Is gay marriage legal in Japan now, never mind when Satoko and Rika would be old enough for it? No, but hear me out- I do what I want. Also, I'm not Japanese or Shinto, so please forgive me for any errors I make in describing the wedding ceremony. I mean, even I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't use the actual shrine altar for the ceremonial wedding altar, for one thing, but then again, Rika's family are the ones that actually own the shrine and Hinamizawa is rural enough that I don't think anyone would care.
June 17th, 2022
Rika took a deep breath, and carefully adjusted the hem of her black kimono one more time. Her –unique– status meant that this was a more difficult ceremony than normal, in no small part because she was supposed to be the priest and miko simultaneously. The Furude family's lack of propagation had never really been a problem until now, and she wondered, distantly, who exactly had taken the role of priest when her mother and father were married.
Oh, well.
At least she had Hanyuu, who was still as flustered and fretful as ever, never mind the fact that she, too, had grown into a young woman. Hanyuu would be pulling double-duty today instead of Rika, as priest and miko simultaneously, leaving Rika clear to actually participate in the ceremony properly.
At the thought, she swallowed thickly and wiped her stiff black sleeve over her forehead. Nervousness curdled in her gut, and Rika glanced towards the full-length mirror again, obsessively adjusting her black kimono. She had faced down death hundreds of times, been locked in a perpetual loop of disaster and tragedy for a time beyond counting, and nothing, nothing, had ever shaken her so much as this.
Still, the bells were tolling for her, flute music filling the air as the procession began, and with another gulp and glance in the mirror, Rika picked up her baggy trousers and made her way out the front door, stepping outside and taking her place beside the bride.
An uchikake would probably have suited Satoko more, but she somehow managed to wear the shiromuku kimono like she had been born to it, the white fabric cascading around her body like water as she looked to Rika under her headdress and grinned proudly. She looked impossibly graceful, like a queen out of legend, and Rika's heart bumped up into her throat as she slowly climbed the steps and faced her, her brain picking out irrelevant details, like how awe-inspiringly perfect Satoko's red lipstick and white makeup was, how bright her grin and how the headdress circled her golden hair.
The ceremony was to be held at Oyashiro-sama's shrine, of course, and the knot in Rika's stomach twisted deeper as she followed her friends, playing the processional music with a competence that had been dearly bought over long months of practice. When they arrived, Keiichi, Rena, and the others sat behind the tables of sake and fruit that flanked the shrine itself, leaving Rika and Satoko to stand alone.
Hanyuu was standing in the shrine, on the right of the altar that Rika had been flayed upon so many times, the altar that now contained nothing but food offerings and two rings on a snowy white cloth. She was dressed in the same priestly robes Rika's father had once worn, but all of Rika's attention was torn from Hanyuu on the spot as she and Satoko turned to one another.
She stared at her bride in a haze, dimly hearing Hanyuu go through with the purification ceremony to begin the wedding, following the directions to bow numbly. Under the weight of all this silk, her heart was beating in her ears, and she almost couldn't believe that this was happening. She had been the one to propose to Satoko, going down on one knee as the Westerners did in the garden of St. Lucia's after their graduation, but even now, after months of gleeful preparation, she still couldn't believe this was happening. She couldn't believe that she had been so lucky, that the dice she had rolled again and again for centuries, showing only ones, had not only turned up their six face, but showed her faces that counted numbers in the dozens, in the hundreds. This was a miracle beyond all miracles, that she was standing here across from Satoko as Hanyuu recited their marriage ceremony.
A half-hysterical giggle fluttered in her chest as Hanyuu continued, calling upon the kami of this shrine, of Oyashiro-sama to bless this union. No one but her knew that Hanyuu was calling upon herself, serving triple duty now: not just as the priest and miko of the ceremony, but also as the god they called upon. Rika wondered, with a giddy sort of floating sensation that carried away her thoughts with it and scattered her logic to the wind, just how many roles Hanyuu could pull to fill this wedding. Could she also serve as a sponsor, too?
She bowed with the others again, and then it was time for the san-san-kudo.
As one, she and Satoko turned to Hanyuu, climbing the short steps into the shrine beside Hanyuu, who with a smoothness and expertise that reminded Rika that she, too, had been a shrine maiden one upon a time, drew the sake out for their wedding vows.
Rika took the small lacquered cup that Hanyuu handed to her with shaky fingers, but she raised it to her lips once, twice, and then on the third time she sipped carefully, draining the fragrant wine before handing it to Satoko. She, too, raised it three times, and even the sound of her sipping was enough to make Rika's heart flutter with infatuation, remembering all the times Satoko had boisterously taken charge of their tea parties back at St. Lucia's, wowing all the other students with her devil-may-care confidence and amazing practical knowledge of practically everything. A trap-master had to know how things worked, after all, and Rika's love glowed fondly in her chest as she remembered how Satoko had formed a clique of her own devoted followers.
The next cup of sake was handed to Satoko first, and she raised it three times, drank, and then handed it back to Rika, who took the indirect kiss with delight. She wanted to make this ceremony perfect for Satoko, as perfectly perfect as anything she had ever done. Satoko deserved that much, after years of neglect and abuse in the village. Rika owed it to her to make their wedding perfect, the kind of romantic dream that wound send a maiden swooning.
