Lily felt a perplexing attraction to that ancient yet ingenious loom.
Pushing open the door, Lily entered the room. This room was filled with old scents and colors and a loom that occupied half the space.
Slowly walking around the loom, she was confused. This was clearly the first time seeing a loom in Heian-kyo, yet why did it feel so familiar?
She stretched out her slender hand and slowly stroked this loom that had been placed here for many long years.
She felt a longing sad feeling through her fingers.
And with a strange fluctuation, the loom disappeared leaving behind an empty room.
“Eh?” Lily looked around in panic, “It disappeared!?”
No, it hadn’t disappeared.
Lily had somehow felt that the loom had been put away by her.
Or to be more precise, it had been put away into her ancient mirror. It had entered her ancient mirror without her conscious direction.
“What, how could this be!?” She might be attracted to this ancient loom, but it was raccoon Mita’s belongings, how could she randomly break someone’s seal and steal their belongings?
No, she must return it.
Though she had felt the mirror store the loom, no matter how she looked, she couldn’t find the loom.
This wasn’t good.
Sitting down, her consciousness entered the mirror space.
The mirror space was silent, Kagura was no longer here, and Yuki-Onna was resting in the shikigami training room.
Looking around, Lily’s eyes fell on the fifth room that had opened when she was climbing the Izumo main peak.
A dazzling gold light shot out of the fifth room and was engraved itself into her violet moon…
Going over, she looked into the door and saw a vast sea of stars.
“The starry skies!?”
How could the starry skies appear within the fifth door of her mirror space?
“The loom!”
Lily discovered that the loom was floating in the starry skies.
“No, I must quickly return it.” Lily settled herself and attempted to move the loom out of the mirror space, but discovered that she couldn’t!
Just as she couldn’t move the mirror space’s stone lamps, inscriptions, and furniture, this loom was floating in the vast starry skies of the fifth room, it was one with the mirror space and couldn’t be moved.
“How could this be? How am I supposed to explain this to grandpa Mita?”
“The loom…”
Lily looked at the floating loom in desperation before an idea came to her.
Her consciousness moved into the starry skies within the room…
In here, her spirit body could float like a celestial maiden, but the starry skies looked endless. Lily was wary of getting lost so she didn’t dare go too far as she floated up beside the loom.
Taking a closer look at the loom, she sat down on the wooden stool in front and started fiddling with it.
This feeling of sitting down where the starry skies surrounded her in all six directions was really amazing.
But suddenly an overwhelming force crashed into Lily and flung her out the room.
“Ehh!?” Lily skidded onto the stone floor outside aggrieved and confused.
“I’m the master of this mirror space, why did I get bounced out!?”
“I was clearly fine when exploring the starry skies, but the moment I fiddle with the loom I get thrown out?”
Suddenly a theory appeared.
From ancient times, men farmed, women weaved…
Looking down at her spirit body, no matter how slender or that she was dressed in womens clothes, this was a male spirit body.
This loom was perhaps… for women only?
In the outside world, Lily could naturally use it, but in this mirror space Lily was helpless1.
But…
Didn’t this demonstrate how extraordinary this loom was?
Lily pondered over her thoughts.
She really wanted to learn how to use this loom, such an extraordinary loom could probably weave a canopy for her sakura parasol.
But to think that her first step suffered a setback.
It was only a theory, a thought, but it was also very logical and reasonable.
Standing up, she looked down at her body again. In truth, this spirit body was a true reflection of her inner heart.
After all, her spirit was male and she hoped her spirit body remained male. Though she was already so feminine, she hoped to retain the last vestiges of her male identity, it was her bottom line.
But…even if grandpa Mita repaired the parasol frame, without a canopy, the sakura parasol could not be repaired.
Sakura had been destroyed for her.
Why was she still caring about such an inconsequential thing?
Would she give up on repairing sakura for this dignity that no one could see?
“Only…it should be fine…only when weaving.”
Taking a deep breath she stepped back and looked at the room where sister Rinne was sleeping. She didn’t have the courage to go there so she went into her own dressing room.
With a thought, the gigantic stone door shut.
