The Story of Stories

Frost Month, babbling incoherently.

The Nagato Family welcomed a newborn life, a girl named Tsuruko. Nagato Tsuruko was the child of Nagato Saburo and Narukami Haru.

Newborn Nagato Tsuruko had a pair of beautiful, large eyes. She must have inherited that trait from Narukami Haru, who also had a pair of beautiful, large eyes. Later, Nagato Tsuruko heard her father Saburo say that he had been drawn to Narukami Haru because of those eyes.

Narukami Haru had originally been an apprentice miko at the shrine on the mountain and was expected to take over the shrine. A miko had to preserve her purity, but Narukami Haru eventually united with Nagato Saburo anyway. Thus, when she was five, Nagato Tsuruko felt that her father and mother's union must have been a beautiful story.

But after occasionally hearing the servants mention it, Nagato Tsuruko learned that this beautiful story also needed the word "difficult" added to it.

Spring passed and autumn came. Every day, her father stood quietly before the shrine, just to see her mother, who was still a miko.

Axu said that sometimes she saw Lord Saburo return on rainy days, sometimes on snowy days, and sometimes during the late fine days of early summer. Axu also said that early summer was actually her favorite time, because although Lord Saburo returned late, he would bring back freshly picked fruit. Back then, Axu had been about the same age as Nagato Tsuruko was now.

Oh right, time flew by, and Nagato Tsuruko was already five years old. She had grown increasingly beautiful, like a porcelain doll, and everyone in the household adored her.

One day that summer, Narukami Haru was making clothes in her room, supposedly winter clothes for Nagato Saburo, while Axu attended to her nearby. Nagato Tsuruko was there