I’m a Witch In Dongying

"That's it."

Jiufeng Shiyuan nodded: "After all, I am now your shikigami. It’s a bit unreasonable to ignore the festival in my own home. Moreover, I am actually very curious about the situation in your shrine, if I can stay here. At the second festival, it would be a great honor to see the face of that **** with my own eyes."

"You mean, Lord Rain Master might appear at this festival?"

Bai Shuiqiu keenly caught the key words in Jiufeng Shion's words.

"No, I didn't say that, it's just a personal guess."

Jiufeng Ziyuan smiled, shook his head and said: "When I was just born of spiritual wisdom, there were still a lot of gods in this world, but most of them have disappeared in the past thousand years, some It has been perished, and some are still missing, even the rumored Sanguiko. This rain master **** enshrined in your shrine will certainly be no exception.

But since the breath of this **** is still there, it means that he is still alive now.

And since he survives, there is the possibility of returning to the world, but the probability is hard to say, and even if he returns, it may be hundreds of years later. "

After a pause, the woman looked at Bai Shuiqiu a little strangely: "This is the **** of your shrine, as a maiden who enshrines him, you should know him better than me, right, if it is true To come back from there, you should be the first to know, right?"

"..."

Bai Shui Qiuxin said that she was a half-hearted witch, and even the art of signing a contract with Shiki God was just obtained from the system not long ago. It is strange to be able to communicate with the gods...

And it really needs to be analyzed from a rational point of view...

If the rain master **** was still there, then Shirasui Sana 70 years ago would not have died silently on Lantern Mountain. Instead of holding the illusion that this **** might reappear, it is better to count on it. Yu Nu was able to wake up from her deep sleep earlier, but it was more realistic.

"Then I will go back first."

When there were still tens of meters away from the shrine, Bai Shuiqiu stopped and looked back at Jiufeng Shion who had been following him here: "If it is for a ceremony, do you need me to reserve a seat for you, although it is close to the center of the courtyard The place in is almost full, but if there is one more person, there should be no problem?"

Jiufeng Ziyuan shook his head, "No, I have a better place to go here, so I won't take up your precious seating resources."

"Um... do you mean flying in the sky to watch?"

Bai Shuiqiu asked in a tentative tone.

This is indeed a way, but a green heron that is more than ten meters long and is still burning with flames is hovering above Tianmu Mountain. It seems too conspicuous. Unless the people underneath are all blind, otherwise anyone will use it. Shooting on mobile phones and posting them on the Internet will probably cause an uproar...

"...Do I look so stupid?"

Jiufeng Ziyuan curled his lips, and then patted Bai Shuiqiu's shoulder: "Don't worry, I know that I'm so prone. If I expose myself so easily, I've been hiding in human society for so many years for nothing. You can rest assured. Let’s preside over the festival, I will find you when special circumstances arise."

"……Oh well."

After Bai Shuiqiu realized that he had asked a stupid question, he responded and turned and walked into the shrine.

At this time, Chiyo had also finished washing, and Bai Shuiqiu met at the entrance and greeted each other.

After a while, the Fumiyama family of Jindai also rushed over, as well as the couples of Asuka Hyuga, Kazuto Shirasui and others who were waking up one after another, all gathered in the courtyard of the shrine and began the final arrangement before the festival began.

In the past two days, Bai Shui and Ren finally played a role.

After all, he is also a member of the Shirasui family. Before the age of twenty, he spent most of his time in Narita City. He also used to act as an acting priest, along with Chiyo and Kesuke Shirasui, who has not yet passed away. , I have presided over the Rain God Festival several times, and I am no stranger to the whole process of this festival. I finally helped Bai Shuiqiu in the process of preparing for the festival.

In addition, the "folk musicians" who were good at classical instruments, whom Keiko Kashiro said before, were also brought here this time.

