2 – Summoning
The next night, Tatsumi had the same dream again.
And upon waking up, Tatsumi stared at the ceiling and recalled the dream once again .
Yes, it was a surreal dream. In fact, it was realistic enough that he could even remember it in detail. And somehow, it was growing more and more realistic as days went by.
In a dim, bas.e.m.e.nt-like room, the holy maiden was dedicated intently in her prayers as always.
But in today’s dream, he saw how desperately she has been praying.
Floating on that snow white virginal skin were beads of sweat. Before long, they began to drip from her face and hit the stone floor below with a dripping sound.
Yes, Tatsumi could remember even those tiny details clearly.
“…Why…. Why do I keep having this dream….” Tatsumi muttered while looking up at the ceiling.
To keep experiencing the same dream so frequently, there must be a reason.
It was a very common pattern, as if someone was calling him, Tatsumi thought —It’s the so-called pre- summoning pattern.
But unlike light novels and comics, something so illogical can’t possibly be true.
To begin with, he had no reason to be summoned. Tatsumi had no advantages anywhere, as he was just a normal 16 year old boy.
Certainly, in many lights novels, a Princess from a different world will call upon a random hero to save her world. It was a common setting. But for it to happen to himself wasn’t something Tatsumi thought was possible.
Rather than that, Tatsumi himself knew that he could not continue grieving like this. He has to face forward and move on with his life.
While telling himself that, Tatsumi sluggishly got out of bed.
Since he’d dropped out of school, he thought it’d be best if he went out and tried to find a part-time job. While thinking about this, he washed his face and changed his clothes.
He thought that he should buy a magazine or something from the convenient store and start his search for a part-time job.
But as he thought of that, at the corner of his eye, he saw the now empty birdcage that Chiiko no longer dwelled in. As he did, the sadness and despair from when he lost her once again started to rise up in him.
The many pleasant times Tatsumi had enjoyed with Chiiko kept on playing in his mind repeatedly.
And then, he realized that Chiiko was gone forever.
Once this happened, it became useless for him to do anything. The sorrow from her loss overwhelmed him again, and it was now impossible for him to do anything.
Since Chiiko had pa.s.sed away, he no longer had any appet.i.te and did not cook any meals. Instead, all he ate the were instant food that he had stocked up from the convenient store.
So once again, without doing anything else, Tatsumi had spent all of his time holed up in his apartment today.
He stared at the screen of his phone, looking at the photos of his family and of Chiiko that he took. While doing this, he had picked up the guitar that had been leaning against the side of his bed, for some reason, and began to play it subconsciously.
This guitar was an acoustic guitar1 and it was a memento of his late father. When he was younger, his father had played it for Tatsumi, and then gave it to him as a gift.
In his youth, Tatsumi’s father had put together a band and had earnestly aimed at being a professional guitarist. In the end, he abandoned his dreams. ‘I was doing well at it’, had been a phrase his father liked to say.
His father also taught him how to play the guitar, and was able to do it to some extent. But of course, he didn’t have the ability to be a professional.
He began to strum it without any thought.
“…Now that I think about it, Chiiko used to accompany me with her chirps…” Recalling this, a dark mood washed over Tatsumi once again.
In the past, when Chiiko was still alive and healthy, whenever he played the guitar like he was now, Chiiko matched his tune with her chirping, as if to sing along with it.
While reminiscing those lost days, Tatsumi began to play calmly.
Suddenly, at that moment, a bright light began to emit from the surroundings of his bed. But bed only had pillows and the bedsheet on top of it. There was no source of light on it that could emit such a strong light.
Despite this, there was a sudden and mysterious luminescence that was coming from his bed.
The reason for this was unknown. but none the less, Tatsumi had to squint his eyes at the sudden surge of radiance. Rather, he had no choice but to do that at the sudden appearance of this phenomenon.
As Tatsumi did that, the light continued to dance wildly and began to turn silver. But, he felt no heat from the light. Rather than heat, the somewhat dazzling light gave of a soft feeling of holiness.
