was a rhythm. A familiar rhythm. "Yui, you're here, right? Open up" It was Moeka. Yui crawled up from the floor and opened the shrine office door. Light purple bob hair swayed in the autumn night breeze. Natsume Moeka——Yui's best friend who was 159 years old, whose prominent buck teeth showed when she smiled, who often spoke with animated gestures——stood there with a jacket draped over her shoulders. She wasn't smiling. Her brows were drawn together, staring intently at Yui's face. "......Huh, what, your face" "Sorry for coming suddenly——" "It's not sudden. I've been worried the whole time" Moeka came into the shrine office. She looked at Yui's face up close and paused for a moment. Swollen eyes from crying. Disheveled black hair. A small pendant at her neck, swaying. "Yui, sit down" Prompted, Yui sat down on the floor of the shrine office. Moeka sat in seiza across from her. She tucked her phone into her pocket as she spoke. "Yui's been acting really weird these past few days. You haven't come to class, your complexion's been bad the whole time, you disappear in the middle of the day——I was sure something was definitely wrong, so I came" Her voice was straightforward. She wasn't angry. Just worried. The quality of that voice loosened something in Yui. She thought she couldn't hide it anymore. She didn't have the energy left to hide. "......I'll tell you. Everything" Moeka's eyes widened slightly. But she said nothing and simply nodded. Yui told her. About the Musubi mirror——the sacred object of Kaguramorori Shrine, an ancient mirror with spiral patterns carved on it——being the medium for time-crossing. About Tokiwatari, the power of time travel, awakening in Yui. About being able to go back 100 years to Taisho 13. About meeting Chiyo there——her grandmother in her youth, still in her twenties. About Shinonome Sousuke, an antique dealer at Shinonome-do, being her only ally, and records of her late grandfather investigating the mirror remaining. About the Kurogane Society——a secret society of Taisho-era businessmen that publicly called itself the "Kyoto Industrial Promotion Association"——being obsessed with the mirror and the shrine. About their subordinates surrounding the shrine grounds in the Taisho era tonight. About Chiyo standing alone and being slammed against the stone pavement. About Sousuke's grandfather's notebook being stolen. And about the mirror being cracked tonight, making it impossible to cross. She told her everything. Moeka said nothing throughout. Her animated gestures had stopped. The Moeka who would normally interject with "What!?" "No way!" "That means——" sat quietly and listened. After she finished, there was a long silence. "......Can I ask just one thing" "What" "Show me proof" Yui held out her right hand. Moeka leaned in close and looked at her fingertips. One second. Two seconds. Even in the dim light of the room, it was visible. Beyond her fingers, the tatami grain could be seen through them. Four fingers. The return was slow. Moeka's hand trembled as she reached out. She tried to touch Yui's transparent fingertips——but stopped halfway. Her fingertips hung in the air. Too scared to touch. But trying to believe. That suspended finger was Moeka's full effort. "......This isn't fake, is it" "It's not fake" Moeka took a deep breath. One big one. Then she looked up at Yui. Her buck teeth showed slightly. She wasn't smiling. But she was looking straight at her, trembling. "Got it. I believe you" "......Moeka" "What's happening with that guy Sousuke right now" Yui took out her phone and showed her the LINE screen. Sousuke's reply "Black car in front of the shop. Can't move" was visible. Moeka looked at the screen, then at Yui's face. There was a slight pause. "......You're worried about Sousuke, huh" Her voice was quiet. "It's not like that——" She trailed off. The words wouldn't come. When she heard that Sousuke was being watched, something hard pierced her chest. She couldn't find words to deny it. Moeka didn't press further. Just the corner of her mouth moved slightly. Whether she was smiling or not was ambiguous. "Anyway, let's find a way" Moeka took out her phone. She typed "spiritual vein, sacred rock, Kyoto" into the search bar. She scrolled through the results. Tourist sites. Hiking course guides. "Power spot feature: Higashiyama area." Nothing useful. Moeka tried different search terms. "Kaguramorori Shrine sacred rock." "Time-crossing shrine Kyoto." "Musubi mirror spiritual vein." None of them yielded anything. The two of them looked at each other. Moeka had no spiritual power. Sousuke couldn't move. The mirror was shattered. The notebook was taken. Her body was near its limit. Everything was blocked off. Completely. Yui curled her back against the floor of the shrine office. She hugged her knees. She huddled. Eventually, even the strength to cry left her, and she stared blankly at the wooden boards of the ceiling. The scent of cedar drifted through. The smell of an old building. A smell she'd known since childhood. The smell of the shrine office. Moeka sat beside her and leaned her shoulder against Yui's. There were no words. There was nothing to say. The two of them just sat there. It was quiet. Only the sound of wind echoed through the night shrine. She didn't know how long they sat like that. Suddenly, something seemed to move at Yui's feet. She lowered her gaze. From the gap beneath the old shelf in the shrine office——a board was slightly raised——something was sticking out. An old diary lay on the floor. She didn't know how long it had been there. It might have fallen from the shelf. But Yui had been staring at that spot the whole time she'd been sitting here, and she hadn't noticed it. With trembling hands, she picked it up. On the cover, written in flowing calligraphy: *Tachibana Chiyo's Diary, Taisho 13* It was Chiyo's handwriting. The handwriting Yui had known since childhood. She had read this diary many times. Records of Chiyo's daily life, records of shrine events, the autumn atmosphere of that year——the familiar sentences filled these pages. Except the last few pages had been torn out, and what was written beyond that remained unknown. She turned the pages. Her hands were shaking, so the edges of the paper nearly folded. She did it slowly. Records of spring. Records of summer. Records of purification rituals—— Her finger stopped. A passage she had never paid attention to no matter how many times she read it was there. Written in

日本語

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Episode 5

Name: The Time Traveler of Kyoto: A Century-Old Bond Sleeping in the Ancient Capital
Author: Novelia

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