However, the number of people is a bit large. Bai Shuiqiu originally thought that he would only come to about three at most, but suddenly came five or six, and all of them had gray hair. The youngest one seemed to be in his forties, and the youngest The older two are estimated to be in their 60s or 70s, about the same age as Chiyo and Shendai Wenshan.

When they saw them, Bai Shuiqiu and Chiyo had no special reaction, but the faces of Bai Shui and Ren and his wife showed incredible expressions.

"Hey, are you Master Shinnosuke Nohara?"

"Ah, it turns out it was really you, I thought I had confessed to the wrong person... Last spring, our TV station invited you to do an interview on ancient musical instruments. I wonder if you still have an impression?"

"Sorry, you wouldn't be the Mr. Zongjin who came from the Shakuhachi family. I didn't expect to see you here. It's a great honor."

"?"

Seeing the performance of the Heren couple, Bai Shuiqiu raised his eyebrows.

But soon, Shendai Wenshan personally explained a few words.

It turns out that these masters are well-known seniors in the Dongying folk music industry. Because of their advanced age, most of them have not performed much on stage. They are all sitting behind the scenes with apprentices or focusing on making musical instruments. This time, I came here specially to help Tenmu Shrine.

With Keiko's affection, this is definitely not possible.

Therefore, most of these masters were invited by Shendai Wenshan personally. No matter how to put it down, Shindai Fumyama is also a legend in Chiba Prefecture and at the helm of the Shindai Foundation. These musicians have either received his favor or have had a deep or shallow intersection with the Shindai family, so How much will sell him a bit of face.

According to Bai Shui Heren, if any one of these masters is put on a classical concert in Tokyo, as soon as the news is released, it will be known to those classical music lovers, and the tickets will be sold in minutes. If it is exhausted, it may even be hyped up by the scalpers on the Internet to a sky-high price of more than 100,000 yuan.

It's a little overkill to get the Rain God Festival.

But it's all here, and it doesn't make much sense to talk about other things.

After asking each other hello, several masters got their hands on the instruments they were good at and began to audition.

The musical instruments in Tenmu Shrine were all turned out by Bai Shuiqiu from the treasure hall. Usually no one plays them. Even if the maintenance is relatively good, there will be more or less problems of this kind, some just need to be debugged and you can use them. Others are due to dampness or wear and tear, which leads to incorrect pitch, which is not easy to deal with.

Fortunately, most of these masters brought spare strings or instruments.

It took only ten minutes or so to complete the intonation proofreading work, and then began to practice the ensemble according to the music scores of ritual music.

But Bai Shuiqiu turned back to the house to change clothes when the time was almost up.

White clothes, undergarments, and hakama.

On the feet are white foot bags and red straw sandals.

These are the standard equipment of the witch costume. Bai Shuiqiu basically wears it every day, and he is already familiar with it.

But because he was going to preside over the ceremony as the "priest maiden" at the Rain God Festival, Bai Shuiqiu deliberately put a thin layer of Chihau outside, and then coiled up his long black hair with white sandalwood paper. Tie it up and put on the crown of the day before yesterday.

——This thing is a crown made of gold leaf. It looks golden on the outside, with long tassels on the forehead and sides, which looks solemn and elegant. After all, the original intention of the sacrifice was to communicate prayers to the gods. Out of respect for the gods, it is natural to dress up more grandly.

In addition, there are some props such as flower hairpins, Kagura bells, painted fans, and masks.

For the need of praying for rain, a fresh willow branch is also needed.

After putting all the bits and pieces of props on his body neatly, Bai Shuiqiu felt that his whole body seemed to have weighed several kilograms. However, the image projected from the mirror was indeed different from before, as if there was a taste of grace and holiness invisibly.

Taking a deep breath, Bai Shuiqiu's face was solemn, and he turned and walked out of the bedroom.

Follow the corridor all the way to the courtyard.

At this time, a large number of guests had gathered in the courtyard of the shrine.

