112 Chapter 104 - Hana no Yōsei

The next day. Sky and others visited an old man at the shrine near the snow mountain, which is also the client of that quest. The reward for the quest is to let them watch the rare 'Winter-Spring blessing' rituals that rarely open to the public which includes a beautiful dance performance of Hana no yōsei (flower fairy). However, they are facing a problem. The granddaughter for the old man, who is also the original performer of the dance is not able to do the dance due to a serious injury during practice, so her younger sister will be performing on her stead, but the younger sister had never done the dance before, and her elder sister can't teach her as she is still in the hospital.

The old man told them that if this dance failed to be performed, the Hana no yōsei will be upset and the flowers in that area might not bloom when the spring arrives. So the dance must be successfully done no matter what.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hmm... This could be quite troublesome." said Sky while trying to recall something.

"Anything in your mind?" Seito ask.

"I feel like I have seen someone did this Hana no yosei dance before... Hmm..." Then he slowly turned his sight to Chris, who is playing with a white cat in the shrine.

"Hey Chris." said Sky.

"Hmm?" "I remember that you did that dance once, right?" said Sky which successfully draws the crowd's attention to Chris.

"Huh?... No, I'm not going to do it again." said Chris without even waiting for Sky to finish his words and as expected Sky looks disappointed when he heard Chris's response, while the others are amazed to know that Chris can perform a dance that usually performs by a girl/lady.

"Can you teach Ume (the girl that is assigned to perform the dance on her sister's stead) the dance?". The old man asks all of a sudden. "Ah... That..."

Although Chris is really unwilling to but he still agrees to help them in the dance which will be performing a week later. (Yay!)

That night, resort, Sky and Chris's room.

"Hey, Chris, why do you reject my suggestion? I really want to see you doing that beautiful dance again." said Sky.

"Shut up. I know what you are up to, I have got no choice that time, it's not like I'm interested in doing that." said Chris.

"But are you sure you are able to teach her that dance perfectly in a week?" Sky asks.

"Well... I'll try my best I guess." said Chris, who was preparing to sleep.

"Hey, another thing I'm concerned about."

"Hmm?"

"It's about Ruby, are you planning to let her continue to follow you all the where in that mental state? You know, it could be quite dangerous for both of you, if you know what I mean."

"Ah... I know. I plan to send her to Maria's place after this performance, I believe Maria can handle her well while helping her to recover her mentality... But there's something that bothers me a bit. Although I'm pretty sure that she lied to me with the identity of Rei, but for some reason, I feel that I'm having some fragments of memories with her, and those memories feel real..." said Chris.

"Are you sure it's not Maria in those memories?" said Sky which gets a leer from Chris.

At this moment, they did not realize that someone is eavesdropping at them... Or probably they realize it but choose to ignore it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, the old man's house.

"Lower your arm a bit... Your movements need to be lighter... Yes, as light as possible... Your wrist is too stiff, try to relax a bit..." Chris is teaching a clumsy-looking girl some hand movements for the dance.

"Ah... Nevermind, give me that stick, I'll show you how to do it." said so Chris take the prop from the girl, showing the correct moves.

Outside the practice room, Sky and Seito are peeping at Chris.

"I still can't believe it, Chris can actually do that dance!" said Seito.

"Well, there is a lot of things you don't know about him." said Sky. Then the two continue peeping at Chris.

"Let's try some of the dance steps. Uhm... Can you do splits?" Chris ask.

"Ah... Splits?" Ume is a bit confused.

"Uh... Nevermind, let's figure out another way round, it's impossible for you to learn that perfectly in a week." said Chris after a long sigh.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The old man walks in with a tray of barley tea, he watches the dance move that shown by Chris and is a bit surprised, he remembered he had seen the same moves that were performed by a man/boy when he was still a little kid...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

A day before the ritual, Ume had learned all the moves for the dance except for the split that is replaced by a half split pose. However Chris still feels there's something lacking in her dance, he feels that Ume's dance might not be good enough to impress the flower fairies. He knows that Ume had given her best to do a perfect dance, so he was thinking of what he could do to polish that dance even more...

"Are you finally going to give in and do the dance by yourself?" Sky asks, rather excited.

"Shut up." said Chris, then he saw a koto (Japanese harp) at the corner of the training room.

"Hmm..." Chris looks at the koto and thought of something. Sky looks at Chris, even more excited than before...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day. Ume is now performing the dance of Hana no yosei. In her hand is a branch from a plum tree that yet to be bloom, instead of the prop they use for practice. Chris is on the stage too, wearing a plain-looking mask, playing the koto along with three other musicians that play their respective traditional instruments. The stage is decorated by branches of flowers that yet to be bloom. Ume's movement had become softer and lighter compared with the first day of her training. She dances gracefully in a white traditional dress with red flowers pattern, with her elegant hair accessory and the plum tree branch in her hand, she looks like a real plum blossom fairy.

The background music, especially the koto played by Chris, makes the dance even more beautiful and complete. The mellow yet firm sound of music played by Chris is so heavenly that it gives people an illusion that they are in the paradise.

As the dance reaches its climax where Ume was supposed to do a split but is replaced by an easier half split, the flowers on the stage start blooming on its own, despite of the cold weather. Or at least that's what can be seen by normal humans. In the eyes of the magic users, for example Sky and friends, a much more wonderful sight can be seen.

A small swarm of tiny pixie can be seen flying to the stage, dancing around the flower with Ume, as they dance, the flowers bloom, some of them are enchanted by Chris's music and starts dancing around him, because of the mask, we can't see if he is annoyed or what. Then a fairy flies onto that branch in Ume's hand and dances around it, the plum blossom blooms with Ume's beautiful movements...

All of a sudden, it starts to snow, snowflake softly flew onto the stage, forming a rare and beautiful sight...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After the performance, the old man thanked them and gifted a small bag to Chris. Chris is a bit confused, he opened the bag and saw some seeds inside, then he remembered about the boy that gifted him almost the same thing years ago, he smiled.

"Hey Chris! That's an amazing performance!" said Seito, in an excited tone.

"I just randomly played some notes, it's not even worth mentioning." said Chris.

"See? I told you our Chris here is much more talented than you can imagine." said Sky while clinging on Chris while holding his shoulder.

"Go away, you are disgusting. Don't worry, next time it will be your turn." said Chris.

"What?!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

*Something out of the story

Sky: "Dear readers."

Chris: "Hmm?"

Sky: "This chapter is meant to be released for webnovel.com."

Chris: "Oh! This matter. Yes, if you're reading this chapter on another platform than webnovel.com, know that it's an illegal copy diffused without the Writer's authorization."

Sky: "As what Chris said. Right now, this story is free on the authorized platform, so please read it from authorized platforms as mental support for the writer."

Chris: "Mhm... There are two authorized platforms. One is webnovel.com. And another one is that messy and half-dead Weebly site that she uses for draft and backup... But not recommended."

Sky: "Ah... Haha. Yes, as Chris said."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As usual, if you like my story, please add it to your collection /library as a support for me, your support is my motivation to continue writing.

I'll start releasing three main chapters a week if there is my number collection /library reached 50 people, and thanks for those who add this story to their collection.

I'll release main chapters every Tuesday and Friday, and some auxiliary chapters from time to time. Thanks.