Chapter 992

"I'm glad you like it," the landlady smiles happily, leading everyone away from the lobby. "Passing through the corridor ahead is your room. If you need anything, you can tell us."

"Hmm?" Akaso Kaze, walking at the very end, turns his head with a feeling. The introverted singer Fukatsu Harumi happens to look at him, and after being discovered, she blushes and lowers her head again.

"This is the one."

The landlady slides open the paper door, brings Akaso Kaze into the room, and helps pour a cup of hot tea.

The living room can also see the snow scene outside, and even hangs some long-sleeved kimonos like the lobby.

"There are some here too," Akaso Kaze asks curiously. "Landlady, you have long-sleeved kimonos and sashes hanging everywhere here. Is there any story behind it?"

"Every household here worships the Kimono Sleeve God, and every family has such decorations," the landlady laughs. "It's very common here."

"Kimono Sleeve God, huh?"

Akaso Kaze puts down his luggage and walks to the window to look outside: "The snow seems to have stopped."

"It's still early for dinner," the landlady suggests. "Would you like to walk around the village? Although there is only snow scenery now."

"Then let's go out for a walk."

Akaso Kaze looks at the snow-capped mountains bathed in the sun with great anticipation.

Compared to when it was snowing, the mountains seem even more beautiful, and the air is exceptionally fresh.

The village is not too big, but the houses are scattered among the mountains in an orderly manner.

Both sides of the flat road are blooming with many wintersweet flowers, and thick white snow is piled up on the scattered houses, as if they were snow houses.

And after the heavy snow stopped, the mountain birds started to be active again, chirping incessantly in the snowy forest.

Akaso Kaze accidentally runs into the singer Fukatsu Harumi, who is also visiting the village. She looks like she has something to say but stops.

Rather than running into her, it's more like Fukatsu Harumi came to find him herself.

"Is Harumi-san familiar with this village?"

"Ah, no," Fukatsu Harumi says in a panic. "I just wanted to go to the shrine to take a look, because a senior from my university often talked about the Kimono Sleeve Cherry Blossoms here."

The two stroll for a while and walk together with Akechi Eri.

"Actually, the Kimono Sleeve God has another name," Akechi Eri looks at the Kimono Sleeve God worshipped on the side of the road and explains, "which is Kimono Sleeve Hannya."

"Kimono Sleeve Hannya?" Akaso Kaze asks.

"Yes, it's a legend passed down from ancient times. I heard that there was a diligent and kind girl named Kohana in this village in the past. One day, she saved an injured samurai on the road."

"To repay her, the samurai gave her many beautiful long-sleeved kimonos and sashes. Later, the village chief's two daughters were jealous and deliberately framed Kohana, causing Kohana to be arrested by the government."

"On the night Kohana was executed, the two sisters spread out the long-sleeved kimonos and sashes they had gotten their hands on. When they were excited, the light suddenly went out."

"When the village chief's family heard their screams and rushed over, the younger sister had already died on the spread-out long-sleeved kimono, and the older sister had also drowned in the garden pond, her body wrapped in many sashes."

Akechi Eri puts her hands in the pockets of her coat and turns to look at a shrine halfway up the mountain ahead.

"The villagers knew Kohana died with a grievance, so they built a shrine for her and treated her as the village's guardian deity. That's why everyone worships the Kimono Sleeve God now. That over there is the shrine known as the Kimono Sleeve God Grand Shrine."

Akaso Kaze narrows his eyes and looks at the shrine.

"This is it," Fukatsu Harumi walks to a big tree in front of the shrine.

"This tree is the Kimono Sleeve Cherry Blossom. It is already 500 years old. Every spring, the branches are all covered with flowers, just like pairs of beautiful kimono sleeves."

Akaso Kaze follows and looks at the bare branches, imagining that beauty.

"By the way, Harumi-san, is that senior you mentioned from this village?"

"The senior didn't mention that, but the senior did live here," Fukatsu Harumi looks at the big tree with nostalgia. "If the senior were still alive, she would probably come to take a look too, right?"

Akaso Kaze is stunned and doesn't ask any further.

Death is a topic that can never be avoided in this world, whether it is a normal death or an abnormal death.