The Time Traveler of Kyoto: A Century-Old Bond Sleeping in the Ancient Capital - Episode 6

The sound of Chiyo being slammed against the stone pavement last night still lingered in the back of her ears. That dull *gosshaa* sound. Tachibana Yui stood at the base of Himuro Mountain before dawn and took a deep breath. Autumn air filled her lungs. Cold. Cold and clear. The mountain path of this peak that rose behind Kaguramorori Shrine was a thin dirt trail, separate from the stone-stepped approach to the main hall with its 87 steps. Moss-covered stones lined both sides, fallen leaves piled up, and her feet were shrouded in darkness. Moeka stood beside her. Her pale purple bob swayed in the pre-dawn gloom. She had been with Yui since the previous night. They had found a passage from Chiyo's diary in the shrine office and waited for dawn together. Even as Moeka dozed intermittently, she remained there the entire time Yui knelt before the mirror. The diary's words repeated in her mind. *"On a rainy night, even if the mirror shatters, if a shrine maiden's prayer connects with the spirit vein, the path will open. There is another gate at the iwakura on Himuro Mountain."* Iwakura—a place where the flow of spiritual energy from the earth's depths, the ley lines, was said to surge forth. The massive stone formations there, with their main and subsidiary rocks arranged in a circle, were off-limits to anyone but the shrine's chief priest. Yui herself had never approached them. Her father, Tachibana Souichiro, had always quietly but firmly ended the conversation whenever the topic came up. Tonight, Yui would go there. Her body was still heavy. The transparency in her fingertips had subsided considerably since last night, but only her right index finger still showed a faint translucence. Her fever had dropped to just above 37 degrees. She was near her limit, but not unable to walk. "Let's go," "Yeah," The two began climbing the mountain path. ＊ About ten minutes into the climb, the trees grew denser. Cryptomeria and pine intermingled, the sky cut into thin strips. Moss clung thickly to the stones on both sides of the path, and the light from the flashlight illuminating their feet reflected green. The light Moeka held was from Yui's smartphone. The battery was at 65 percent. That should be enough. "...Yui, can I say something?" Moeka spoke as they walked. Her voice was quiet, small as if afraid to speak in the dark mountain. "What?" "About Sousuke," Yui's feet almost stopped. She didn't let them. She kept walking. "When you saw his message last night, your face looked so worried," "...He's a comrade," "Yeah, that's true," Moeka didn't pursue it further. She said nothing more. Just a small sound of laughter. Yui couldn't see clearly in the dark, but she might have caught a glimpse of her fangs. *(I shouldn't be thinking weird things right now.)* Yui faced forward. She didn't know what was happening to Chiyo now. The mirror was cracked and impassable. Sousuke was under surveillance. Everything she needed to do was decided. She could sort out her feelings later. But something deep in her chest wouldn't settle. Moeka came beside her and touched Yui's shoulder lightly. Without saying anything, she just walked. "...Thank you, Moeka," "I told you not to say thank you," She gave a wry smile. On the dark mountain path, she felt a little lighter. ＊ About thirty minutes into the climb, the path changed. The dirt trail ended, and bedrock began to expose itself. The surface of the rocks that appeared in the flashlight's glow was damp, cold to the touch. The quality of the air seemed different. Heavy. Dense. The air near a spirit vein was similar to that behind the main hall of the shrine—or so Yui thought, though it might have been her imagination, but she felt it as a sensation. Beyond the rocks, she saw massive stones. "...That's huge," Moeka's voice rose. It really was huge. A main stone about four meters tall stood towering in the dark mountain. Five subsidiary stones were arranged in a circle around it. All of them were covered in moss. The moss reflected in the flashlight's glow, shining deep green. Only the front face of the main stone—the side facing south—had thin moss. For some reason, the rock's surface appeared faintly white. Yui stood before the iwakura. The ground beneath her feet was bedrock. The autumn night air clung to her skin. Somewhere, she heard the sound of flowing water. Her father had once told her that places where spirit veins surge forth often have underground water nearby. *(Pray here.)* The diary said nothing more. "If a shrine maiden's prayer connects with the spirit vein"—that was all. It didn't say how to pray. But Yui had an idea. It was the same as the misogi purification ritual. Offering clear water and directing one's will toward a mirror was the same action she needed to perform here. Instead of the Musubi mirror, toward this iwakura. She held Chiyo's diary against her chest. She took out a water bottle from her bag. It contained clear water for purification that she had brought from the shrine office. Not water from the hand-washing basin, but water drawn from a spring within the shrine's grounds. If a spirit vein ran beneath Kaguramorori Shrine's land, this water had been drawn from near it. "Moeka, step back a little," "But—" "I don't want to involve you. If something happens, at least you'll be safe and can contact help," Moeka fell silent for a moment. "...Understood. But call out to me right away," Yui nodded and moved forward before the iwakura. She knelt before the main stone. The bedrock was cold. The chill seeped into both her knees. She opened the water bottle's cap and slowly poured water at the base of the rock. The water flowed down the stone's surface. In the moonlight, the stream of water gleamed. She closed her eyes. *(Please let me reach Chiyo.)* She directed her will as she would toward the Musubi mirror. But there was no mirror here. Only rock and moss and the presence of a spirit vein. Nothing happened. Thirty seconds. One minute. *(Chiyo is still there. Surrounded by those men, lying on the ground—I have to go.)