Chapter 13: The shrine of wishes

1.8K 63 58
                                    

"Alright students , our first stop will be Shinto Shrine" The teacher said standing at the front of the bus.

"Why are the bus not co-ed...." Sakuta said crossing his arms.

"Yea , i feel you dude" I added on his statement with equal or even more disappointing tone.

"Now aren't you two excited to be with your girlfriends?" Kunimi added smiling.

"Of course I am , i would like to be with Rio as long as i can!" I said taking out a packet of chips from my bag.

"I just can't get enough of looking at Mai San" Sakuta said smirking

"Now now , control yourself you two" Kunimi added.

After a good hour of sleeping in the bus and eating out our snacks , we finally reached our destination. A big shrine came into view , painted bright red with a lot of trees surrounding it. The bus headed into the parking lot and was parked alongside the other buses. We got off the bus only only to see the girl's bus being parked right adjacent to ours.

After a few moments our gang was reunited as we followed the teacher in the shrine. "So this shrine in particular is called the shrine of wishes, it's said that the wishes that people write and hand on that tree always come true" he said pointing towards a huge tree with multicolored papers hanging on it.

 "So this shrine in particular is called the shrine of wishes, it's said that the wishes that people write and hand on that tree always come true" he said pointing towards a huge tree with multicolored papers hanging on it

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

I felt a tug on my hoodie , turned my head around to see Rio holding it. "What's up?" I asked her.

"Will you do that?" she asked.

"Uhmm do what?" I asked , what's she talking about?

"The wish , Baka" she replied with a face palm.

"Oh yea , you wanna put up a wish there aswell?" I asked.

"I..I do..." she replied as her cheeks went slightly rosey.

"We'll do it while returning from the tour how about that?" I proposed the idea.

"Sounds valid to me. ZUZU" she replied smiling as we kept going on the tour.

"Hey , now when did you change the nickname!!" I chuckled.

"Last night , i thought why do one zu when you can do two" she replied chuckling.

"I honestly want to give you a nickname but your name is just too cute itself , don't wanna ruin it" I said with a smile.

"Hey you two! do you wanna get separated from others?" I heard Kunimi's voice , turned around to see the whole class much up ahead than us. 

"Coming!" we both replied.

The tour continued as we were shown around on how the shrines operates , apparently the girl keeping the shrine alive was the 10th generation in the family. They're called Shrine maidens , she was in this gorgeous kimono reminding us of the fashion sense of old Japan , especially the shrine caretakers.

Next we were shown the masks , the ritual's dance and other practices. Every now and then we were reminded that the wishes hanging on that tree always come true. The more they blurted that out on us , the more i saw Rio getting excited. God what is she wishing for? she looks so happy...

Well , like her. I had my mind set for the wish as well...Next up we were shown all the old artifacts , the text on some of them were fading away while others looked in a really good condition. Overall our whole day was wept out by the teachers dragging us from one end of the shrine to other end. Also there was this crazy teacher who was trying to get the water from the small fountain and fell into it , that was quite a sight to behold.

"Alright , now everyone. We can return to the buses" said the teacher after a long day of tour.

"Whaaaat?!" 

"We don't get to put our wishes?!" 

"Hey!!! no fair!!"

I saw a visible sadness on Rio's face and decided to ask the teacher, "Sir , can we not put our wishes there?" i asked.

"I would love to allow you guys , but unfortunately we can't. It already is full of wishes and no one can climb the tree as it's prohibited" said the teach.

I felt sad after the confirmation aswell , the whole class began walking back as i saw Rio still standing and looking at the tree. "Rio?" I asked.

"Well  if we can't write the wish , i can maybe pray right?" she said.

The class walked further away , "Hey guys! you're again slacking!" Sakuta shouted.

"2 Minutes!" I shouted back.

"Well , yea we can pray" then replied to Rio.

"You two really wanted to put your wishes on there?" I heard a voice.

I saw the shroud maiden walking towards us with a gentle smile on her face , "Well yeah....we did , but i guess we can't" i replied.

"How about this?" she said handing us two papers along with two pen , one of the same one that was hanging on tree, "You two write your wishes here and i put it up there?" she completed.

"Really?!" Rio's face lit up brightly.

"Yea, here do it fast before anyone notices also they're heading back you guys don't wanna miss your buses do you?" she said.

We both quickly wrote our wishes and handed her the paper as soon as she saw our both's paper she chuckled , looked at us and smiled back then she crossed the boundary that was put around the tree and hanged our papers at the very top. "There , now get back to your buses you two!" 

"Thank you so much mam" Rio said bowing down.

"Yeah , thanks a lot" i accompanied her.

"No bigge!" she said smiling.

"What did you write?" I asked her.

"It's a secret, what did you write?" She retaliated with a question.

"That's a secret aswell" I chuckled.

"But I want to know...."

We both started walking back to our class which was now not visible indicating they're back in the buses that just made us hurry up , we both splitted up as she headed back into girl's bus not before she looked at me and gave me a sweet smile.

I headed in the bus and was instantly met with a angry teacher , "You should be fast Yuzu!" he said in a stern voice.

"I'm really sorry sir" I apologized.

Back in the shrine , Maiden's pov

Those two were a really cute couple , wasn't they? she said while stroking the dog sitting near her as she looked at the teen's wishes swaying around from Air.

The Girl's wish read , "I wish to be forever on Yuzu's side" and the Boy's wish read "I wish to always be there for Rio and never leave her side"

I hope their wish is granted...

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

It's been a minute since i updated , hasn't't it?

Rio Futaba X ReaderWhere stories live. Discover now