Chapter 143

Although her mother suggested she wear light makeup, Kirishima Ai didn't really like the feeling of having something painted on her face.

"Sister, you look beautiful today."

Hina stood behind her, tiptoeing slightly, gently tidying up Kirishima Ai's hair, smoothing out the messy strands, and softly praising her older sister for her good looks today.

Kirishima Ai really beautiful today.

She was a well-known beauty at school, and because of her aloof demeanor, some people called her a "flower on a high mountain."

A beautiful young girl, dressed in a gorgeous yukata, becomes the most splendid flower at the night festival.

"Hina is cute tonight too."

Kirishima Ai touched the back of her hair, turned around, and patted her younger sister's head.

Hina naturally changed into a yukata as well.

However, because she still has some difficulty moving around, she will cling to her arm like a little bird and be led by her.

This was a long-awaited night for her to spend with Hina at the Maple Plain Festival.

That alone makes it very exciting.

Meanwhile, other people were also arriving one after another.

Sakaki Chika couldn't come tonight because of work, so she asked Kirishima Ai and the others to take some photos for her, mainly of Teacher Haihara in her yukata tonight.

It seems that Takanashi Shiori arrived a while ago, but I still don't know where she is.

After the students started to make a commotion, Kirishima Ai looked up and saw a beautiful woman in a yukata with long black hair slowly walking towards them.

The students surrounded the woman.

Teacher Suzuki's hair was so long!

Kirishima Ai sighed inwardly.

This beauty is none other than Teacher Suzuki. She always had a high ponytail hairstyle before, but this time, with her hair down, she looks completely different.

Teacher Suzuki is very popular.

After they appeared in yukatas, the boys were incredibly excited, and even the girls in their class were ignored.

One of the students, the class Kageyama, looked around and asked in a low voice:

"Teacher Haihara still hasn't come?"

Today, it should be Teacher Haihara leading the team.

However, they still haven't seen Teacher Haihara.

Teacher Suzuki smiled.

"As for Teacher Haihara, she went to the shrine to draw a fortune stick first. Let's go find her there in a bit. Are you all curious about what she's dressed like today?"

As she spoke, there was a hint of expectation in Teacher Suzuki's tone.

How will Teacher Haihara, who is usually aloof and ascetic, dress for tonight's Maple Plain Festival?

Not only Teacher Suzuki, but many students also began to consider it.

They really couldn't imagine Teacher Haihara wearing a yukata.

In their minds, Teacher Haihara seemed perfectly suited to a teacher's uniform—a suit, cold and unapproachable—only occasionally wearing something that still managed to be somewhat feminine, like black stockings and a skirt; otherwise, she usually only wore trousers.

Teacher Haihara is the only female teacher who wears long pants every day.

To put it nicely, it's serious; to put it bluntly, it's very low-key, and kind of unsophisticated.

Of course, students who have seen Teacher Haihara over the weekend probably wouldn't think that way.

The little girl at the shrine, without realizing it, grew into a young woman, took over the old woman's job, and became a full-fledged shrine maiden.

However, they might not recognize that the woman queuing to draw lots is the same girl who was often cared for by her grandmother many years ago.

Haihara quite unremarkable.

Moreover, that old lady had taken care of more than one person.

As in previous years, Haihara changed into a yukata, tied her long hair up with a silver hairpin, revealing her slender, fair neck, which made her whole body look exceptionally graceful and tall.

She wore light makeup, but it was just a touch of red on her lips and cheeks.

Her yukata was black, adorned with alluring blue-purple flowers and embellished with hazy gray mist, exuding an air of mystery.

Her makeup and attire alone were enough to draw everyone's attention to this stunning woman.

However, clothing alone is not enough.

The woman herself was also quite outstanding in appearance, possessing a cool and androgynous beauty. Her eyes were long and narrow, gleaming with a calm and indifferent light, which gave her an exceptionally attractive aura.

That's one of the benefits of makeup.

It can make an ordinary and unremarkable woman shine.

While feeling the gazes around her, Haihara held the hand of the person next to her.

Beside her was a radiant young girl, as gentle as a morning breeze, wearing a romantic bathrobe adorned with ukiyo-e prints.

Although she didn't dress up much, she was beautiful enough just by standing there.

"Mom, it's our turn."

The beautiful, tall girl said.

Kazama Kiriori and Haihara drew their fortune slips for this year's Maple Plain Festival.

In previous years, Kazama Kiriori always drew very good fortune slips, at the very least auspicious one, as if she were blessed by this festival.

But Haihara always ends up with a bad result.

