The Infinite Phase Jin’i (I)
0457.
The 27th Day of October.
The guest room of Kyouko Nagamine.
Noa awoke to the dim early morning light.
She sat up, wondering what could’ve awoken her so early. She usually woke up at exactly five-forty-five but this time was aroused nearly an hour earlier. Still slightly afflicted with sleep inertia, she groggily looked around before she was startled by a noise. “Ahh… No fair…” Swiveling her head, she looked at the girl sleeping next to her. It seemed that Suzuran was having a dream that made her mumble aloud. Noa shrugged in silence as she listened to Suzuran’s sleepy laughter while getting out of bed.
She was already awake so she might as well get ready.
———————————
1033.
A spacious parking lot near Narukami Castle—the given name for the Origami mansion.
The student representatives of the Five Traditions were all neatly lined up in a row in front of five different buses, each one heading toward Kamakura Station. They were all finally allowed to return home much to the appreciation of the students as they were starting to feel like they were birds trapped in a cage (which if Noa had been present would’ve definitely agreed with the extra comment of “What a perfectly sound sentiment.”). Reina lamented, “They still haven’t found the president… Whatever could have happened to her?”
“Honami-oneesama is staying behind too…” Kaguya added. “Let’s just pray that once we return to Osafune, they’ll have something new on the president.”
The aforementioned Honami Mitsumine was standing to the side of the parking lot and watching the girls climb onto their respective transport vehicles. “Everyone's going home, huh…?” She continued diligently watching as everyone was finally loaded on and the engines of the buses kicked into gear before they all systematically drove off the lot. As she watched the buses go, she happened to glance to her left where she caught a glimpse of a crown of indigo hair climbing into a black sedan. “Wait, that girl’s from Renpu—”
“Hey, Milady Honami!” Alice called out in English.
Honami whipped around and saw the two girls, who were strangely entirely decked out in formal kimono outfits. The blonde foreign girl wore a blue-themed flowery kimono while the shorter girl with a shock of pink hair wore an undecorated green kimono. “Minoseki’s representatives…!?”
“Hiya! I’m Alice Sakayanagi, desu!” she replied, tacking on an extra suffix. “This little one’s Manaka.”
“Oi, don’t you call me little,” Manaka replied indignantly. She bowed slightly toward Honami and introduced herself. “Anyway, I am Manaka Ichinose. A pleasure to meet you.”
“Ah, a pleasure to meet you too, Senpai…?” Honami stammered, definitely more than just a tad confused as she noticed the colors of their school cape which they were still wearing, indicating them as fourth-years, a year above her station.
“No, no, you don’t have to call me senpai, desu!” Alice then grabbed both of her hands with her own and shook them rapidly. “Good work on your mission, desu! I know you must be worried about your friend but don’t be sad! Smile, smile! A good smile makes for the best cure, desu!”
“Uh… okay…?” Honami mumbled, rather cowed by the intense giddiness in Alice’s tone.
“Wow, am I glad I was able to meet you, desu! My papa and your papa are actually working buddies in the ins and outs of the Special Sword Administration Bureau, desu!”
“…My… father?” Honami stuttered.
“Oopsies, I said too much~!”
“Oi, Alice, quit messing around already.” Despite being small, Manaka carried a lot of power in her minuscule frame. She yanked at the fabric of Alice’s kimono and dragged her off. Before leaving, she turned around and bowed again. “I apologize for my partner’s actions.”
“Uh… wait, where are you going?” Honami asked.
Before Manaka could restrain her, Alice ran back toward Honami and got into her face with stars in her eyes. “We’re finally free! We got special permission from our principal so we’re going to go on [vacation], desu!”
“…What she said,” Manaka supplemented. “We’re going to go head to Tokyo for some shrine visits. Technically, we’re still on duty since we have to do our rounds purifying them but either way, I count this as vacation.”
“Kyuu!” Manaka’s pet cooed in happiness as it popped out from her kimono and settled in her hair.
Honami batted her eyes in total bewilderment for several moments before exclaiming, “Wait, isn’t that an [aradama]!?”
“Ah, this little guy’s my pet,” Manaka replied. “Or to be more accurate, it’s the guardian beast of my Ichinose family.”
“Nene is Manaka’s little friend, desu.”
“Ah—” Honami sorted through her memories. “The Ichinose family… as in the clan that passes down the Otogiri Maruyama and the devil oni, Nenemaru?”
Before either Alice or Manaka was able to respond, Manaka’s pet made several sounds as if it was panting heavily before leaping from its perch on Manaka’s head straight into Honami’s breasts. However, Manaka already knew of her pet’s tendencies and caught it by its tail before it could reach Honami and play around with her chest. “—Sorry about that, this little guy is attracted to large busts.”
“Yeah, aside from Manaka’s head, its second favorite place to hang out is between my breasts, desu…” Alice said as she shivered slightly, perhaps recalling the unpleasant sensation of an animal scampering around inside her clothes and playing with her chest.
“Anyway, let’s go, we’re running late.”
The two girls departed with Alice leaving the parting words, “I’m sure we’ll meet again soon! Please take care until then, desu! See you, Nami-nami!”
Honami blinked a few more times in confusion as she waved back before muttering to herself, “Nami-nami...?” Another second later and she growled, “Wait, they didn’t answer my question!”
———————————
At the same time.
Noa sat in seiza as she held her sword out in front of her. After having used [utsushi] the previous night in a short but exhausting battle against a large [aradama], she figured that she had run empty again. However, this worry was unfounded as she found out that one night’s rest was enough to restore her to optimal condition. Opening her eyes and exiting her state of meditation, she muttered, “Alright, I’m all set…” As she was returning her sword to its saya, she heard a loud bang. Immediately assuming the worst, she threw open the sliding door. However, before she could draw her sword, she found the source of the sound: Suzuran having knocked over the beer cans that Kyouko partook in the previous night. “—What could you be doing?”
“Ah, um, I thought that it’d be prudent of us to clean her apartment considering she’s letting us board here at no cost…” Suzuran replied, trailing off as she begged Noa with her eyes to help her. After all, Suzuran Arisugawa had absolutely zero sense for “cleaning”; even during her current tenure as Osafune’s student council president, it was always her council members and subordinates that would clean up after her because she just couldn’t do it herself.
Noa sighed and facepalmed. “Alright, alright, move over. Just let me do it. Clearly, you don’t have any sense of housekeeping.”
“Aww, but…”
“Fine,” Noa relented. “Take that rag and wipe down the tables. Even YOU wouldn’t mess that up, right?”
“Nope, no problem,” Suzuran saluted before doing as she was told. Noa, on the other hand, took care of the brunt work. She pulled out plastic bags and separated the trash into two bags: incinerable waste and recyclable trash. She made several bags of each before attending to the kitchen which was full of unwashed dishes. The amount of used silverware and other eating implements she found in the sink greatly irritated the girl who had a rather serious complex over cleanliness. It wasn’t so much for her to be a germaphobe but it was certainly more than the average Japanese person who are, by default, pretty clean themselves.
It took just about the rest of the morning to finish up and they only stopped two hours later. The two girls then collapsed onto the sofa, giving each other a thumbs-up for a nice morning exercise. (If anything, it would be Noa who’d worked the most because all Suzuran did was wipe the tables, dust the counters, and sweep the floors; she wasn’t so sloppy as to fail on these kinds of cleaning.) The two then finally noticed the notes on the cupboards and fridge. They all said, “Feel free to take what you like~!”
The two girls looked at each other incredulously before bursting out in genuine amusement. It seemed like they would be babied for a little while longer.