nebulancer

🌸🌕On a Night of Celebration🌕🌸

Sing of the moon, dance within the flowers

Be led not astray by the sounds of the transient world

Be led astray instead by the aromas of flowers

Seated here is the King of Flowers

By the Dancers of the Tsukihana Kagura

Moon, and flowers,

Dance this way and that

For today is an auspicious location of celebration

Gods rest for this one night

This world greets the gods

Let us all head forth with this dance of celebration

“...Wow...”

“...! Haru?”

“Ah, sorry, Hajime!”

I felt as if I were the man who’d peeked into the crane’s weaving.

It was rare enough to see him dancing... I’d done something so profane, I felt like punching myself.

But.

That was just how strong and beautiful his dance was. That I inadvertently gasped.

Our King, who bloomed brilliantly and proudly underneath the moon.

Shikkoku’s treasure, the Original Violet King.

Strongly and beautifully. At times, graceful and elegant.

Yet at other times, heroic and gallant.

God and human and male and female and life and death and more.

With his fingers, legs, and gaze.

He displayed all the brilliance the world has to offer, as if he were a kaleidoscope.

It was such an extravagant dance that no words in any language could properly elocute it well enough.

That was the dance of the King of Shikkoku, pitch black, which all other colors yield to.

The dance that I, Haru, loved.

“Do you have any business with me, Haru?”

“...”

“Haru?”

“Aaagh...”

“...What’s that look on your face?”

“But, but...

Aah, that was such a huge waste! That was such a waste, you hear me?

It’s already rare enough to see you dancing seriously!”

“Oh, that.”

“Yes, that!”

I was already screaming in agony at this point.

Meanwhile, he was treating the value of his own dance too lightly.

I had a feeling that the surrounding atmosphere felt rather rich, that there was a physical denseness that... Aah, see? I bet some sort of gods or spirits or some incredible things have made their way here.

That dance, which even the gods yielded to, entranced and enthralled all, beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Again, I felt like cursing myself for accidentally speaking.

“......AaargGGHH... I’m such an IDIOT......”

Hajime laughed at seeing me hang my head.

It seemed as if his spirits were rather pleasant tonight.

“......Oddly enough, I’m in a good mood.”

“Yeah. ...Might it be because of the full moon?”

“That may be the case. Either that, or another me out there might be...”

“Huh?”

“It’s nothing. That’s why... well, let’s see.

If you’ll dance, I’ll dance too.”

“Gotcha. Then I’ll lea...... Wait, huh!? Is that all right!?”

“Sure. Today’s probably an auspicious day.”

“Probably?”

“Fufu. Here, Haru.”

“Come here.”

He reached his hand out to me. I took it, gripped it with all I had to offer.

“Sure! Then...”

Deeply breathing in the night’s atmosphere, I expelled it after a long time.

I loved this moment, where my senses sharpened keenly.

In front of my eyes was our prideful King.

His strongly beautiful eyes seemed to glitter ever so enjoyably.

I nodded.

“Dance proudly, Shikkoku!”

“Yeah!”

# Tsukihana Kagura

# Mutsuki Hajime Birthday Celebration 2024

[T/N: The "crane weaving" is a reference to the fable, "Tsuru no Ongaeshi" (Crane's Return of a Favor).
A man saves a crane from being shot by hunters, and that night, a woman appears at his doorstep claiming she is his wife. Varying accounts of this story and branching endings exist, but it typically ends with the woman going into a room, requesting the man not peek while she weaves cloth to sell for money. When the man's curiosity gets the better of him and/or he realizes that the true identity is the crane he saved, and he peeks into the room as she is a crane again, the crane knows that they can no longer stay together because he has realized her identity. She leaves him, never to be seen again.

...(cough) (koiwasu?)...]