Kaito's mom brought a giant pot of miso soup to the table.
"Eat now, children."
"Thank you for the food."
It was Ryuo again, surprisingly being the most polite out of them when needed.
"It's nothing. Just ask if you need anything. I also brought some water for you to drink."
"Hopefully we are not imposing."
"Oh not at all. It's a nice change to have this place be so lively at times. Well I'll be going now, enjoy the food."
Her footsteps disappeared into the hallway. Kaito stood up, and with a giant ladle poured everyone a full cup of the soup.
"There's so much soup, feel free to have seconds."
"Thank you Kaito."
For a moment the room fell silent, with everyone devouring the delicious soup.
"So Kaito, are you studying something? I'm doing a sports program, Airi is going to an all girls high school, Miyuki is going to some humanist based one if I recall correctly and Souta here is also studying in some bigger town.
"Ah, it's good to hear that everyone has found some path. It was mostly my dad's idea, but I'm going to a private high school, Yukinoma High."
"I've never heard of it. Is there something special about it?"
"It's quite a ways off from here. It has a focus on traditional shinto teachings and focuses on some nature stuff. I was a bit opposed to it at first but I think it has grown on me."
His dad seems to really appreciate traditional values huh. Hopefully someone asks him about it.
"Tell us about this place, it's intriguing."
Thanks Miyuki.
"Oh, this place? I don't know much about it. My parents bought it long before I was born."
"Surely you've heard some stories?" Airi also joined the conversation.
"Well, as you all know there are many ancient temples in this valley. This is not the original one that was built here, but on this place for some reason or other throughout the years a new temple has always been built when the last one fell to ruin. I'm sure the area around here is full of ancient sites."
"We never learnt any of the history of our city in preschool I don't think."
"I always just assumed there wasn't any."
So did I.
"There was prolific Moon worship here, the Summer Moon festival is a continuation of that. But other than that I have no idea."
"There aren't many books on the topic either, I've tried to look."
"I once found one, I was explaining to Souta about it but it was in such a bad condition that I couldn't make sense out of most of it."
Ryuo also joined in.
"Maybe we could try asking about it from the village elders during the preparations for the festival, I'm sure they'd know something. I'm intrigued now."
"That's a good idea!"
"Does anyone want seconds?"
"Me!"
"I'll take some too."
"Yeah me as well, it's tasty."
The room fell to silence once more as they enjoyed the food. Surprisingly it was Miyuki who once again started the conversation.
"You said that many temples have been built in this location, right Kaito?"
"So I've heard."
"Excellent. I have an idea."
She pulled out a deck of cards.
How did she carry those while only wearing a dress?
"Are we going to play cards! That's fun."
"Not quite, Ryuo. Do any of you know what Moon Tarot is?"
Others looked at each other, but no one seemed to know.
"That's fine. I read somewhere that it's more powerful on sites like these so I thought we could give it a try."
"Is it a sort of divination from cards?"
"Yes, sort of. I picked these up in an antique store far from here. Along with a manual"
"I didn't know you were into this kind of stuff."
"Well it's not that I really believe in it, more like, this is an academic interest of mine."
"Makes more sense. So how does it work?"
"Let me show you. Can someone please move the pot aside?"
"I will"
Ryuo stood up and easily moved the big pot to the side.
"Thanks Ryuo."
"Now I'm getting excited! It really is starting to feel like a meeting of cassiopeia."
"Right, Airi? I agree."
Moon Tarot huh. I've never heard of it. I know what normal tarot is; some girls in my school are obsessed with it. I think it's a western thing though."
Miyuki started to shuffle the cards in her hand.
"We need to all think of the question we want to ask while I shuffle."
"Hmm what should we ask?"
"Let's go with something simple. Let's ask how the festival will go."
"That seems like a good idea."
After shuffling for a bit, Miyuki gave the deck to each person to cut once. After that she cut it herself, and smoothly spread the cards in a ring around the table.
A sudden image flashed into Souta's mind.
The circles carved into Kaito's parents' faces. No, it's just a stupid coincidence. It doesn't make any sense.
