Where can I find the date of Nezushiweek for this year and the schedule ? I'm certain that last year I had themes of an older week... (A french fan of your art)
Hi there!
Sorry, I’m not planning a Nezushi week this year and I haven’t planned one last year either. Maybe the @restructuralcommittee or @no6zine folks will do something at some point, but I really don’t know. I also don’t know if @no6secretsanta will do a secret Santa event again this year, but I reckon another No.6 Secret Santa event is more likely than a No.6 week. Sorry to hear that you had old themes, but I hope it was still fun for you to create something for No.6. :) Thank you for being fan of my art. I hope you have a great day.
Four years have passed since the fall of the great wall of No. 6. The rebuilding of the New City is still in full swing, even though Shion and the Restructural Committee have already achieved a great deal. Whenever people think that he is reaching his peak or his limit, he proves that there is much more in him and that his potential is even greater than they suspect. And thanks to the support of his mother Karan, Rikiga-san, Inukashi, and so many other people, Shion will never lose sight of his aim: to create a better place and future for his beloved ones, and to create a city fit for Nezumi to make his home in one day. It was September 7th, 2021 when Nezumi finally returned.
Episode 10: Holy alcohol
[It’s the holy celebration and everyone is invited at Karan’s for a nice dinner. Shion’s mother spent the whole day cooking wonderful treats for everyone, and she’s resting a little when the doorbell rings: It’s Rikiga]
Karan: Oh, hello Rikiga! You’re early!
Rikiga: Sorry, is it a problem?
Karan: Of course not! Please come in, we can chat while we wait for everyone!
[Rikiga takes a bottle out of his bag]
Rikiga: I brought some wine one of my clients gave me. It’s supposedly from one of the best producers in No.4. Would you like some?
Karan: Oh sure, let’s have a glass as we wait. Please take a seat, I’ll get the glasses.
[As Karan and Rikiga are chatting happily, none of them really notices the content of the wine bottle disappearing. Forty-five minutes later, the bottle is empty, and the doorbell rings again.]
Karan:[yelling] COME IN! [realises she’s been yelling] Shhhhhhhhhhh, quiet! [starts giggling]
[Nezumi and Inukashi enter the living room]
Inukashi: Hello every-- [Stops upon seeing Karan laughing like crazy, stares at her, then at the empty bottle, before shooting a death glance at Rikiga] What the hell have you done to her, old man?
Rikiga: I’m so sorry!! I didn’t notice, we had a glass and started talking and… but I’m sure I drank more than her, I don’t understand…
[Karan gets up and hugs Inukashi and Nezumi as tight as possible]
Karan: You are both so pretty, I’m so happy to see you. [sits back down and starts playing with her glass]
Inukashi: Old man… If both Shions weren’t in the lobby right now I’d beat you to a pulp, I swear… And you, say something you idiot rat!!
Nezumi: [stares at Karan, dumbfounded] Unbelievable… simply unbelievable…
[Shion comes in, holding little Shionn in his arms]
Shion: What’s with the yelling-- [Spots his mother trying to look through her glass as if it were some kind of spyglass] Mom???
[Nezumi turns to look at him, and puts a hand on Shion’s shoulder]
Nezumi: Now I know where your alcohol resistance comes from...
“A song for the far past and far future. A song for those who believe in what’s to come,” Eve announced. He regulated his breathing, then began to sing.
Spring is coming
The flowers bloom
The skies are blue, the breezes sweet
Come, everyone, come outside
Let us sing
Let us gather
Let us dance
Today is the Festival of Flowers; tonight the Flower Ball
A festival for those who believe in tomorrow
Eve gave a wide sweep with his hand. Flower blossoms danced in the air. Petals of all colours and shapes, in the thousands, in the ten thousands, showered down from above. It was, of course, an illusion. But Shion could definitely see those illusory blossoms.
Let us live and celebrate
Let us love another
And stretch our hands to tomorrow
Today is the Festival of Flowers; tonight the Flower Ball
A beautiful day for God and His people
“Hey, is this―” Rikiga held his breath. It was. The song of the Flower Festival. A song celebrating hope.
