v5 21 Apr 2007 03:37 pm
Divine Favor
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From the next day, we stopped riding two to a bike, at least in front of the RPS. There was the chance that next time we would have to sweep the entire town. We wanted to avoid it because last time’s in-town sweeping was really tough because we were under the sweltering sun. We were tired of sweeping. In that respect, Chuzai-san’s “punishment” had totally hit its mark.
Of course, we had absolutely no intention of admitting defeat.
There was a big reason for spending the effort to go past the front of the RPS.
That’s right. It was because Great Inoue-kun wanted to catch a glimpse of the wife’s little sister, “Minako-san.” He didn’t say anything, but we already understood it.
Coincidently, that day, we were going home with exactly the same people that were part of last time’s sweeping.
There was a shrine at the end of the shopping district after passing in front of the RPS.
In front of the shrine torii, there was a lady talking to the Shinto priest. It was someone we had seen before.
“Ah! There! They’re the young men I was just talking about!”
“I see,” responded the priest.
By “young men,” was she referring to us?
“Young men, over here! Come over here!”
“What? Us?”
The six of us hesitantly went over, not understanding what was going on.
The lady (she was an older lady) said to the priest,
“You know these young men? They’re remarkable. They’re sweeping the town every day.”
“What? Huh?”
Oh! It was the lady who talked to us when we were forced to sweep.
“That’s true. Rare for youngsters these days. You guys go to the local high school?”
“Y-yeah. That’s right.”
She repeated remarkable over and over. She sang our praises. It didn’t feel bad.
“No, no. Well, we were just doing what comes naturally as a citizen. Right?”
Saijoh-kun was beside himself with joy. After all, he wasn’t used to being praised. He must’ve been really happy. There was no way that we could say that it was “punishment for riding two to a bike.”
“Is that so? That is remarkable. I have something to talk to you guys about.”
“Yes?”
“It’s the priest. He’s pretty old and you see in this heat? He was saying that sweeping the grounds, and especially the stairs, is really tough!”
“Huh?”
“And so I was just telling him about you guys.”
What!?
“And so. Can we have you guys sweep the shrine today?”
There was a staircase called the “heart-masher stairs” that numbered over 150 steps. It was no joke!
“The festival is coming up, too. Don’t you think it should be cleaned, as a citizen?”
“N-no…”
But then,
“Sorry about that… Thank you very much… I’ve got… a weak heart, so…”
The tough looking priest was giving us a feeble “thanks.”
The lady then,
“Well then. Work hard! You guys really are rare for youngsters these days. There’ll probably be some divine favor, for sure!”
Adding to that,
“Oh! I almost forgot! I should introduce you guys to the Buddhist monk, too!”
You secular hag!
Two hours later,
“Was the shrine this big?”
“Why… are we doing this?”
“It’s tough to do three days in a row…”
“It’s because you said fireworks festival, senpai…”
That was Jaime speaking.
“Y-You’re going back that far!? You’re the one that bought all those fountains!”
“But… fountains are so cheap and pretty.”
“Man, this place really is huge. This is almost as big as a ball field.”
True. We had already spent a lot of time sweeping.
“But see. This is a shrine right? They must make a lot of money. There might be some reward.”
“Ah! You can say that again!”
“Like, ‘you guys can do what you want with the money in the offertory box.’”
Yeah. That’s not happening. But it was true that all of us were hoping for something. After all, this wasn’t a normal amount of labor.
At that time, the priest trotted over “vigorously.” Was it ok for him to be running over here at full speed with his weak heart?
“Hey, you guys!”
“Yes, yes.”
“I forgot to tell you but…”
“That’s the neighbor’s property.”
Don’t forget to tell us that!
After we had finished sweeping 150 steps, we had also been sweeping some random neighbor’s property.
We were already pooped out and our throats were dry.
“Oh, before I forget… You guys,”
The priest said.
Yay! Everyone’s eyes were bright with anticipation.
“Thanks for today. I can’t really call this an expression of gratitude, but take them and split it up among you.”
And what he gave us, enough for everyone was,
Omamori!?
Our disappointment cannot be expressed in writing.
On the way home.
“I hope we get some divine favor.”
“It’s not like we can throw these away.”
“On top of that, that shrine had dog’s…”
Hmm?
When I looked at the omamori closely,
Easy birth
Divine favor… would be a very troublesome thing… for us.
God. We’re bad kids that always doing bad things.