A short time later, the stone door slowly opened, and Lily stepped out for the first time as a woman, dressed in a beautiful long sleeve red kimono.
Right now, her body, her form, her aura was all the same as the Lily of the outside world.
Her face was flushed red, as if she was suffering an unspeakable humiliation.
In truth, she had long known that she only had to agree and this would be done.
But she was never willing. To guard the last vestiges of her past self, she held to that bottom line, but to repair her sakura parasol, this time she had no choice but to try.
For some reason, when she walked along the mirror space in this form, she felt so comfortable.
It was as if this place was originally built for a woman. To think that having a female form and heart felt so good here…
Such a shameful thought, but it lingered in her mind because it was a fact, an undeniable, unavoidable fact.
In fact, she felt that her path of advancement and understanding had become more unified.
However, only this time, for Sakura. She would not forget her past self, because that was the past self in sister Rinne’s heart2.
Step by step, she walked into the fifth room, entering the starry skies.
Her red clothes spread out in the skies like rogue. It was extraordinarily charming.
Lily’s steps were slow as she came to the loom and sat down.
Her hands gracefully moved and were slowly placed on the loom…
“Ah……” An eminently ancient feeling was transmitted.
“This……this……” Lily looked at the loom in surprise. She knew this loom, she had seen it before…and she knew how to use it.
But there were no memories of this loom in her mind, there were no memories of using this loom, but her body moved by itself.
Her body instinctively knew how to use the loom, as if the methods were embedded deep within her.
There was no silk thread, but for some reason she stood up and backed a step away. She then started dancing within the skies, and her hand lowered to her own sash.
Flap—! Her obi was undone.
Her long sleeved kimono turned into countless crimson petals floating and swirling in the starry skies.
Usually Lily wore nothing beneath her kimono, but this time her delicate form was wrapped in a tight white gauze.
As she danced, her slender fingers swiped across the white gauze and hooked it as she danced and swirled in the starry skies. The white gauze spread out from her body in a rotating motion, weaving and flying in the starry sky.
The white gauze smelling of her fragrance, swirled and danced in the skies, slowly lengthening…
Gradually, the white gauze completely left her body, traversing the skies as a heavenly river.
Lily was now completely bare, but there was not a hint of lewdness, only holiness and loneliness…
Lily’s face was completely crimson, “Sakura…”
Her hands covered her chest, even though there was no one else.
Taking a deep breath, she spread her hands and circled the heavenly river, dancing.
The surrounding stars centered on the loom as Lily’s steps circled the loom in twelve dance poses.
Unbelievably, within the starry skies, twelve phantom images in different poses were left behind.
The twelve figures absorbed the starry light, and emitted delicate hallows, becoming twelve beautiful moons, the twelve phases of the lunar cycle!
Countless crimson petals gathered around her and became crimson ribbons wrapped around her, forming an elegant if exposed crimson dress amongst the floating petals.
She would prefer her dress to be not so revealing, but this wasn’t her choice.
Her body was not listening to her commands, refusing to manipulate the petals in the sky.
Lily was helpless as her body wrapped in crimson ribbons sat down in front of the loom.
Although this dress formed out of crimson ribbons didn’t look suited to a girl weaving in front of a loom, her movements were slow, skilled, and gentle, she radiated the elegance and charm of femininity.
Her slender arms fluttered and pulled on the loom while her long slender legs stepped on the thick wooden petals with bare feet.
The loom started running.
It was clearly an empty loom, yet Lily didn’t care. She grasped the shuttle of the loom and saw the long river of white gauze was made of sparkling silk stained in starlight and bathed in moonlight. Slowly a silk thread of the white gauze flowed and connected to the loom itself, becoming thread for weaving.
Lily’s foot continued to move the petal, and her hands skillfully ran the shuttle over the loom looking like a virtuous young wife.
The white gauze fell to the side of the loom.
“Ah—” Lily’s hands continued to weave, but her shyness of the situation caused a small accident. She pierced her finger and a drop of red landed on the white snowy cloth.
“What, what should I do?”
Before her words were finished, countless petals still floating around in the sky, gathered and fell onto the cloth on the loom, dying it a gorgeous crimson color.
The color of sakura petals3.
