Tsukino Hyakkiyakou Auspicious Fortune Day - 01/13/24

[nebulancer]

⛩A Day of Auspicious Fortunes to Start Something New (Tsukino Hyakkiyakou)⛩

 

When you live long enough to be called a great youkai, you don’t get surprised over the little things here and there.

But that... Now that surprised me.

 

When it comes to unwavering composure, I think Rui would be even more unshakeable than me. Even Rui blinked his eyes in confusion, looking over at the main shrine’s sanctuary.

 

“Hajime woke up.”

“......He sure did.”

 

That little conversation of ours instantly stirred up cheers from the shapeless small youkai, spirits, and earth pixies around us.

 

“The Black Celestial Fox Lord has awoken!”

“Lord Blackie’s woken!”

“What about Lord Whitie...”

“Will Lord Whitie, Lord Whitie play with us?”

“It seems he is still confined within slumber.”

“That means we must invite him to the banquet.”

“Let’s do that, let’s do that!”

“wrUKｗ−０RIｑ２３IOｊIOAW”

“□□□□It's〇〇〇〇〇〇see!”

“Aah, how auspicious, how auspicious! To have the chance to be in the presence of the Celestial Fox Lords.”

“They’ll... pet us...”

“They’ll play...... with us......”

“★▽□☆◎。◉ “

“It’s a banquet, a banquet!”

 

From the perspective of the little ones, it must’ve been nothing but absolute joy, but Rui and I spoke with each other with our eyes.

 

“......Hajime woke up, but Shun’s still asleep?”

 

Due to all the various circumstances regarding his burden of carrying the world being greater, the depth of his emotions, and the type of their strengths, Hajime sleeps much more deeply than Shun.

As a result, it’d be more common for Shun alone to be awake, while Hajime would remain asleep...... But this time, only Hajime woke up.

It’s rare for this to happen with the overprotective white one, who love, love, love, love, loves his black antithesis.

Rui and I headed toward the main sanctuary, fearing that it might be a bad omen.

 

＊＊＊＊

 

“Well. I just thought it felt nice out.”

 

It was nothing, really.

It seems he’d just woken up feeling the warm winter sunlight, and felt it a waste to stay asleep.

The black fox, who supposedly bore a grand and honorable title of “The Very World Itself,” rubbed the edges of his eyes somewhat sleepily, as if he were a bit dazed from waking up.

 

His fox ears shivered and swayed, feeling the wind brush against them. I felt a good deal of eagerness from that action, and I felt the energy... the nerves drain right out of me.

 

“Whew...... That’s all?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re bad at waking up. I’m surprised you woke up alone.”

“I’m not... bad at waking up.”

 

It seems Mister Fox was aware of how bad he was at battling his sleepiness, as he made quite the uncomfortable-looking expression.

There are times he and the white one, who was currently sleeping away next to him, make me think of them as my as younger brothers. Still, they technically created this very world, and they’re hundreds of millions of years older than me.

 

Aah—I’m so disrespectful. So disrespectful.

 

“Where’s Haru?”

“At the royal capitol.”

“There’s going to be a new emperor, apparently.”

“Aah... Now that you mention it, he did serve as the Mirror of the Three Royal Regalia.

......When you’re done with your job, come back, Haru.”

 

Please don’t chat with Haru like it’s an extension of your daily-life conversation. He’s far, far away. It’s like anything’s possible with you.

Er, actually, it is, now that I think about it.

 

“Good morning, Hajime.”

“Yeah. Good morning to you too.”

 

Rui hugged Hajime, and Hajime patted his back.

His long slitted eyes arched downward pleasantly.

Aah. He’s not the little brother anymore. He’s a grandpa now.

This is a scene depicting a grandpa meeting his grandson after a long time.

If I said that, I’d be on the fast track to getting slugged, so I continued compiling silent disrespects to him in my mind. As I did so, I noticed that his other hand was hanging down, unnaturally so.

When I looked over at where his hand was hanging, it turned out the white one was tightly gripping the black one’s hand.

 

“Uh. That.”

“He won’t let go. (wry laugh) It seems he sensed that I woke up.”

“Impressive as always.”

“It seems that he’s trying his best to wake up, but...... There are times we’re so deep in sleep that we can’t wake up immediately.”