Sometimes, Kazama Kiriori wouldn't be quite satisfied.

For her, her mother's fortune was what truly mattered; if Haihara drew a bad fortune, she wouldn't feel particularly happy about her own good one.

I hope Mom will draw a good fortune this year.

With this blessing in mind, Kazama Kiriori casually glanced at the fortune she had drawn, and then looked at the fortune Haihara had drawn.

It's unclear what she drew, but after seeing the words, Haihara quickly covered them up and put them away.

"Mother?"

Kazama Kiriori somewhat confused.

Does this mean the fortune slip I drew this year wasn't very good?

The Haihara is a commonly used saying:

"This year is also 'inauspicious'."

She said it casually.

After each time she pulled out the weapon, she would encounter some unpleasant things for a period of time.

This made Haihara feel somewhat uneasy.

Upon hearing this, Kazama Kiriori touched Haihara's face and smiled, saying:

"Let's switch then, I'm the lucky one here."

She wouldn't mind switching places with her mother at all.

Haihara didn't answer immediately, but silently put the fortune slip away and looked at a temple not far away.

She gently squeezed the stick.

"I'd better go and pray for better luck."

With that, Haihara walked in that direction.

The slip of paper she was holding between her fingers revealed the part with writing on it, which was faintly visible in the darkness:

Very unlucky.

Chapter 80 Takanashi saw

Takanashi Shiori arrived at the festival site very early. This was her second time in this area; the first time was during the battle with the Demon King, when they fought the Bird-Type Devil King at a nearby shrine.

I heard that the Magic girl Phantom Wind was first introduced in this place.

She had heard that there would be lots of delicious food at the celebration, and since she rarely attended such events, she was both excited and looking forward to it.

As someone from another world, she was naturally unfamiliar with the traditions of this place.

She had never worn a yukata either.

However, perhaps it was her nature as a girl, but she still spent a lot of time and money choosing this dress.

Actually, she usually goes shopping for clothes with her sugar daddy's mother on weekends, because it's obvious that Haihara has great taste in clothes, and it's more fun to go shopping together.

But for some reason, this time when she was choosing clothes, she didn't ask Haihara to go with her, but went to choose them by herself.

She wanted to wait until today's celebration to let Haihara see her yukata.

Takanashi Shiori has a hard time defining what style suits her. Compared to the other girls around her, she is an inconspicuous and unremarkable person. She is not as petite and cute as Sakaki Chika, nor does she give off a strong and aloof feeling like Kirishima Ai.

So in the end, she chose a yukata that looked like it was pure white.

Just as the name suggests, it has no patterns or special style; it's simply a white yukata worn on the body, with a braid tied into a pigtail and decorated with a bow.

Many passersby looked at her.

So Takanashi guesses that this outfit probably looks pretty good.

While eating candied apples and curiously looking around at the various stalls, Takanashi Shiori slowly approached the place where her class was scheduled to meet that evening.

There was a group of young men and women over there, probably high school students, quite conspicuous; these were the students from their class.

For some reason, this group of people is unusually noisy now.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out that many students had surrounded Teacher Suzuki.

Speaking of which, Teacher Suzuki does seem to be quite popular.

While it's understandable that Takanashi Shiori is like this, it's actually hard to empathize with her, since there are plenty of young and beautiful female teachers in R'lyeh.

As it turned out, they didn't see Teacher Haihara.

Although she didn't know what was going on, Takanashi still went over, thinking of staying with Kirishima Ai, whom she knew.

As a result, she was accidentally bumped into.

"..."

She was bumped on the shoulder, but didn't pay much attention. Then she heard the person's apologetic voice.

"Excuse me, did I hurt you?"

A calm and gentle voice came to her ear.

Takanashi looked up in confusion, then paused for a moment.

Beside her, speaking in a gentle voice, was a girl with dark hair and eyes, wearing a butterfly-shaped hair clip. She was about the same age as her, but had a gentle and pure temperament. Her bright silhouette was reflected in the lights of the celebration, giving people a sense of beauty like the clear sky after rain, even though it was night.

This person is really good-looking.

Even Takanashi, who is also a woman, has to admit that the other person gives off a very special feeling.

However, Takanashi still didn't show any expression.

"No."

The girl smiled brightly at her indifferent reaction.

"Really? That's good."

Judging from the girl's age, she should be in high school.

Are you also a student at Kaedehara High School?

Somewhat awkwardly, the two of them were dressed almost identically, both wearing pure white yukatas.

For girls, the feeling of wearing the same outfit as someone else is still quite unpleasant.