Hosanna, Praise Be (2)
In the end, she had not slept much at all. Akaba Akane watched the sunlight leaking in through the curtains and let out a sigh. Then again, the change of surroundings had left her too unsettled to rest easily, so perhaps managing even this much ought to be called a mercy. If she were honest about it, though, it had been less like falling asleep than like dropping where she stood—closer to blacking out than to drifting off.
Her body was still tired. Part of it was the missing sleep, and part of it was having torn so violently across the mountain the day before. However she turned it over, this was not a condition she could bring herself to call good.
Even so, Akane pushed herself up. However late it grew, moving once the sun was up was an iron rule with her. She had never once vowed to live a diligent life, but a girl raised from childhood as the miko who kept a shrine could hardly have escaped the habit. By her ordinary measure this was closer to sleeping in, so she decided to get up and get on with it. Well. The shrine that had been the whole reason for rising early to work was currently smashed to pieces—but even so.
...We've imposed far too much on Zion and Ninomae, on our side as well.
Akane was not the only one the two of them had taken in. Several spirits who had lived on Goryeo Mountain, Sanmeedora no Kami among them, had also needed somewhere to shelter for a while, and Ninomae had given them the shrine. In a single moment, Mary Shrine—which had not even opened its doors—was crawling with every sort of anomaly. No amount of thanks would ever be enough for that. Turning the thought over, Akane stepped out into the hall.
Now then. Which way was the bathroom? She hesitated a moment, then set off. She washed her face, dampened her sleep-mussed hair with water, and put it roughly to rights. Her usual prayers she decided to skip; this was not the shrine, after all. Around lunch, filling a bowl with water and offering a prayer would be plenty. Those duties had only ever fallen to her because she was the shrine keeper charged with Sanmeedora.
She came down to the first floor and was pacing the still-unfamiliar living room when a clock caught her eye. A digital one, showing the date and the day of the week along with the time.
"Hm."
A moment later, a scrap of yesterday's conversation came back to her. Ninomae had said she had a morning lecture today, hadn't she? Akane went out to the entryway to check. The shoes were still there. So she had not gotten up far earlier than Akane and left the house.
Still asleep, then.
The conclusion was not a difficult one to reach. Scratching her head, she started back up the stairs. If the girl was still in bed at this hour, there was a very good chance she would end up late.
"Ninomae."
So she arrived at Ninomae's door, knocked, and called her name. No answer came. Only after two more calls was she certain the girl had sunk into a truly deep sleep, and she stepped into the bedroom without permission.
The first thing to catch her eye was, of course, the bed. This was only the second time she had seen it, yesterday and today together, and still her very first thought was how astonishingly large it was. Well—it was big enough that Akane had accepted the arrangement when the two homeowners said they would share a single bed, just so they could put her up in one of her own. Had they instead proposed somehow both sleeping in some miserably cramped little thing and offering her whatever was left over, she would have told them to their faces to stop talking nonsense.
"Ninomae."
She called again to Ninomae, who was asleep with a loose, blissful smile, as if something were simply too pleasant for words. No response. She really was sleeping like the dead.
"Ninomae. Get up."
"Mmm......"
Only after Akane patted her shoulder did Ninomae produce anything like a proper reaction, and even that was little more than a mumble and a shift of her body.
"Hey. The time right now is—"
"...Hehe."
So she was conscious, at least. Even if all she did was smile with her eyes still shut and turn her head.
"......?"
Akane could not begin to parse the intent, and then Ninomae went so far as to tap her own cheek with a fingertip. It remained an extremely difficult method of communication.
"Ack—?!"
What happened next was Ninomae snatching Akane's wrist and yanking. Caught utterly off guard, Akane lost her balance and spilled across the bed. As if she had no intention of letting her escape, Ninomae hauled her in—wrapping her not only in her arms, but in her legs as well.
What kind of strength is that, out of arms this thin—!
Akane kept herself in shape, in her own way. Even so, she could not break Ninomae's hold no matter what she did. She had not expected to be handed proof, in quite this fashion, of the girl's claim that she kept a body-reinforcement spell running at all times.
The unexpected, however, did not end there.
—Smooch.
"......??!?!??!"
Something soft and lukewarm pressed against her cheek. She could not even manage a proper scream. All that escaped her was a thin little hiiik of an indrawn breath, so faint she could hardly believe it had come from her. Even after the lips drew away, the arms did not loosen, so Ninomae's face stayed right there at point-blank range. She had thought it a cute face, and yet this close she found herself noticing things like how surprisingly long the eyelids were.
Her heart slammed wildly in her chest. Being pinned by a girl so much smaller and slighter than herself, and still having her pulse race—even she found the picture ridiculous. And yet this damned heart showed no sign of settling down.
Oblivious to any of that, Ninomae simply opened her eyes with a hehe of a smile.
"What's this? You won't even give me a good-morning kiss. Don't tell me that today, rather than giving one, you wanted to receive one first, and that's why you... did... that...?"
And then, smile and all, she froze.
From a distance that might not even have been a handspan, their eyes met.
"Kyaaaaaah?! I-I'm so sorry! I was completely sure you were Miss Zion...!"
"No. Well... I suppose that can happen, when you're drunk on sleep."
Ninomae looked so thoroughly panicked that Akane was able to keep her composure—or at least the appearance of it—which was, perhaps, a small mercy. Only then, her body finally her own again, did Akane push herself up off the bed.
More to the point, if she thought I was Zion... that means she and that girl do this sort of thing like it's nothing......
The thought let a small, unaccountable hnn slip out of her. So that was how it was. So that was the way of things. She stole another glance at Ninomae.
No, well. She had known. She had figured as much. Right. It was not particularly anything she needed to concern herself with. Of course not. Obviously not.
"Never mind that. It's already this late. You gonna be all right?"
"The time...?"
Only at those words did Ninomae pick up the phone she had left nearby.
"Aaaaah?!"
Horror flooded her face at once.
"Th-this is bad! Late—I'm about to be completely late?!"
"Calm down first. Wash up, then think. I'll get something simple ready for you to eat while you do."
"Please, Miss Akaba...! There's sliced bread in the kitchen!"
With that, Ninomae went thundering off toward the bathroom.
Akane hurried to the kitchen herself. Thanks to a childhood friend who had been called a prince at school and yet was, quietly, something of a disaster, she had long since mastered the art of looking after other people.
"Here."
"Thank you, Miss Akaba! I'm off, then!"
By the time Ninomae came back out, having rushed through a wash and a change of clothes, Akane was just spreading jam over toast that had browned to a pleasant gold.
"Right. Don't get hurt, get there safe— ...Wait. What's that in your hand."
"Hm? No. It's a grimoire."
"No. Hold on. Why are you looking at me like I asked something weird. I can see it's a grimoire. I'm asking why the hell you summoned it."
"It's fine! I'll only use it within what the Secrecy Protocol allows—just enough that I barely won't be late!"
"That's exactly what I'm— ah, damn it."
There was no further chance to call her on it. Ninomae—looking as if she were in a tremendous hurry, which, to be fair, she actually was—bolted out of the house.
"...No matter how I look at it, that brat still isn't fully awake."
Even so, she would be all right... right? Akane looked toward the entryway with worry in her eyes, but there was nothing to be done for someone who had already gone. All that remained was to pray to her god that nothing would come of it.
......Though, having been left in someone else's house without so much as a prayer offered on time, Lord Sanmeedora did seem rather put out. Yes. That had to be it.