Hey, that was a little mean, right? I wasn’t crazy. I was just very serious about muscle.
“Oh, by the way, name’s Moichi. Nice to meet the two of ya! I know this is a pretty nowhere village, but I hope you enjoy yourselves. And hey, it’s great to hear that you managed to make a friend, Ashley!” Moichi ruffled Ashley’s head, playfully mussing her hair.
Ashley didn’t seem to dislike it, exactly. “H-hey, I’m pretty popular, okay?! Of course I’d make some friends!”
“She’s pretty prideful,” said Moichi, “but she’s a good girl at heart, y’know? I hope y’all get along.”
“Hey, that’s uncalled for!” Ashley protested.
Moichi quickly apologized to her with a look that suggested he really didn’t mean offense. Somehow, just from that, I could tell that she’d been raised with great care in this village.
“I think of Ashley like my own little sister,” said Filia, smiling sweetly at Ashley. “She’s so cute!”
“Big Sis…” Ashley’s eyes welled with happy tears as she gazed at Filia’s beautiful smile. Moichi himself seemed entranced as he looked at her. Even I felt my heart pound for a moment.
“O-oh yeah, that reminds me,” said Moichi, regaining his composure. “Our village festival is really famous for somethin’. Let me show it to you guys ahead of time. Follow me!”
He quickly and unsubtly changed the topic, trying to divert our attention from his embarrassment over being so thoroughly charmed. Still, we were pretty interested, so we followed along.
“The first time you see it, you’re going to be so amazed,” said Ashley.
“Yeah, it’s specially made right here in this village,” said Mochi.
I couldn’t even imagine what Moichi and Ashley were talking about. I barely knew anything about what this festival even celebrated in the first place.
“All right, if we turn the corner, then…there, look!” said Moichi.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?!” exclaimed Ashley.
Moichi and Ashley both sounded so proud.
“That’s…”
“It really is amazin’.”
It really was amazing. A massive flame burning in the shape of a human body stood about thirty feet tall. Even though it was made of fire, it was elaborately constructed, down to the most minute details. If not for the flickering, you could have easily mistaken it for a giant human being at first glance. In a sense, it resembled Filia’s Wind God. Or, it was a like a fire version of the Wind God. Like a…Fire God?
“A lot of other villages have pared down the process and just made the image of the Fire God on the day of the festival, but not our village. We keep the flame going for a month. During that time, we make small adjustments here and there to our idol. Compared to the Fire God idols in other village festivals, ours is much better. Whaddya think, huh? Surprised?”
So, it was a Fire God after all. I supposed that if they kept it going for a month, the degree of detail made sense.
“Moichi, I was going to tell them all that stuff!” said Ashley.
“Oh, my bad.”
“But I’m assuming you must have other work to do too, right?” said Filia. “You must be deeply religious, keeping the flame from going out for a whole month.”
Yeah, seriously. The cost-benefit analysis for keeping this thing going seemed way off, and…wait, what? That thought seemed pretty intellectual! I guessed I shouldn’t have been too surprised, though, being an intellectual muscle man.
“Oh, it’s not like that, Big Sis. We all just love partying. Of course, we do still worship the Fire God.”
“Yeah, that’s basically the way things are here. In our village, everyone loves to come out and celebrate. Even the grandpas and grandmas come out! Around this time, people forget about their work and just prepare for the festival,” Moichi said with a grin. But his pleasant smile gradually began to fade. “But, uh, this year, I can’t really even think about the festival much.”
“What do you mean, Moichi? What happened?” asked Ashley. She pressed Moichi for answers—it seemed being away from home had left her out of the loop.
Moichi hesitated for a moment. “ It’s…hard for me to tell ya this, but we got word that there’d be an attack on our shop.”
“An…an attack?!”
“Yeah. I thought I’d try and keep it from you, since you’d probably worry, but I figured you’d probably get angry if I did that. I’ll tell you everything.”
This morning, Moichi had found a letter in the store mailbox. The white paper had been sealed with wax, and the words “To the shopkeeper” had been written on the envelope. Moichi had thought it strange that the sender’s name wasn’t on the letter, but he’d gone ahead and opened it.
Inside he’d found one sheet of paper with a message on it: “This shop shouldn’t exist. Tonight, when the full moon shines in the night sky, I will come to destroy it. Until that time, repent for your sins. Don’t forget—this is not the act of a vigilante, but divine punishment.”
“That can’t be…” Ashley gasped.
But Moichi showed the letter itself to Ashley, and sure enough, there were the words Moichi had told us, written in red on the white paper.
“Is that tonight?” asked Ashley.
“Yeah, I think so. But, well, it might just be a buncha kids playin’ around. I was thinkin’ that I’d stay away from the shop today just in case, but I’m not all that worried about it,” said Moichi, tucking away the letter.
Just like he’d said, he didn’t seem that worried. It was clearly still on his mind though.