Published: September 4, 2025
※This is a story about a dream Satou had on June 20th.
※Typos corrected on August 13th.
It was a dream—a dream from long ago, from a day that must have once existed.
◇
“Come play with me too.”
From behind the offering box at the shrine, a girl about the same age (or so) shyly watching caught my attention. I mustered up the courage and invited her to play.
“My name’s Ichiro. What’s yours?”
“I’m ○○○.”
“Oh, that sounds like a name from the shrine.”
I took her hand and led her to where my younger cousins were playing in the shrine grounds. At first, she was quiet, but as we played games like Hanai Ichimome and hide-and-seek, she warmed up to us, smiling brightly—her beautiful red hair matched by her radiant smile.
Fun times passed quickly. The sunset was already about to disappear behind the mountains.
“Everyone, let’s start heading home. ○○○, why don’t you come partway with us?”
“This is my home.”
She said that and headed back toward the shrine building.
I was certain I had heard her name, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t remember it.
◇
“And then, the prince appeared and defeated the evil dragon with a single swing of his sword.”
“I don’t like that story.”
The picture book I had tried so hard to read aloud didn’t seem to please the younger girl.
Pouting a little, she fiddled with the reddish-orange tips of her hair, puckering her lips.
“This shrine worships the dragon god. Her name is Princess Waterflower.”
She puffed out her chest and said it proudly, a little smug.
This shrine is dedicated to the heavenly water blossom princess, Amateru no Mizuhanahime.
“And then, and then, Waterflower Princess came crossing a rainbow. A young man from the village saw her dancing atop the mountain where the shrine stands, and she got angry.”
“Why did she get angry?”
The girl puckered her lips again, having forgotten some of the story.
“Ugh, I don’t know. Maybe she got angry because he wasn’t good at it! She said not to watch while she was practicing.”
“So she’s shy.”
“Yeah, that’s it for sure!”
The girl crossed her arms awkwardly with her slender hands, nodding as if satisfied with her explanation.
“And then! The angry goddess turned into a dragon and flew into the sky, raining rain for three whole days and nights.”
“Oh, but she could’ve forgiven him with just a forehead flick, right?”
“No! This is an old story!”
No unnecessary comments allowed.
“The young man who saw the dance desperately apologized to the goddess on the mountain. Then she forgave him and married him.”
I didn’t understand a thing.
What? That’s a crazy twist. She must have skipped parts of the story.
◇
On the veranda of the shrine office during the day, we listened to the painful chorus of cicadas while eating watermelon. My slightly older (…or so) companion bit into the watermelon with such gusto that her beautiful face was almost ruined, spitting seeds out onto the garden.
“Hey, you’re a girl, so catch those in your palm and put them back on the plate.”
“Ichiro, you’re stupid! Watermelon tastes good because you eat it like this! You can only do this when you’re a kid. Stop being so smart and do it too.”
She shook her watermelon-green hair wildly and insisted with exaggerated actions.
She is always so energetic.
◇
At night in the shrine grounds, protected by the scent of mosquito coils, we enjoyed fireworks.
Wearing a yukata, she looked mature, and her braided light purple hair and the stray strands on the back of her neck made my heart race.
“You know, Ichiro-kun, the festival deity of this shrine, Amateru no Mizuhanahime, once married a human young man. But since he was human, he died first. Before he died, he promised Waterflower Princess, ‘Someday, I will be reborn and return to you.’ Isn’t that romantic?”
She whispered, looking up at me from her seated position with a dreamy expression.
Her expression was like a mischievous child’s, which made my heart skip a beat—she seemed far more grown-up than me, after all.