“No, I’m not. I’m just in charge of looking after this house for a short period of time. I have no plans to make you work for me. All I ask is that you give me your permission to stay here.”
“But Tomohito calls you Mistress.”
“Haha… About that. We haven’t really cleared that up yet…”
“You ARE my mistress, Mistress Akari!”
“You be quiet. Hmm, anyway…”
Ignoring Tomohito, Akari turned her focus back to Mayoi.
“Tomohito prefers to call me Mistress, so that’s why he does it. But you’re your own person, Mayoi. If you want to call me that, you can. And if you don’t want to, that’s fine too. I know you’ve got your own will. After all, that’s why you were causing me so much trouble yesterday, right?”
Mayoi chewed her bottom lip and looked guilty as Akari gave her a wink.
“So, what about my request? Will you permit me to live in this house too?”
“…What kind of house would you like it to be?”
Akari blinked in surprise, but her answer came readily.
“If possible, I’d like to live in a warm, happy household just like the one described in your Kotogatari.”
Now it was Mayoi who blinked at Akari in surprise. Akari thought about what she’d read in the Narrator’s journals again.
“After all, you know all about running a household, don’t you Mayoi? It would be presumptuous of a layperson like me to tell you what to do. This house was originally a Western-style manor, wasn’t it? But it’s had all kinds of adjustments to make it more like a traditional Japanese house. It might be nice to put it back how it was. You like Western-style things, don’t you?”
The long-sleeved kimono Mayoi was wearing had lace attached to the collar and sleeves.
Such an adjustment would need hours of research and trial and error to produce something that didn’t look like a mismatched mess. And Mayoi’s kimono looked absolutely perfect.
Akari didn’t mention the kimono out loud, but Mayoi noticed her looking at it, and her cheeks flushed.
“Really? It’s okay?”
“Sure! Oh, but please make sure it stays livable, like a house.”
From what was written in Mayoi’s Kotogatari, Akari was pretty sure Mayoi could only rearrange the building in ways that would still keep it habitable by humans, but she felt the need to add that little caveat, just in case. Nodding, Mayoi got to her feet.
Akari noticed her fine black kimono again.
“Where’s my Kotogatari?”
“It’s right here.”
“Open it please.”
Akari got to her feet as well, pulled the book from her bag, and opened it. Then as if on cue, Mayoi began to slowly rotate on the spot.
“May my mistress’s words manifest into being.”
Mayoi smiled, her face so innocent, her black hair slowly flowing.
“Don’t move for a moment, Mistress Akari.”
“Huh?”
As Akari looked at Tomohito in surprise, Mayoi clapped her hands once.
“As I will it, so be it!”
Mayoi’s clear voice rang out, and the air in the room seemed to undulate.
Everything began to whirl past her eyes, as if she were watching the scenery go by from the window of a steam train. Akari stumbled, her head spinning, but Tomohito held her steady. While this was happening, the Kotogatari lay open, pages unmoving.
The peeling walls were unpeeling, and the haphazard hallways were straightening themselves. Ornaments and paintings were leaping to take their proper place on walls and shelves. The junk in the hallway lifted into the air and zoomed off elsewhere. This power…it must be how Mayoi had managed to toy with Akari yesterday.
Then the storm of refurbishing and redecorating was over as suddenly as it had begun.
The surroundings were completely transformed. The positioning of windows and doorways now made sense. The walls of the hallway were now a serene cream color, offset by dark wood beams. And tasteful light fixtures sparkled on the ceilings. Presumably, the entire house had received the Mayoi makeover treatment.
Akari looked around her in wonder. The house looked so different with the ill-fitting, tacked-on traditional Japanese alterations removed. Then Mayoi spoke.
“I made it resemble the Western houses I like most from what I’ve seen in picture books.”
“…Mayoi?”
Blushing with quiet pride, Mayoi herself had changed too.
So much so that Akari barely recognized her.
She still wore her black long-sleeved kimono, but in addition to the lacy sleeves and collar, it now boasted a puffy skirt. Her little feet were clad in white socks, with shiny Western-style patent leather shoes. Her once-long black hair was now bobbed in a modern short haircut that only just covered her ears. Mayoi was still beaming proudly, pointing her toes in her new shoes and shaking her head so that the short hair banged against her cheeks.
“I’ve tidied the bathroom and bedrooms too. And I stored the other things in the storeroom. Does it please you? I included all the things I like. Does it feel comfortable?”
Mayoi’s expression had grown anxious, but Akari gave her a big smile.
She’d been shocked by the transformation, but Mayoi’s alterations suited the little girl’s style perfectly.
“Yes, I love it. It’s a warm and happy house, just like how your Kotogatari describes it.”
Mayoi’s face lit up like a beautiful flower bursting into bloom, and Akari gazed back at her for a few moments, utterly charmed. Then she realized she was staring, and snapped out of it.
“…This is a Western-style house, isn’t it? Then I suppose I had better be wearing shoes as well!”
As Akari headed to the entrance hall for her boots, Mayoi came trotting alongside her.
“Mistress, these floors are all right to walk on even without shoes. They’re waxed and polished. You prefer not to wear shoes indoors, isn’t that right?”
“You made the floors like that, just for me?”
Mayoi nodded.
Truthfully, Akari had a hang-up about wearing shoes indoors. She felt pleased to have clean floors to walk on in her socks for the first time since she’d come to the house. She couldn’t believe Mayoi had noticed that about her and accommodated her preferences!
Filled with affection, Akari reached out and softly stroked her stylish bobbed hair.
“Thank you, Mayoi.”
The spirit gazed up at Akari, smiling a toothy smile that made Akari’s heart positively melt. But just then Tomohito took hold of Mayoi’s shoulder and tried to yank her away.
“Stop clinging to Mistress Akari!”
“Won’t! She’s MY mistress now too!”
Akari blinked as the girl clung to her kimono.
“Mayoi, I’m just the custodian, okay?”
“You won’t be my mistress?”
Mayoi sounded so sad, her little fists clenching the kimono fabric. Ah, dang it, Akari thought.
“I’ll make it a real good house! Please stay here!”
“All… All right, then. For now.”
“Mistress Akariiii…”
Tomohito whined her name, distraught, but Akari ignored him and let Mayoi take her hand to show her around the rest of the house.
The home was now completely in the Western style, with the essential facilities ergonomically designed to allow for multiple guest rooms on the second floor and a good portion of the ground floor.
“We’ll need plenty of rooms in the future when our number of companions grows, you see.”
Akari didn’t really get what Mayoi meant by that, but she was happy to take ownership of the master bedroom on the second floor and finally get out of that library shrine room.