Putting on the DressI had no idea what to do so I consulted Leica and Sharusha. The both of them were pretty knowledgeable about these types of things after all.
“Are there any shops that sells clothing for ghosts?”
“Unfortunately I have no clue…”
“That’s not even something you hear about in stories”
No good huh. Even so, I can’t let her be the only one in casual wear. I have to think of something…
I headed to the tailor in town just in case.
“Clothing for ghosts you say… Ghosts wouldn’t be able to pay for it anyway so there’s really no business in that…”
Oh yeah huh. I get it now. It makes sense really. There’s no business value in making ghost clothing so n.o.body’s going to make any.
Next we tried using Sharusha’s connections to get in contact with a scholar who was well versed in the subject of ghosts.
“The existence we call a ghost is in itself a spirit that remains in this world with a form that best matches its likeness when it was still alive. Therefore, what you are seeing as clothing is in actuality a part of the soul. Thus, it is only natural to conjecture that it would be nigh impossible to have a ghost change its clothing. There is likely no reasonable method out there to do so.”
After such an explanation, there was nothing I could do but agree.
What we see as her clothes is actually a part of Rosary’s memories when she was still alive. Maybe if Rosary wore a dress at some point in her life, and if we could somehow reinforce the memories she had of that time, then she’d change her appearance into someone wearing a dress, but even that sounds highly unlikely In the first place, a dress is something you’d only wear on special occasions after all. It’d be really difficult to have that replace the memory of something you normally wore everyday.
After a few days of considerable effort trying to find a solution, Rosary herself tried to stop us.
“Ane-san, it’s alright already… What’s impossible is impossible…”
“Rosary, right now you’re thinking it’s fine to just bear with it. That’s definitely one way of solving this problem. But I don’t want to pick a solution where you’re forced to just deal with it. Because in the end, you’re just enduring and holding it all in right? Since we all have the opportunity to dress up, don’t you want to join in too?”
When I asked Rosary, she lost her determination for a moment before finally nodding.
“If… if it’s possible to get a chance for me to wear one, then I’d like to…”
“Of course you do! So let’s look for a way to make it happen! Don’t give up so easily!”
“But… how do we even go about looking for that way? It’s not like there’s some strange magic out there that could make it happen”
“That’s it!”
I yelled out in a loud voice.
I was. .h.i.t with a flash of inspiration.
“We can just use magic!”
“I doubt magic like that exists though…”
“Then make the mockingbird create it if there’s none.[1]”
“What’s a mockingbird?”
“Ah, don’t worry about it… Just an old influence from the previous world…”
I went right away to formulating a spell that could change a ghost’s clothes. If there wasn’t such a spell then just make one from scratch. It’s time to unleash my skills as a cheat witch.
However, compared to the magic I’ve been doing thus far, this one was clearly much more difficult.
Even just having the spell affect ghosts already made it special.
On top of that, while there were plenty of spells that could harm ghosts, having the spell change a ghost’s clothing made it unique. There were no other spells like it.
For being such a unique and high-level spell, creating it would be no joke. At worst, messing up carried the very real possibility of the spell harming Rosary.
The days flashed by in an instant and the day of our departure drew close. There were only two days left before we had to leave.
But there was progress in the formation of the spell.
I had managed to narrow down an approach that had a high possibility of succeeding if done correctly. All that’s left was to focus on getting it to work perfectly.
I handed Rosary a dress.
It was a white dress with a design as simple as possible.
“Here you go Rosary”
“Uhm, ane-san, what am I supposed to do with this? Even if you hand me this, there’s no way I can put this on…?”
“Rosary, first I want you to look through every inch of this dress and burn its image into your head. Afterwards, I need you to imagine yourself wearing this dress. I really need you to visualize it as if you were actually wearing it and walking around the party hall in it. Think of it as image training.”
Rosary didn’t seem to really get it. Well if she didn’t get it then that’s that.
“Ane-san, has it finally gotten hopeless enough that you’re grasping at ‘those who believe shall be saved’ levels of blind mysticism…?”
It didn’t really sit well with me that a ghost thought of me as some sort of occult believer.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that impression-strengthening magic should work. Within the next two days, if you’re able to replace the image of yourself with one that’s wearing a dress then your actual appearance should change as well.”
Since I looked so sure about it, Rosary started to get really into it too.
“I hear and obey. I will see to it that your determination bears fruit ane-san.”
“That’s the spirit. Those who believe shall be saved after all!”
And so Rosary spent day and night inspecting the dress thoroughly, fully immersed in her image training. She stared at the dress from every angle and waltzed around the house as if she was in the party hall.
It would be pretty terrifying if a living person were to do it, but somehow her being a ghost made it somewhat acceptable.
Finally it was time for me to cast the spell.
I drew a considerably strange magic circle in the garden.
What made it strange was because it was actually elliptical. Normally, as its name implied, a magic circle is usually drawn as a perfect circle. But apparently if you want it to affect ghosts, you needed to draw it elliptically.
Right outside of the magic circle was Rosary.
Laid out in front of her was the dress. Even now she was still doing image training.
“Here I go”
“Okay. Ane-san, if you would please.”
I began the chant for my original spell.
And finished the chant without any problems.
“Materialize magic! Metamorphosize Rosary!”
It had nothing to do with the spell at all but with my eyes shut I yelled that out!
Then, as I fearfully opened my eyes—
There was Rosary, properly wearing the dress.
“Ah, A… Ane-san… It worked!”
Rosary was moved to tears.
Her tears started to affect me too.
“I’m so happy-! Now you’ll be able to wear a dress to the demon territory too-!”
We embraced each other tightly. Rosary was a ghost so my arms went through her but let’s not worry about minor details. The important part is that we were hugging each other.
“Uhm, by the way… I just thought of this but…”
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“Can the demon race see ghosts…?”
Ah, now that she mentioned it…
“Beelzebub can see you, so probably… yeah, surely… yeah…”
Let’s pray that they can…
[1] This is in reference to a well known set of three phrases that describes the personalities and methods of three of the most famous individuals of the warring states period of j.a.pan: Tokugawa Ieyasu, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Oda n.o.bunaga.
The three phrases are:
「鳴かぬなら鳴くまで待とうホトトギス」
「鳴かぬなら鳴かせてみせようホトトギス」
「鳴かぬなら殺してしまえホトトギス」
They roughly translate to:
“If the mockingbird does not cry, then wait for it to.”
“If the mockingbird does not cry, then make it do so.”
“If the mockingbird does not cry, then kill it.”
The first one is used to describe Tokugawa Ieyasu who had a ‘wait-and-see’ type approach. He served, and in the end succeeded, both Oda n.o.bunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
The second one, and the one Azusa is referencing, is used to describe Toyotomi Hideyoshi. His approach was the ‘make the impossible possible’ type.
The last one is used to describe Oda n.o.bunaga, and his approach was ‘if it’s not doing what you want, then throw it away’. He had no use for those who had no talent or skill.