"This right here is the Moon. Since there are many of us, let's hold hands and say a prayer. Repeat after me."
"O' sleepless eye of the night."
"O' sleepless eye of the night." The others repeated.
"Look down upon us, children of twilight."
"Look down upon us, children of twilight."
"And light the path forward."
"And light the path forward."
*click*
What was that.
Souta looked around to see if anyone had noticed. It was impossible to tell anything about their faces, but since anyone else wasn't looking around he assumed not.
Must be my imagination.
"No need to repeat anymore. Next, I'll pull five cards from the circle with my eyes closed, and place them on the table on the places of the biggest craters of the moon."
"Have you done this a lot, you seem to know this by heart."
"So what if I have?"
"Just curious."
"Right."
She pulled out the cards, and carefully placed them.
"This one in the middle will be turned up last. It will hold the most important answer to the question. These other four are other smaller answers that will also help to decipher the final card."
"Makes sense."
"Does everyone have a basic understanding of the tarot at least?"
Ryuo shook his head.
"Similar to classical tarot, these also have the minor and major arcana, or secrets as it means. Minor arcana has 56 cards, four suites, each having cards from 1-14, with the higher ones being court cards. Major arcana has 22 cards, and in this deck it follow the journey of a moon worshipper."
Airi turned to Ryuo.
"Basically, every card has a meaning, and the answers to our question can be deciphered from them."
"I think I get it."
"I'll turn the first card upright."
Seven of Cups
"So Miyuki, what does it mean?"
"Well, it's upright so that's the first thing, that means it holds its usual meaning."
"Which is?"
"Well…there's seven cups full of…stuff…"
"Yeah! There's a snake in one, a dragon in another!"
"That one seems to hold a castle, and that one's full of riches."
"There's a statue like head in one."
"And there's a wreath of leaves. It's a symbol of power right?"
"What is that in the middle there?"
Everyone bent over the table to take a closer look. For a while they pondered.
"Seems to be a hooded figure of sorts."
"It's glowing with red light."
"That's kind of weird."
"It has its hands open, but I don't think we can see much else about him."
Kind of creepy if you ask me.
"And in the bigger picture, there's a guy looking at these cups. I think he has to make a choice between them."
"So, what does it mean?"
"I'm not sure yet. Let's turn over the next card."
The Magician, reversed
"It's upside down! What does that mean?"
"It means that its usual meaning is also reversed."
Again they bent over the table to take a closer look.
"It's a guy, in old traditional japanese clothing. His other hand is up, and the other one down."
"In his upper hand, he's holding a red moon, and in his lower a white one."
"Miyuki tell us about this."
"Uhh…according to the manual it shows a worshipper in his first steps towards enlightenment. But reversed…uh…bad things. Something to do with the mind being sick."
"Well that's not good."
"But! Couldn't it also mean something like…uhh…not understanding the first steps to take?"
"I guess it could."
"On the table he also has the four suites as objects of the suited cards. Pentacles, cups, swords and wands!"
"I wonder what that means."
"I'm not sure either. Maybe the next one will tell us more."
Two of swords
"Hey, at least this one is nice!"
"Yeah, it means comradery."
"How so? There's a robed figure with their eyes covered holding two swords."
"And there's a moon in the background."
"Uhh…it had something to do with the swords."
"I guess it's nice and equal. Seems like a comfortable position."
"Something along those lines. Let's see the last one before the big reveal."
The Moon
That's an ominous looking card.
"So…what about this one, Miyuki?"
"Uhh…hidden enemies, danger, deception, darkness, terror."
"That's not nice at all!"
"I don't get how it relates to the festival at all."
"Does it have any positive meanings?"
"Well…the Moon there is white."
"And?"
"I don't know."
"Does anyone else have any ideas?"
"Perhaps it just came up because the festival has to do with the moon?"
"Yeah, that's probably it!"
Let's hope so.
"Everyone ready for the last card?"
"Go for it!"
"Let's all turn it together! On three!
"One!"
"Two!"
"Three!"
Death, reversed