You did sing it, Nezumi. Shion closed his eyes and placed a hand on his chest. Nezumi, some day with you...
He mentally spoke to the boy onstage.
Some day, I want to create a real festival with you. When real peace finally prevails in this land, we’ll create the Festival of Flowers once more. We will.
You won’t mind if I call this hope, would you?
The song ended.
Eve lowered his head gracefully in a deep bow.
At a certain time each year, especially talented singers of the Mao people were in extraordinary harmony with nature. Trees, plants, waters and rocks reacted to their voices in a very special way: they started glowing and the singers were able to feel nature’s enormous energy flooding through their veins like blood. It helped the forest to stay healthy and strong in the upcoming year and provided a rich harvest, clean water and a plethora of animals.
Nezumi doesn’t remember it anymore, but he was a “child of light” when he was still very young.
But maybe, he’ll remember it one day and celebrate the “light festival” together with Shion.
Shion speaks with Safu four years after the city fell
Also on AO3
"Happy Phoenix Festival, Safu,” Shion told the small boulder he used as Safu’s gravestone in the past four years. He put a bouquet of asters by the rock, and sat down next to it, so he can look at the view of the city the way Safu looked at it every day.
“I missed you a lot, you know,” Shion told the rock, “lots have happened in the past year, and it’s such a shame you couldn’t see it. Not having you here in the past few years was unbearable, and it still is, but in a different way now.
“You see,” he explained, “until now I needed you as support, I needed someone to help me go through every single day. Losing you didn’t just cause me pain, it was a hole in my life. You disappeared right when I needed you the most. Things were bad enough with my new incredibly stressful lifestyle, and with Nezumi’s leaving me. True, I had Inukashi, and my mom, and Rikiga, but as much as I love all of them, none of them could possibly take your place. You are my precious, irreplaceable friend.
“But now, I miss you for a whole different reason,” Shion said, and reached to a basket filled with Karan’s pastries, eating while continuing to converse with ‘Safu’. “I’m finally happy again. Maybe ‘again’ is the wrong word, because I don’t remember ever being this happy. Well, the closest it ever got was the time I spent with Nezumi in the West Block, but there was always stress, and hunger, and danger. I guess, I still enjoyed it a lot. Much more than my life in the first three years after the city fell, at least. For the first time since that happened, I can wake up in the morning with a smile on my face, and be thankful for every waking moment, not counting the minutes before I can go back to a restless sleep.
“Which is exactly why I need you now more than ever. Not to support me when I’m in pain, but to share my happiness. For every time I needed you before just to cry on your shoulder, now I need you three more times just because I want to talk to you. I want to tell you what I ate for lunch, or what Shionn told Nezumi yesterday, or what happened in my last meeting for the new school in Lost Town. You’re my most precious friend, and I can’t help but to want to tell you everything, always. And that’s why it’s so much harder now, when everything is finally falling into place.
“I wish you could meet Nezumi for real,” Shion lowered his voice. “I think you two would fight a lot, but still you would enjoy each other’s company. You’re both the type to enjoy the presence of someone that challenges you. I wish you could see how much happier he’s become. He smiles quite often now, and not a bitter or sarcastic sort of smile. He’s truly happy. Obviously, you can’t get used to something like this so quickly, but he’s getting there. And for once, I feel like he really wants to get there.
“I find myself imagining what you would say about all sort of thing almost every day. I keep thinking about what you would say when Nezumi came back. Would you hate him for leaving like Inukashi did? Would you give him a warm welcome like my mom did? Would you be nervous around him at first like Rikiga? I’m not sure, but I hope it’s not the first one. Inukashi is over it now, and I’m glad, because I never hated Nezumi for leaving. I knew he needed this, and now with him right before me, I can see how much it helped him to decide what he wants in life.