On the first few rows of futons, there are people like Shendai Wenshan and others. In the back are other guests, standing or sitting in different directions. Those rows of observation platforms built with the help of the Qiuyue team are also crowded. It was full, but there were still many tourists rushing over from the bottom of the mountain one after another, squeezing their feet behind the crowd and watching, the whispering noises came and went one after another, and they were continuous over the entire shrine.

Wait till eleven o'clock in the morning.

The rain **** festival started on time.

First, the Taiko drum rang, and the dull drum sound spread far along the air.

Then there are pipa, shakuhachi, and Kagura flute. The sacrificial music blown away by various instruments rang out.

As the predecessors in the industry who came out as the Shindai Fumyama personally and invited them from Chiba City, the skills of these masters are obviously quite exquisite. Although only a few simple rehearsals before the beginning of the festival, at this time, it was completely unfamiliar. When the different instruments hummed in harmony with each other according to the established rhythm, it seemed to have a taste of a classical band.

But well...

The absolute protagonist of today's festival is of course Bai Shuiqiu.

According to the rules of the Rain God Festival, the first ceremony lasts two hours.

In the previous hour, there were mainly various "inviting gods" rituals.

This paragraph needs to be presided over by Chiyo, who is the lord of the gods.

Bai Shui Qiu and Bai Shui Heren, respectively, as a maiden and a priest, cooperated with some ceremonial activities. In addition, the two temporary maidens, Hyuga Asuka and Kanako, also slapped their hands next to them. It is envisaged that the set process will be pushed forward in an orderly manner.

It wasn't until twelve o'clock that Bai Shuiqiu started to dance the "Rain Master Dance" as the priest witch.

This dance is also a kind of Kagura dance.

But it's different from the kind when praying for death.

To be precise, "Kagura Dance" itself is a collective term, referring to all dances performed in the ceremonies of enshrining gods, and this kind of rain **** festival is said to be derived from the ancient rain prayer ceremony, and later in the long years. In the passing, some fixed movements and corresponding dance regulations were added. A whole dance takes about an hour. During this period, items such as masks, swords, cypress fans, sakura, Kagura bells, etc. are all needed, and the process is quite cumbersome.

But the overall look and feel is quite elegant and graceful.

Among them, the mask is a dragon-shaped mask with two decorative objects shaped like antlers erected on both sides.

This appearance is naturally designed based on the image of the rain master god, because the legendary rain master **** is an eastern dragon that soars through the clouds.

The first performance was the sword dance.

The prop is a real knife without blade, which is still heavy for a teenage girl.

If you change to the Baishuiqiu of previous years, you will probably be lazy at this time, and slow down your movements as much as possible. It looks soft-this is actually a performance style, a bit similar to the common Tai Chi in Huaxia Park. Sword, if the movement is smooth enough, it is still very interesting.

But well...

Now Bai Shuiqiu, there is no need to do this kind of cutting corners.

After covering her face with a mask, she stepped into the center of the Kagura Hall and raised her long sword flat to her chest. Between the waves of her long sleeves, she seemed to have swung the blade into a bright ball. The white light of the sword, when the blade pierced the air, there was a slight sound of the sword sound, which seemed to have a sense of heroism.

The second scene is a fan dance.

The prop is a cypress fan. To put it bluntly, it is the earliest folding fan in the East. It is made of cypress pieces. It was popular in the Heian period and has been used as a ceremonial prop for some festivals in temples and shrines ever since.

This kind of dance has nothing to show off, and what he originally pursued is a feeling of "softness" and "lightness", so Bai Shuiqiu also honestly performed it step by step in accordance with the rules of the usual training.

After this performance with two completely different styles of rigid and soft is over, it will be the third and most important dance.

The so-called "shen" is actually Yang Tongshu, which is commonly referred to as "shen tree" in Shintoism.

