#[ in honor of forthcoming TP and his new skin‚ i want to save this story too ]

[nazorneku]

Flower View Something by a mountain near the sea caused a stir in the star compass. Susabi arrived and, to his surprise, spring flowers were blooming on the withered branches by the road despite the cold winter season. The colourful petals stretched invitingly before him. And soon, he was mesmerised. "What monster are you, and what evil drink did you use to affect me so quickly?" "Haha, this is Flower View! You're spellbound as well, aren't you, my Lord?" A little spirit appeared from nowhere holding hanafuda cards in his hands. Normally, it would take Susabi just a flick of the hand to dispel the field magic. Susabi tried to conjure his magic, but the star compass remained calm and peaceful, not responding to his power. "Since you're here, you must follow my rules. Your star compass doesn't work here, my Lord." The little spirit giggled triumphantly. The Star Palace above his head looked as though it were in disarray. Whatever he did, it was still shrouded by cloud, and the future shrouded from his sight. Susabi remained calm, although he knew that the stir in the star compass was caused by the divination of the hanafuda cards. Although both humans and spirits could use hanafuda cards to predict the future, none had managed to stir his star compass before. Stars flickered around Susabi and spread out from his fingertips to search for the walls of the Flower View magic circle. Suddenly, a Pine with Crane hanafuda card fell on the ground not far from him. Susabi frowned a little as a fragment of memory flashed in his mind.

Pine with Crane Many, many years ago, there was a small village that suffered from sea wreckages in a similar place by the sea. A boy who was known as an emissary of the gods lived there. His job was to protect the village and provide divination services for the villagers. There was a group of children of similar age to him living in the village. Unlike the other villagers who had all kinds of requests for the emissary of the gods, they often played in packs and carried around with them a deck of worn-out hanafuda cards. They would play with the cards near the emissary of the gods. Their noise often attracted the attention of this emissary, and he would conceal himself and watch them. Those children looked carefree and would play with the hanafuda cards in all kinds of ways. One day, the emissary of the gods picked up a hanafuda card and folded it into a paper swallow. It fluttered its wings and followed the children around. Besides using the cards to play poker, the children would mimic the way the emissary performed his divination with the hanafuda cards. "A white crane is standing on a pine tree. It's a sign of longevity in January. Go on an adventure, Obama, for you'll live for a hundred years and rise to the top!" A child noticed the paper swallow one day. He picked up a willow twig and tried to talk to the bird. "A willow branch to welcome the swallows in spring. It's a good sign for reunion." The paper swallow could only fly, it couldn't make the hanafuda cards move. The villagers started using hanafuda cards for divination after seeing the cards hidden in the sleeves of the emissary of the gods, hoping to gain a similar divine power. But ever since then, the emissary of the gods had not used those hanafuda cards. A hanafuda card fell from above. Susabi reached out his hand. It was a Willow with Swallow, but the willow on the card was nowhere to be found. "This game of hanafuda has been waiting for you, my Lord." The playful noise lingered around Susabi, along with a flutter of wings. "Come."

Moon Over Field None can manipulate the stars at will. Above the monsters and spirits, there're gods, and above the gods, there're the rules of the worlds. But the eerie images before his eyes were not illusions. "I'll give you a hint, my Lord. The next card is Moon Over Sea." The voice sounded insistent and anxious, as if the little spirit wanted Susabi to draw a new hand. Susabi remained silent as he expanded the stars, trying to look for clues in the voice. There seemed to be a spiritual power with great affinity to his out there - it was responding to his search. Although Susabi had anticipated it, when he followed the response and arrived at the seaside, he frowned a little. The waves splashed violently against the reef's shoreline. The stars orbiting around Susabi dropped into the tiny bubbles in the water as if they were drawn to them. Soon, countless rays of starlight burst from the peaceful surface of the blue sea and spread through the waves. "Why not concede while you have the chance, my Lord? You won't be able to draw Moon Under Sea anymore." The voice sounded even more triumphant. In the disarrayed sky above Susabi's head, the disordered star compass shifted again, as if there were a pair of invisible hands willfully changing the already complicated board, and beginning a game where the gods would have no chance of winning. Susabi moved one step forward in silence. The sea water answered Susan's call and, carried by waves, the reflection of the stars tumbled up and covered the shore and mountains like an unstoppable army, aiming for the sky. Down by the shore, where the sea water burst out, there was a deep sky filled with the dots of stars. Susabi took a step down from the shore... And he immediately fell out of the surface of the sea. The sea water was still roiling behind Susabi. It moved fast, like a wind sweeping by him. At that moment, he found that the sea was above his head, and that he was standing on the sky. The truly orderly star compass was moving slowly by his feet. The moon that had fallen into the sea was now hanging in the upside-down sea. Susabi reached out his hand and tried to grab the view; a hanafuda card appeared in his hand. The moon was hanging over the sea in the card. It was a Moon Over Field. A white figure swept past his head, yelling in protest, "I can't believe you cheated, my Lord!"

Willow with Swallow As the star compass dropped into the sea, the field of sky and sea was shattered. And now, the true star compass was finally hanging within the perception and manipulation of the gods. Susabi raised his head and saw a white paper swallow hovering above him. In the village of the distant past, while the emissary of the gods never showed his hanafuda cards again, a paper swallow followed the children around until they grew up and grew tired of playing cards together. The emissary made a long tail and wider wings for the paper swallow. He released the paper swallow and sent it soaring into the sky on a swift wind. The emissary of the gods told the paper swallow that the village no longer had anything of interest to watch, and told it to go somewhere farther away, and higher up. One day, after the paper swallow had left the village, the waves of the sea became violent. The village soon disappeared in the waves, leaving no place for the paper swallow to land. The paper swallow returned to hover above Susabi and lamented, "It turns out that the star compass I had been manipulating was an illusion, cast to the bottom of the sea, from the surface of the sea." "Because I have missed you, my Lord. No matter how far I travelled, I would still want to return to you. But no matter how hard I fluttered my wings, all I could see was the sea..." The paper swallow twittered with joy like a young boy. "In the end, you beat me with your hanafuda cards, my Lord." "So you were unable to find your way..." And that was why the paper swallow had been using the spiritual power infused in him to make mischief. A falling star suddenly swept across Susabi's palm as he converged his scourging power, and a giant beam of light crossed the horizon like a saber. Before the paper swallow could talk, a thousand beams of starlight converged and fell from the sky. The lights blasted into the air and slowly formed into countless lanterns stretching all the way from the sky to the ground, creating a path of light. The paper swallow turned around and looked at Susabi before it stared into the lights before it. With a burst of spiritual power, the paper swallow floated in the air and landed on the hanafuda card in Susabi's hand. Thus the swallow of reunion returned to its willow branch. A richly-feathered and nimble swallow flew out from Susabi's hand. Lanterns aligned over the horizon and created the Big Dipper. "Is this the direction that the star compass is pointing...?" asked the paper swallow. Susabi patted the paper swallow on its wingtip. "Let's go."