And when all of his surroundings had turned completely dyed silver, Tatsumi noticed something below him.
It appeared to be composed of geometric patters, with strange writing and symbols surrounding the patterns.
The patterns of light shone even brighter than the dazzling light around him. With Tatsumi’s limited knowledge, he thought that it was strangely similar to magic circles.
But at that moment, the brightness overwhelmed him, and contrary to the radiance around him, Tatsumi’s mind fell into darkness.
Slowly, Tatsumi tried to open his closed eyes.
His surroundings appeared to be very dim. Could it still be early in the morning, perhaps before daybreak? This was the thought that ran through Tasumi’s mind.
He attempted to look out of the window that was on the top end of his bed. But instead of a window, he was greeted by a imposingly solemn stone-made wall. Also, an expensive looking ornate sconce was set in that wall, and had a lit candle atop it.
Wait, what? Since when did I have stone walls and wall sconces in my apartment?
Still groggy from sleep, Tatsumi tried to think.
After the loss of his family, he had moved into a small 2K apartment with Chiiko. Stilll– when Chiiko was with him – despite being otherwise alone, it was satisfactory enough for him. He had been happy enough there.
But in this room, there should not be a stone wall. No, rather it was not just limited to Tatsumi’s room, as there were only a few number of houses in j.a.pan that still had stone walls.
If this place was not his room, then where was it? While thinking that, Tatsumi sat up and checked his surroundings.
Checking around his bed, he discovered that not only were the walls made of stone, but all of the others including the floor and ceiling were as well.
At this this point, he began to wonder where he’d seen such a place before. He had seen something like this recently, hadn’t he?
Moreover, he’d seen it on a fairly regular basis.
Scratching the back of his head, Tatsumi began to look around the room again.
Suddenly something entered his line of sight.
Kneeling on the floor with open eyes, was a young woman who was staring at him.
She had long silvery platinum hair, with eyes as beautiful as rubies, and atop her head was a single lock of hair standing up. It was the so-called ‘ahoge’.2
With a look of complete and utter shock, the young woman looked at Tatsumi. While being stared at so intensely, Tatsumi also subconsciously returned the gaze and stared at her.
And then, he realized.
He knew this woman.
“… The holy maiden… In my dreams?”
Yes. As it was in the dream he had every night, there before him was a girl that looked exactly like the holy maiden who had prayed every night with feverish intent in his dreams.
Taking a moment to reflect on things, he realized that the room he was in right now was similar to the one in the dream. Rather, it looked exactly like the bas.e.m.e.nt room from his dream.
Then, was this girl the same holy maiden he saw in his dream?
As he was looking back at her… his body was suddenly attacked by a strong impact.
Tatsumi, who was sitting, collapsed on the bed face up as he couldn’t withstand the sudden impact.
Huh! What!? He lightly panicked. But then he saw strands platinum blonde hair dancing in front of his face.
A sweet smell filled his nose, and he realized that he had been embraced without warning.
It was at this moment that Tatsumi realized that he was being hugged by the girl who looked like the holy maiden.
The girl had pounced on him suddenly and gave him a hug.
She clung tightly to him with her slender arms for awhile, and then separated only a little and peered at his face.
Her red eyes and Tatsumi’s black eyes— they met at point blank range.
Sparkling tears filled her crimson ruby eyes. And yet, despite this, she smiled happily at Tatsumi.
“Finally… finally I get to meet… I was… I was reunited with with… you today… for oh so many years… I waited… Master.”
“What? Ha!? Now, how… eh? Ma—master? Have we met before?”
“Oh yes… oh… it really is you…your appearance…your voice…. and this smell… no doubt…I never forgot… not even once…”
What he felt then was, the feeling of the girl’s tears dripping on his cheeks from her gem like eyes .
Feeling the tears on his cheek, Tatsumi finally realized the sort of situation he was in and the position they were in and he began to blush.
The two of them were hugging on top of his bed.
Due to her additional weight, they had fallen down and he felt the softness of her body against his own.