* She willed it more deeply. Her hands trembled. Not from fear, but because her body was near its limit. But she didn't stop. If she stopped, Chiyo would— The ground pulsed. It wasn't her imagination. Something trembled through the bedrock. A faint vibration rose from her feet to her knees. "Yui!" She heard Moeka's voice. She couldn't turn around. She opened her eyes and looked at the iwakura. The surface of the main stone was glowing. Faintly. A bluish-white light seemed to leak out from the moss-thin sections, spreading across the rock. A spiral pattern floated on the stone's surface. The same shape as what was carved on the back of the Musubi mirror. *(This is the other gate.)* The light grew stronger. The subsidiary stones began to glow as well. Five rocks arranged in a circle, each emitting a faint light. The air at the circle's center—where Yui knelt—grew denser. Her vision blurred. The same sensation as passing through the Musubi mirror enveloped her entire body. "I'm going," She wasn't sure if her voice came out. The light exploded. ＊ The coldness of stone pavement transmitted to her knees. Night air. But the scent was different. Not the air of a modern mountain. The smell of autumn bonfires mixed in. The presence of people. Yui lifted her face. The shrine grounds. Kaguramorori Shrine's grounds, but not modern times—the lights visible beyond the cedar grove weren't electric lights but soft, round glows. Lamps, perhaps. Gas lamps. The light of the Taisho era. She had crossed over. But it was too quiet. Last night, men had invaded these grounds and surrounded Chiyo. Now there was no one. No shadows on the stone pavement. The main hall's doors hung open, kicked in—one of the men had kicked them open last night. The marks remained. She tried to stand, but her legs wavered. She placed her hand against a stone wall to support herself and rose. The transfer from Himuro Mountain. Not through a mirror but through the iwakura. The exhaustion felt slightly different. Her head felt fuzzy. But she could stand. "Chiyo?" She called out. Her voice echoed across the empty grounds. No answer came. She looked toward the hand-washing basin. Her eyes traced around the grounds. She couldn't find her. The main hall was visible but dark, nothing inside. She thought someone might be hiding behind the fallen doors, but— "Yui!" A voice came. From the direction of the shrine office. Small, but unmistakably heard. Yui ran with all her strength. Her feet pounded the stone pavement as she reached for the shrine office's sliding door. She opened it. In the dim interior, Chiyo was there. Sitting. On the floor, her back against the wall. Her black hair was disheveled. The sleeves of her kimono were torn. But she was alive. Her eyes were open. When she saw Yui's face, something spilled from her eyes. "You came..." "Chiyo, are you hurt?" "My arm and knee. I'm fine, I can walk," Yui knelt beside Chiyo. She checked her arms, feeling along the sleeves to see if any bones were broken. Chiyo's face tightened slightly, but she made no sound. A sprain or bruise, perhaps. Not a fracture, Yui thought. *(Good. She's alive. She's here.)* Something in her chest loosened. The tension drained away all at once, and she placed her hand on the floor. Yui's eyes grew hot. She thought she shouldn't cry. But she couldn't stop. "Chiyo, you fell and crossed over, and I've been—" "I'm sorry. I've caused you worry," Chiyo's hand was placed on Yui's head. A touch so gentle, as if handling something fragile. "But you came for me. That's enough," They stayed like that for a while. The Taisho-era shrine office was quiet. The sound of insects drifted in from outside. The distant sound of the Kamogawa River. Yui was here, connecting two eras. "Chiyo, what about the men?" "They fled. After you disappeared—when the light appeared, they became frightened. Two of them ran, and the rest withdrew," "The Kurogane Society members?" Chiyo nodded. She bit her lip slightly before looking up. "Please let me tell you about the notebook. Your grandfather's notebook—I have it," Yui's movements stopped. "What...?" "What the men stole was a fake. One I had prepared beforehand. The real one, I've been keeping safe. The head of the Shinonome family entrusted it to me directly, in case of emergency," Chiyo's hand went inside her kimono's sash. She withdrew a small black notebook. Its cover was slightly discolored to a burnt brown. It smelled of old paper. "Please give this to Sousuke. Your grandfather wrote everything about the mirrors in this notebook," Yui received the notebook with both hands, carefully. "Chiyo, if I take this back to the present, I can give it to Sousuke," "That's why I'm entrusting it to you," Chiyo smiled slightly. A smile that seemed to endure pain, yet was genuinely a smile. "Because I trust you," Those words fell quietly into Yui's chest. Trust. This unknown girl from a hundred years in the future—actually her blood descendant, though Chiyo shouldn't know that—yet Chiyo had trusted her from the beginning. From that first day when she said, "You really did come." *(This person is why I exist.)* The words didn't form. But that's what she thought. "Chiyo, one more thing. Please tell me," "Yes," "In your diary—about the gate at the iwakura. Did someone teach you about it?" Chiyo was silent for a while. Outside the shrine office, wind blew and the cedar leaves rustled. "...My grandmother taught me. It's a story passed down through generations in the Tachibana family, known only to shrine maidens. An emergency path for when the mirror can't be used," "I never thought you would be able to come. But—if I left the diary behind, perhaps, just perhaps," Chiyo met Yui's eyes. "It really did reach you," Yui nodded. She co

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Episode 6

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

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