“I wish you could see him walking around in the city like it’s the most natural thing in the world,” Shion said, “it wasn’t always like that, obviously. But it makes me so happy. Just looking at—”
“Shion!” Nezumi’s voice interrupted Shion and Safu’s conversation. “Shion! Whe—there you are!”
Nezumi walked to Shion’s side. “Did you find what you were looking for?” Shion asked, still sitting on the ground.
“Well, I wasn’t really looking for anything,” Nezumi admitted, scratching the back of his head nervously, “I just wanted to have a look at the place. I have lots memories down there, and although most of them are not too pleasant, I still wanted to see that room one more time.”
“It’s not going anywhere,” Shion smiled at him. “You can visit as much as you want. Although it might be a little far from our apartment, and really far from your workplace, so it would be pretty difficult to just go there spontaneously.”
“Yeah,” agreed Nezumi. “Anyhow, what are you doing here? What is this?” he asked, pointing at Safu’s gravestone.
“Oh, this is just,” Shion looked at the city again. “It’s a little thing I made for Safu. To remember her. I used to come here and talk with her every year, and I guess I’m not quitting this tradition quite yet.”
Nezumi sat beside him. “I see,” he said. “You shouldn’t quit this tradition.” Shion looked at him with a surprised look.
“What,” he said, “no stop burdening yourself with the past speech this time?”
“That’s for when your life is at risk every single moment,” Nezumi refuted irritably, “not for your current super-important-hero-of-the-city lifestyle. Besides, I wasn’t very good at listening to my own advice in this particular aspect.”
“No?” Shion asked.
“No,” Nezumi confirmed. “But let’s leave this one for another time. Talking about my granny seems a little off topic right now.”
“Granny?” Shion almost jumped at the chance to learn a new thing about Nezumi, who smiled bitterly.
“I said not now,” he grunted. “Later. It’s not like we don’t have enough time.”
“I guess you’re right,” said Shion, then turned his gaze to the view again. Nezumi, in the meanwhile, enjoyed the comfortable silence by gently caressing Shion’s hair. Then, Nezumi got up.
“What are you doing?” Shion asked.
Nezumi didn’t answer, he just went to the rock beside Shion and sat down in front of it. “Hey there, Safu,” he said, “I guess you don’t really know me. We only met once and you were pretty much… well, Elyurias that time. I don’t know what Shion told you about me, but from what he told me about you, you must be a really important person for him. So, thank you, for looking over Shion when he was young, and for staying here when I was gone.
“I wish I could get to know you better, but I guess it’s impossible now. Nevertheless, I’m glad I could get this chance to talk with you. And I promise, I won’t let anything hurt Shion from now on. So, you don’t need to worry about this airhead so much anymore. I’ll make sure that he has only happy stories to tell you, okay?”
Shion came closer, to hold his hand, and whispered, “Thank you,” and the two walked back to their home in the West Block.
Shion showed him the cover of an old magazine he found on the shelf. There was a crowd of people on the cover and across the spread. A decked-out maiden; a youth wearing a feathered hat; an elderly woman wearing a silver shawl; an elderly man wrapped in a magnificently-embroidered cape; men, women, children. Everyone was smiling. Some were dancing; one had a stringed instrument in hand; another looked like he was singing. The photo was lively and joyous, yet faded with age.
“Oh, this is the Festival of Flowers,” Rikiga said.
“Festival of Flowers?”
“Yeah. We used to have this festival when this area was still a quaint, beautiful town. It took place when spring was at its finest. We prayed to the gods and thanked them for the blessings they’d bestow on the land.
[...]
Shion looked at the beautiful singers in their white costumes and white ornamental flowers.
Nezumi remembered an old Mao custom, namely giving the one you love a rare feather. Shion doesn’t know about the feather custom, that’s why Nezumi also gave him a card. But the next time, he’ll just receive a feather. :3 Especially when he’s working way too long. (Probably to make him feel guilty about leaving him all alone… XD)
Yeah, I admit that I had too much Harvest Moon input. But I love the blue feather idea so much! And I think it would be a great Mao custom, no matter if it’s for a love declaration or marriage proposal. ^^
