Kanao Can't Communicate

•~chapter thirty-four: new year at the shrine~•

Kanao stood in her room, fidgeting around as she tried to adjust her clothes while looking in her mirror.

Once she decided she looked good enough, she walked downstairs slowly so as not to trip on the trailing fabric of her outfit.

It was the first day of the new year, and Kanao and her sisters were going to pay their visit to the shrine.

"Kanao! Eek, you look so beautiful!" Kanae squealed. Shinobu stood behind her, nodding in agreement.

Kanao picked up her notebook and wrote, Thank you, Kanae-neesan. You and Shinobu-neesan look very pretty too.

"Well then, shall we go to the shrine now?" Shinobu asked her sisters. Said Butterfly sisters both nodded, and with that, they set off.

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When the sisters reached the shrine they decided to go pay their respects first.

The crowd seemed to magically part before the three beauties as they headed to the front of the shrine, for they believed something nice happened to them and that goddesses descended upon them on the first day of the new year.

After Kanao, Shinobu, and Kanae paid their respects, they went to the front office of the shrine, where Kanae wanted to say hi to a friend of hers, who was, coincidentally, the shrine head.

However, when they reached the office, they found Kanae's friend in a full blown panic.

When he saw the sisters, he ran over to Kanae and sighed with relief.

"Oh, oh, oh! Kanae-san! There's a total disaster!" he cried. "One of the part-time shrine maidens caught a cold and couldn't come to work! The line is so long and business is going so slow! I'm not sure what to-"

And just like that, he suddenly stopped his rant, for he caught sight of Kanao, who jolted out of her trance.

With a little persuading, Kanao was suddenly whisked away to be changed out of her fancy kimono and into the simple kimono for shrine maidens.

Kanao was shaking out of nervousness as she walked down the hallway. The shrine head poked his head into a small room at the end of the hall and said, "Rin, this is the replacement shrine maiden for today. If you can, I'd like you to show her the ropes of the job, alright?"

No response came from inside the room. However, the shrine head seemed satisfied as he beckoned Kanao inside the room.

With shaking steps, Kanao walked into the room. She immediately registered a girl with long, purple hair sitting in the cushion by the pickup window. Kanao put two and two together, and she decided that this must be "Rin"- the person that the shrine head had been talking to.

Kanao had seen this girl at school around a boy that looked like her; so she could only assume that those two were siblings.

Before he left the room, the shrine head turned to Kanao and said, "Kanao, this is Satō Rin. She'll show you how to do the job, so don't worry."

Kanao gave a shaky nod and sat down at the window that was right beside Rin.

The two girls didn't interact for a while. Rin continued doing her job like normal, while Kanao watched, since her window remained empty.

But then, a customer suddenly approached Kanao's empty window.

Kanao had only been observing Rin as she did the job of selling charms. But, she didn't know anything herself, and she felt completely clueless as the customer asked for a ceremonial arrow, an amulet, childbirth and road safety charms, and two big and one small daruma.