Please don’t give us your divine favors…
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on 21 Apr 2007 at 4:23 pm 1.Rik said …
did they ALL say easy birth? i bet saijoh could have done something with them, genius that he is
on 21 Apr 2007 at 5:29 pm 2.ooshi78 said …
Rik, die hard Saijoh fan, huh? I’m a fan also.
Unfortunatly because we’re just translating the story, we don’t know anything other than what’s written. All that we know about the story is what you’ll eventually know. You’ll find out what happens soon enough. BTW, omamori are a type of charm, you don’t really do anything with them except carry them around.
on 21 Apr 2007 at 5:47 pm 3.Lycan said …
so there are charms with which u can do other things than carry them around ? O.o
on 21 Apr 2007 at 7:16 pm 4.ooshi78 said …
hi lycan! um, there’s other stuff like fuda(札) or paper charms. they’re not really used other than posting them somewhere to ward off or bring good spirits. I guess that’s how they’re “used”? they’re definitely not used like how you see them in manga or anime…
on 22 Apr 2007 at 9:16 am 5.Rik said …
i bet saijoh could have taken out the wood thing in side and given it to mrs. chuzai san or somethin
on 23 Apr 2007 at 2:51 pm 6.Lycan said …
Ohh u cant throw charms at demons and make them disappear? :/
But thx for the info… here we dont have anything like charms ^^
on 23 Apr 2007 at 3:49 pm 7.Lynne said …
i think those charms are similar to, say, stones. many people out there believe stone has some power, don’t they?
also, it’s true that some people do use paper charms on their house so that evil spirits won’t come close to their house. just imagine some evil spirit wondering around, and arrive at once house with the paper charm, and it’ll scream and run away xD;
on 23 Apr 2007 at 7:55 pm 8.Rik said …
or like the jade things Chinese people wear, or ooh i think this works, Christianity some people will wear a patron saint on a chain for protection, i’m just not sure they have one for safe childbirths because i’m not Christian, is it the virgin Mary?
on 24 Apr 2007 at 3:08 pm 9.Lycan said …
I dont really know because i didnt grow up in a christian enviorment but i can imagine it ^^
are charms popular in japan? because only a small minority belives in stones or patrons as far as i can tell
on 24 Apr 2007 at 3:46 pm 10.Lynne said …
rik, i think many catholic carries crucifix. i don’t konw if they use it as protection though. don’t they use rosary, too?
lycan, hmmm, yeah, i think so. especially in new year’s day, many people go visit temples/shrines to pay respect (?), and buy omamori on the way home. though, i actually never done that before because my family is a christian family… o.o i just see my friends carrying those omamori around on their backpack or something. there are many types of it – easy birth, safe trip, study well, love, household, etc.
on 25 Apr 2007 at 1:06 pm 11.Lycan said …
just wondering what kind of religion do they follow in japan? O.o
btw do u live in japan ? O.o
on 25 Apr 2007 at 1:14 pm 12.ooshi78 said …
Japan is a mixture of mostly Shinto and Buddhist.
I live in sunny california. Lynne lives on planet Namek.
on 25 Apr 2007 at 1:15 pm 13.Lynne said …
no, i don’t live in japan. i grew up there though. i live in the planet you guys just found yesterday or so. see, bokuchu is great – people even find where i’m translating from. i wonder what they’ll name my planet~.
according to wiki, shinto believers (?) are 106 million, buddhists are 96 million, christian/catholics are 2 million, etc, etc. though, there are some overwraps because many of them celebrates events as shinto, but do funerals in buddhist way or participate in obon (buddhist event). many people do their wedding in christian way, too xD;
on 25 Apr 2007 at 1:32 pm 14.Lycan said …
woa namek thats far away ^^
yeah bokuchu is great i even get to meat ppl who live 20 light years away
i just looked it up on wikipedia
japan has a population of 128 mio that means that half of them have 2 religions O.O
they just pick the best points from each religion ^^
in germany 70% of the ppl are atheists
on 25 Apr 2007 at 1:35 pm 15.ooshi78 said …
well, i think it’s more like they pick which ever parts are more convinient for them at the moment. most of them celebrate christmas and valentines day…
on 25 Apr 2007 at 1:38 pm 16.Lynne said …
valentine isn’t a religious holiday, is it? >.>
on 25 Apr 2007 at 1:47 pm 17.Lycan said …
its a commercial day ^^
on 25 Apr 2007 at 2:09 pm 18.ooshi78 said …
SAINT valentines day… you better believe it has religious origins…
on 25 Apr 2007 at 2:15 pm 19.Lycan said …
yeah thats right
but i think its the industry´s fault that it is so popular now