But she wasn’t heavy at all. Her height was close to that of Tatsumi’s, but she apparently weighed much less than he did.
And as expected, the thing he noticed the most were the two amazingly soft and huge mounds pushing into his chest. It was of course ‘that’ part that symbolized all women.
Every time she moved, her bosom softly tickled Tatsumi.
Now he began to notice some details that he had not seen in his dreams before, such as her clothing. It appeared to be of a single sheet of very thin cloth, wrapped around her body loosely.
At first it was dark and he didn’t notice, but now that their distance has shrunk a lot, he could faintly see her skin through the transparent clothes.
Involuntarily, Tatsumi was completely drawn into the valleys of her bosom, and his line of sight was soon filled with this new sight. Although he could not see the soft, pink cherries at the top of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, he could tell that the destructive power of her bust was definitely very high. In a scale of 100, it was at least an 85, if not 90.
Why he was thinking of such things was most likely due to the fact that he was a healthy young man, and healthy young men were sad creatures. Of course the fact that he, Tatsumi, was thinking that in his current situation was a form of escaping from reality.
Looking down him, the young woman began to laugh softly. Whether she noticed Tatsumi’s line of sight was of course, another different matter.
“…To be able to meet with you again in this manner…I am very happy… Master!”
“Wait, what!? I’m what? What, where… What? You—your master? Me? Are you talking about me?”
“Yes, are you not my master?” she said while smiling and laughing from the bottom of her heart.
As he asked her before, it seems like this girl had met Tatsumi in the past.
But Tatsumi was nonplussed3. He had no memories of meeting such a girl before.
In the first place, he had close to no previous experience with foreigners. He hadn’t even spoken to many on the street before, once or maybe twice, when they asked for directions or something.
And, not to mention, a ruby-eyed platinum haired beauty such as her? With such distinctive features, it was highly unlikely that he would have forgotten someone like her.
As if reading his mind, she continued to speak.
“Master may not remember me, because I am in a different form from when Master knew me before.”
“What? What does that even mean? You’re different from when I knew you before?”
Involuntarily after seeing Tatsumi’s blank stare, she began to giggle. She released him from her embrace and sat on him instead, as if to correct her posture.
“Sorry for my late introduction. My name is Calcedonia Chrysoprase. I’m a priestess of the Savaiv Church of the Largofiely kingdom.”
She said then, and retaining her seiza-like posture, bowed quietly.
“Huh..? Err.. My name’s Yamagata Tatsumi.”
“Yes, I know.”
The girl who had identified herself as Calcedonia smiled. Looking at her smile, it could be believed that most men in this world or any other worlds would be totally captivated by it. It was such a smile of the finest quality to behold.
But with such a smile directed at him, Tasumi’s confusion grew even deeper.
Of course it was because she knew his name, but even more so because she spoke of some really strange words now.
At this point a thought began to form in Tatsumi’s mind. But before he could voice it, Calcedonia continued to speak.
“Master, you may not know the current me, but I know you…no, I remember you better than anyone else in the world…”
She began to stare at him with a sincere gaze. It was in this gaze that Tatsumi had a sense of Déjà vu.
In the past, he had been looked at by this gaze. And it was from a point blank position like this too
For example, on the palm of his hand, or on his shoulder, or sometimes sitting on his knees.
For some reason, her stare was very similar to that of his beloved family member…
“…Chiiko…”
Involuntarily, the name spilled from his lips. And the moment that she heard it, Calcedonia floated the most beautiful and grand smile that she has ever shown.
Anyone could see the feelings behind that beatific smile were those of great happiness, devoid of the tiniest bit of malice and hesitation.
“Yes! Yes, that’s right!! I’m… I’m Chiiko!!! Master… I’m your pet! Your pet Chiiko!!”
- The type of guitar you a.s.sociate with country music, the type that doesn’t require speakers unlike, say, a ba.s.s. ↩
- TN note: ‘stupid hair’, see below. ↩
- (of a person) surprised and confused so much that they are unsure how to react. ↩