“Ahh~. It’s like one of those experiences where you’re aware of yourself, like, ‘I’m sleeping~’ but you find it hard to actually wake up? Yeah, we go through that, too.”

“It’s different... actually, not really? Not that far off from that sensation.

Heh. I see. You all go through these moments, too.”

 

The black one patted the shoulder of the white one.

 

“I’ll be waiting for you. Don’t push yourself to wake up.”

 

With a happy sigh, the white one smiled contentedly, and I could tell that his grip lost its strength.

Watching him do so, the black one pulled his hand out from the grip.

And then he leisurely stood up......

 

“......”

 

And froze in place.

Huh? Weren’t you going to head outside?

Rui tilted his head, also confused.

 

“? Hajime, what’s the matter?’

“Today is...... Day of Auspicious Fortunes.”

 

“Hm? Aah, yeah. Apparently, it’s a day of the calendar that humans have dubbed today.”

“I see. ...”

“Is there something bad about it?”

“Oh, sorry. It’s not a bad omen. If anything, it’s a fortunate thing for all those with life, including yourselves. It’s good, but......”

 

When Hajime took a step forward...

 

“Whoa!?”

“Oh!”

 

I thought that the floorboards he stepped on had glowed with gold, but it turns out that plants had burst from his feet, poking out.

Slithering and crawling with life, as if they were animals, proudly and bravely like flames.

I thought that the plants would grow even taller than me as they bloomed grand flowers, facing the heavens.

And bugs and birds I’d never seen before took flight from there...... Golden light shimmered and danced in the sky, overflowing like fireworks as it scattered.

 

“Awesome......”

“So pretty......”

 

I see. Day of Auspicious Fortunes.

Looks like I just saw the beginning of life in a few seconds.

 

A fortunate day, full of crops, from which a field of harvests grows from a single seed. That harvest could collect tens of thousands of times more grain from a rice plant.

A blessed day filled to the brim with happiness.

Maybe that’s why Hajime woke up alone today.

No, wait... Maybe it became that day, because Hajime woke up?

 

“......I’m too powerful.”

 

In contrast to Rui staring at the little birds soaring through the sky with eyes sparkling in wonder, Hajime laughed, somewhat stumped.

 

True, he wouldn’t be able to walk around like this.

No, well, it’s definitely a good thing to have life be born, but it wouldn’t be very fortunate if life were endlessly being created.

Must be tough to be a living ecosystem.

I’ve heard talks telling me something along the lines of, “He’s too powerful that he’s heavily restricted in what he can do,” but getting to see it myself, I had no choice but to understand what it was about.

 

“If Shun wakes up, he’ll be able to balance it.”

 

He didn’t try to move any more than that. He slowly lowered himself right at that spot.

 

“I’ll wait for him to wake up.”

 

Seeing his profile as he patted the white one’s shoulder, I thought, “Hmm~.”

His expression was serene as always, but his fox ears were ever so slightly downturned.

The Lord of the World enjoys interacting and playing with his friends and the little ones.

He was probably looking forward to having fun, just as much as those little guys who cheered back then—no, maybe even more.

 

Which is why I decided to perform the biggest disrespect of the day.

 

“Excuse me for a bit~♪”

“!”

 

I picked him up lightly and thought, “Hey! I think this’ll go well.”

Lifting Hajime up with one arm, I walked two steps... and three...

I was concerned about what’d happen if he were as heavy as a mountain, but he was totally light. Definitely light.

I wouldn’t exactly say he were light as a feather, but he was easy enough for me, a Tengu, to carry.

His four fluffy tails were warm on my back as I kept walking.

 

“...hh. ...Kai.”

 

I laughed at the black fox speaking in a tone of voice I’d never seen before.

I laughed at the face that looked right back at me.

It put me in a good mood.

 

“Ha~ji~me~SAAAAAN!!!”

“Hajime-san~!! You woke up!”

“Good morning, Hajime-san!”

“We’ve made all the preparations for the banquet.”

“Ah, then I guess I should stay and wait by Shun-san’s side?”

 

“Okay, Hajime, let’s go~!

Shun, hurry and wake up! Catch up already~!”

 

A Day of Auspicious Fortunes.

It’s a blessed day!

Let’s have a banquet!!

 

# Tsukino Hyakkiyakou

# Let’s all have a banquet together!!

# The white fox caught up to us in seconds

# Iku would later describe how the form he took for his crouching start was impressive as could be