転地療養？
A healthy change of scenery?
I am dreaming... of a flying butterfly.
Dispersing moonlight scales like granules of flour, it flies.
And I am behind, chasing after it.
I wonder why...
Maybe because with each flap of the wings, it sounds like someone calling my name.
Yumei: ...Kei-chan.
The spirit of that word rides on a gentle wind, just strong enough to rustle flower petals on the ground, bringing a sweet, white scent my way.
With a river to my back, so wide I cannot see the other shore, I walk towards the forest, guided by that voice.
Yumei: Kei-chan... Kei-chan...
I hear it, calling my name again and again.
The butterfly passes into a white tunnel.
Kei: Ah......
Yumei: ......Kei-chan?
Kei: ............
The one who had been calling my name the whole time was Yumei-san. The hand gripping mine releases a pale light within the blue darkness, like a firefly.
However, its faint warmth is quite different from that of a firefly, and there is a vague feeling of energy flowing into me.
Yumei: Kei-chan, do you know who I am?
Kei: Ah, yeah, Yumei-san......
As I call her name, a broad smile lights her face.
Yumei: Thank goodness. For a while, I didn't know if you would make it.
Kei: What do you mean...?
Ahh, that's right.
I was cut clean through by Uzuki-san's Ito, and was about to lose my life, wasn't I?
And after that I took residence in Kei-kun's body, though I've no idea why, which means my body was left unattended during that time.
A normal person would probably see nothing more than the visible wounds, but this is the spirit, Yumei-san. I probably worried her a great deal...
...Wha?
Kei: ......ji˜... (staring)
Yumei: Kei-chan, what's the matter?
Kei: I was thinking, you look kinda different......
I try giving her hand a squeeze.
Wah, her skin's as soft as fresh-made mochi... er, ahem.
Kei: Yumei-san, you have a real, solid body now...?
Giving off a phosphorescent light, Yumei-san is beautiful, but her air of mystery is replaced with a normal body you'd expect of anyone.
The odd feeling of low density, as if you could see through, has completely vanished.
Yumei: ......Because of your blood... there was so much there.
Kei: Ah, I see. Because it took so much power to heal my wounds, you had to recharge somehow, I guess.
Yumei: Without permission... I'm sorry.
Kei: It's alright. I don't mind.
What's done is done. It would be too much of a waste to let that blood go for nothing. If she was able to recycle it effectively, all the better.
Of course, it wouldn't do for someone like Nozomi-chan to recycle it, though.
Kei: Anyway, Yumei-san, did we change rooms?
Surveying the room with my dark-adjusted eyes, I can see that we are in a Japanese-style room with a high ceiling.
The make resembles the other room, but it looks much more old and tattered.
I guess, because I got the room dirty with my blood, we were moved to a lower quality room?
Kei: Also, why aren't the lights on?
Even if I was asleep, if she was guarding me, they might as well have turned them on.
Kei: I guess... the dark is easier on you?
Yumei: My freedom isn't limited in the dark, but I suppose I find this lighting calmer than when it's too bright.
Sakuya: But, all things considered, in this case it'd be correct to say they're not on because they don't turn on.
With stomping footsteps enough to wake most anyone, the one who opens the fusuma is Sakuya-san. (TN: Fusuma - the name for Japanese style paper doors.)
Sakuya: Kei... you've had a time, haven't you? I won't be able to look Mayumi in the eyes, doing something shameful as that.
Setting down a wash basin, ice floating within, she wrings out a towel.
Kei: I know, but well, there's no point in worrying about it. But, are we having a power outage or something?
Sakuya: Rather than an outage, this place didn't have it to begin with.
Kei: Fweh?
The towel passes over my face with impeccable timing, making my answer come out funny.
Kei: Wah, so cool.
Though, having lost so much blood, my body prefers the warmth of the futon in comparison.
Still, the coolness of the towel against my forehead feels very nice.
Though the conduct is befitting of an old man, I wipe the entirety of my face, feeling refreshed.
Kei: Pfhaa... then where are we? Not at the hotel, I take it?
Sakuya: Your house. The Ha-zama noble's mansion.
Kei: My house......?
Ahh, that's right.
I came all this way to look at this mansion, yet now I realize I've hardly seen it at all.
Sakuya: Well, all that aside, we thought it best to move you here.
Kei: I see. I gave that hotel a lot of trouble, didn't I? It would be awful to involve the other customers any more than that......
And of course, carelessly involving them in a fight would mean Nozomi-chan's group making them fight against us as kugutsu.
Kei: Fortunately, this mansion has no neighborhood, so we wouldn't involve anyone, whatever happens.
Kei: Ahaha... it'd be nice if nothing happened, though......
Sakuya: And since we're away from the town, the worries of kugutsu are pretty much gone.
Kei: Why?
Sakuya: Kugutsu don't keep their original intelligence or motor skills, you see. So they won't board a bus or drive a car here.
Yumei: Also, Kei-chan, even if the others intend to walk all the way here, it will take a great deal of time.
Sakuya: This place is more than twenty kilometers from the city, so with a kugutsu's legs, they wouldn't make it here before sunrise.
Kei: I see...
Taking position in the Ha-zama mansion worked to my benefit, too.
If it's from here, that place can't be far off.
As I make an effort to squirm out of the futon, somehow the strength doesn't enter my body like it should.
Kei: Ah......
Yumei: Kei-chan, don't overdo it. The wound is closed, but you've lost a lot of blood.
Kei: But, I have to go.
Sakuya: At a time like this, in a place like this, where're you planning on going?
Kei: Where Uzuki-san is...
Kei: Because she's collapsed, somewhere on the mountain road leading to the Ohashirasama.
Sakuya: How would you know that? You've been sleeping until just a moment ago.
Kei: Well... after I collapsed when I was cut...
I tell them exactly as it happened.
It didn't seem like any story Youko-chan would believe. I guess this is what it means to be one of the people concerned with the mysterious village of Hemidzuka.
Sakuya: So that's how it was......
Kei: But, why would I wind up possessing Kei-kun?
Sakuya: Your soul tried to evacuate to a safe vessel. It picked a body with a wavelength similar to yours, so that means he was the closest.
Kei: Kei-kun and I are... close?
Sakuya: Well...
Sakuya: Ahh, yeah, that's right. Your names're the same. I guess you can call it a type of power word.
Kei: Ah, I get it...
Not that I really do, but aside from Uzuki-san, the one closest to my age at that place was Kei-kun.
Kei: So, I want to go pick up Uzuki-san as soon as I can......
Sakuya: If you're planning to hike up a mountain in that body now, that's just not funny. And it's not like you can carry Uzuki, to begin with.
Kei: Uuu......
Uzuki-san, I'm sorry I'm such a weakling.
Sakuya: What exactly were you planning to do if she didn't wake up when you found her?
Kei: I guess... sleeping with her to keep her from catching a cold?
Sakuya: You little baka-chin!
She hit me...
Sakuya: Anyway, you try describing that place by mouth. If it sounds like a place I know, I'll go pick her up.
Kei: ......And if it doesn't?
Sakuya: Then you'll just have to give up.
Kei: I-I'm gonna go, even if I have to crawl!
Yumei: Kei-chan! And you, Sakuya-san, don't rile her up like that, please.