Bai Shuiqiu first put the cypress fan back in front of the stage, and then while shaking the Kagura bell, while dipping the fresh Yangtong branches in the clear water in the stone trough, while shaking the Kagura bell, he dipped the fresh water in the stone trough with the revolving footsteps, and turned the clear water on the branches towards Spread out around to show the meaning of rain.

Mime private 629

Bai Shuiqiu's Kagura dance performance is the highlight of the entire Rain God Festival.

These people present now, except for a group of gold masters such as Keisuke Jindai, are on the specially invited list of Tenmoku Shrine. They are special guests, as well as villagers living in nearby villages and towns. Most of them will appear at this time of year. On Tianmu Mountain... the remaining people, it can be said that seven or eight Chengdu are here for Bai Shuiqiu.

Among them, there were even guests coming from the neighboring Saitama Prefecture, Tokyo, and even the Kansai area.

Travelling all the way to Narita is to see her as a national champion.

Although at this time, Bai Shuiqiu was wearing a mask on his face, which obscured the original appearance, but between the movement of his footsteps, the slender and graceful figure and graceful dance steps were also vividly reflected.

Her physical coordination is inherently good.

After all, fourteen or five-year-old girls are at their peak of youthfulness, even if they simply go around in circles, they can attract a lot of attention.

What's more, the dance steps are carefully choreographed.

And after this period of practice, with the blessing of spiritual power, Bai Shuiqiu's body is even lighter than before. Under the blowing of the mountain breeze, Chihha's wide and long sleeves dance with him, his clothes fluttering. Gone, Luo Socks gave birth to dust, and he felt like Feng Xu Yufeng, as if he was about to rise in the wind at any time.

Accompanied by the quaint and melodious music played by several masters...

It is a feast of sight and hearing.

Gradually, all kinds of whispers stopped, and the entire courtyard became silent.

Many tourists who witnessed this kind of scene for the first time were fascinated, and even forgot the hot weather. Sweat dripped from their heads and faces, and they didn't even care to wipe it.

The weather at the end of August, although it is the end of summer, but when it is not raining, the temperature is still a bit high, especially after standing under the sun for two hours, even if the Tenmoku Shrine issued a folding fan to everyone in advance-this Things are given for free, which is considered as a benefit from the shrine-plus many people carry simple hand-held fans to fan themselves, they still can't resist the power of the sun.

Only a few who stand under the shade of trees do not feel very hot because they are covered by leaves.

This is another reason why you need to be lazy in the sword dance.

For the average maiden, even if she always maintains a large amount of exercise and dances continuously for more than half an hour, she will inevitably sweat a lot, making her hair and body sticky and looking unsightly.

but……

Bai Shuiqiu had long anticipated that this might happen, so when he went out in the morning, he brought two Qingxin Talisman with him close to his body. With the faint spiritual power surging, the silk radiated from the talisman. The cold air lingered around her body, acting as a simple air conditioner, so even if she danced three dances in succession, she still looked clean and refreshing.

As for the tip of the nose and temples, sweat is a little bit, because it is covered by a mask, it is not visible from the outside.

After a dance, Bai Shuiqiu circled Shi Shiran in the field, and finally shook his wrist gently and threw Yang Tongzhi in the air into the air.

This is the last step of the sacrificial ceremony.

The priests of the ancient times believed that in this way, people’s expectations for rain could be conveyed to the ears of the gods, so that the rain masters could use their divine power to spread clouds and rain, and make the crops in the farmland under the nourishment of rain and dew. , Can grow smoothly, and mature and harvest in autumn.

And now...

Even a Shinto believer with a firm belief does not think that just through a ceremony, the rain can be called. After all, this is just a very ordinary ceremony, and it is impossible for the so-called "miracles" to occur...

However.

At the moment when Bai Shuiqiu threw Yang Tong's branches high, everyone felt a cool breeze rising from the ground, spreading around the courtyard, and then with the rustling of the surrounding trees, bringing more mountain breeze back. Roll it up, blowing around inside and outside the shrine.

call--