Yatagarasu Series
Volume 1:
Ravens Shouldn't
Wear Kimono
Author: Chisato Abe
Epilogue
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It was a morning in the middle of spring on a day of pleasant weather. My best friend and frequent companion in crime, Sumi, came to me and told me that the cherry blossoms were in bloom. I remember seeing them on the other side of the cliff, so bright and white that they looked like a hazy cloud.
Sumi and I often played outside on the cliffs that marked the border between our land and the neighboring one. Adults told us not to go there, but we never listened. We ran through the trees along the cliffs, laughing and chasing each other.
But then Sumi fell.
She must have been distracted by the fact that there were no more trees in sight. The branches parted, revealing the sky. She tumbled down the cliff with a loud and awful sound.
I didn’t even take the time to remove my kimono before I transformed into a bird and hurriedly flew down the cliff. When I turned back into a human and ran over to Sumi, she was swearing up a storm. I burst out laughing because at least she was all right.
My laughter echoed in the narrow valley. Sumi, who had been holding her head in anger, suddenly looked over my shoulder and closed her mouth. I followed Sumi’s gaze and saw the cherry blossoms there.
This cliff marked the border between lands. From here, Sumi and I could see the cherry blossoms blooming across the border. There was a girl standing there, on the other side of the cliffs under the trees.
I noticed her hair ornament first: it was gold and shone brightly in the sun. Her hair was a soft and generous brown, which was unusual. She gazed upon me and Sumi with pale, almost transparent eyes. Her long sleeves were a light pink that matched the cherry blossoms well.
The wind blew, scattering cherry blossoms across a pale blue sky.
I thought it was beautiful. It was the first time I had ever thought a girl was beautiful, so I turned to tell Sumi.
My mischievous friend, always making faces, now had a look on her face that I’d never seen before. I think that she envied the girl. She looked like she wanted something that she wasn’t allowed to have.
The delicate young girl standing on the cliff wore a strangely disinterested expression.
Glancing sideways, I compared the girl on the cliff with Sumi. One girl was like a cherry blossom that had taken human form. The other was a dirty child like a newborn chick just hatched out of its egg.
It was ridiculous to compare them. They were fundamentally different.
Someday, when Sumi grew up, I decided that I would give her a splendid kimono to wear. It would be just like the one that the girl on the cliff was wearing now. I would look at Sumi all dressed up and we’d laugh.
It didn’t matter if Sumi dressed up or not. Sumi was Sumi, and she had always been the strongest and most wonderful to me.
THE END
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