The third and final cup was handed to her first, since Rika was taking the place of the groom in their ceremony, and Rika lifted it thrice, then swallowed the wine before handing it back to Satoko, her heart trembling and yet lifting in her chest as Satoko continued the ceremony to bind them together. How much more binding would it be, with an actual god to recite the ceremony for them and to stand in the place of the priest?
Rika didn't really care about that. All she cared about was the fact that she and Satoko were finally tying themselves together in the way she had dreamed of for years.
With the drinking of the cups over, it was time for her vows, and Rika was tempted to clench her hands in the draping fabric of her robes, but she refrained. Hanyuu handed her the paper, but thanks to long weeks of memorization, Rika did not need to refer to it as she began to speak.
"We humbly speak before the Majestic and Sovereign deity, who is awe-inspiring and most highly revered-"
She brutally throttled down the urge to laugh like a cat at referring to Hanyuu in such a way.
"-We imitate the work of the deities who performed this in days of old. Under the auspices of the go-between Oryou Sonozaki,"
Competition to be the sponsor for this wedding had been fierce and near-bloody in Hinamizawa in the months leading up to the wedding, since neither Rika nor Satoko had any parents and thus the traditional position of the matchmaker (or their modern stand-in) was left completely open. Rika and Satoko had conceded to the Sonozaki head taking the role instead of Satoshi, their first choice, only because that allowed them to hold the rest of the ceremony completely alone with their friends.
"-who by grasping the middle of the majestic spear, bids the bride Hojo Satoko and groom Furude Rika make a wedding vow. This day has been designated for ritual. Due to its auspicious character we celebrate the wedding ceremony today. It is because the law of marriage is majestically carried out in front of the great deities that the proper deportment of ritual must follow. We make offerings of sacred food and sacred sake; a variety of tastes are here arranged and set before you."
This, despite the fact that Rika knew a certain goddess would probably very much prefer cream puffs.
"Eat with delight, listen to the aroma of the offerings, enjoy, and so accept. The exchange of sake, three times drunk, shared and poured for each other. We do that because we are extending our congratulations to each other. The vow does not exhaust itself; the cup is never dry. The vows we articulate are intricately inlaid into our lives in this world and the next."
Rika's eyes shifted, inevitably drawn towards Satoko who looked at her like she was the moon and the stars together. Rika's voice trembled slightly as she continued, speaking these words for Satoko and Satoko alone, feeling them drop from her lips heavy and shining as pearls, treading a ritual road that so many had taken before her.
"Growing old together, until our hair is long and white, we have been caused to be tied. So does our bond exist in the universe, just as the sun and moon exist in the heavens, just as the mountains and rivers exist on earth. Side by side, shoulder to shoulder, putting our home, the ie, in order, making it settled. Maintain the family gate as a dignified one."
Her eyes were fixed on Satoko, and Rika could no more have looked away than she could look into the sun, but her perception widened, feeling Satoshi's warm presence at the tables.
"The connection to the ancestors is to be continued and not neglected. The family name should flourish, be highly respected and widely known. Our children and grandchildren should continue forever, just as the fifty red oak trees, just as the eight mulberry bushes prosper and propagate. Thus we humbly and most respectfully speak."
Satoko reached out, adding her name to the paper, and she and Rika grinned at each other over it. They then both turned, accepting the Tamagushi branch that Hanyuu handed it to them, decorated with cotton thread, and placed it on the altar amid the cups and plates. They backed away, then turned to face the altar again, bowing twice, clapping their hands twice, and then bowing one more time.
Rika, knowing Satoko's propensity for mess and chaos, had not bothered to get anything but a silver wedding band, knowing that Satoko would inevitable scratch anything softer. The ring was inset with a simple blue sapphire, a gem that Rika had most carefully selected to match her hair color exactly. As she brought the ring out from her pocket, she saw that Satoko's ring was just as simple, a delicate circlet of gold with a shimmering band of tiny rubies and diamonds set in a spiral around it.
They exchanged them with smiles, and Rika felt her new life slotting over her as she slid the metal band onto her finger.
With this, the wedding was more or less over. True, in other weddings and for other people, there was the ceremonial binding of the families as well, as Hanyuu led the rest of the club to drink from the sake and thus bond themselves together as one family, but for Rika and her friends, this was little more than a formality to something they already all knew. They were family. They had been family for hundreds of years, though only two of them knew it. The exchange of sake was nothing but ink on a paper, the legal acknowledgement of what they had been doing for years.
Hanyuu raised her hands, leading them all in one last bow to the gods of the shrine, and Rika supposed, for a moment, that this might be the first genuinely grateful and reverent bow she had performed since she was a child, since that dim and misty time before Hanyuu had thrown her into the maze of a looping world.
But then, this was a special occasion, and she smiled as she lifted her head, prepared to walk forward with Satoko to create new memories in this, the most wonderful portion of her life.
8.55 AM, USA Central Time
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