Chapter 17: New ability?
Recently, Kanon had been very busy because the literary magazine wanted to compile her long stories into a book for publication, making it much more convenient for readers who wanted to reread or read them for the first time. Kanon naturally agreed with this idea, but she believed that simply republishing them as books was not enough because it would be like forcing those who had already bought the magazine to read the stories again to buy the same content, so she suggested that the magazine's editorial board needed to innovate.
Her idea was to add illustrations to the stories, and she wanted them to be beautiful, even including color illustrations or bookmarks as gifts. She planned to discuss the illustrations with an artist. However, the current issue was where to find an artist. Kanon had already thought about this, wasn't there an art club at Clamp School?
Therefore, Kanon was standing in front of the elementary division art club looking for their leader, Sakuranka Manami, to talk. She had just raised her hand to knock on the door when she heard a noisy commotion coming from inside.
"I really saw it, I was so scared!"
"You are indeed a scaredy-cat, there are no ghosts here, you just imagined it."
"But it's true, it's the 'Beauty roaming through the Night,' I even heard a cat meowing..."
Then followed a scene of the girl who claimed to have seen a ghost crying, but no one believed her, and the comforting gestures of everyone in the art club.
"Um, excuse me, who are you looking for?"
A clear, feminine voice with a high pitch came from behind, making Kanon startle and turn around. A girl with long, thick hair and big, round eyes hidden behind a pair of large, intelligent and gentle glasses spoke up. Kanon was sure this was the person she was looking for, so she smiled and greeted her:
"Hello, are you Sakuranka Manami? I'm Hanazaki Kanon, the president of the elementary division modern literature club."
"Oh, is it you? The author of "The adventure of the Red-Haired Princess," right? I really love that series, and often dream of being a character in it too."
Kanon smiled even brighter, making it easier to talk, yet still modest:
"You flatter me too much. The story is coming to an end, that's why I came to see you today."
"Well then please come in!"
With that, Manami opened the door to the art club room and saw the scene that Kanon had heard about earlier, she was very surprised:
"What's going on?"
And then there was a flurry of questions and explanations from the girls. Sakuranka Manami frowned when she heard about the ghost girl and the sound of a cat meowing, but immediately regained her composure and comforted her friends, while at the same time assigning tasks to everyone in the club to forget about this incident. Kanon admired Manami's calmness and orderliness, working with someone like her would surely ensure the progress of the work.
Manami made tea and invited Kanon to sit and talk in a corner of the room to avoid disturbing everyone's work. When she heard Kanon's plan to illustrate her novel, the girl's eyes lit up, this was truly an exciting and challenging job.
"Illustrating this is not like drawing manga, just select some special scenes, even randomly in the story to draw, there may also be some large color paintings and bookmarks with the same theme as gifts for readers."
Kanon continued to present her plan while Manami listened attentively.
"So, do you agree to collaborate with me? Of course, after the book is published, royalties are essential. I don't think you pay too much attention to this, but I have to mention it so you are well-informed."
Manami smiled when she heard this but hesitated to speak:
"Truly, your project is very interesting and attractive, I really like it, but I have to tell you that I am currently focusing on an upcoming oil painting competition, so I'm afraid I don't have time."
"You can take your time because this project is not starting immediately, and I still need to rearrange the chapters of the story as well as edit some parts to turn it into a book. Then I need to come up with ideas on which parts need illustrations and how to draw them."
"You are definitely working hard, I really admire that, but..."
Seeing her still hesitating at this point, Kanon immediately made a killer move:
"I can help you with your cats, okay?"
Seeing Kanon's innocent and straightforward face when mentioning such a serious matter, Manami felt like fainting on the spot. And in the end, there was only one outcome, of course, she agreed to collaborate.
It was quite clever of Kanon to bring up the topic of the cats, not necessarily because she knew the plot, but because she happened to see Manami picking up those abandoned cats and noticed her rushing to feed them every lunch break. And after hearing those serious ghost stories, if Kanon still didn't recognize anything, she wouldn't be worthy of being a Clamp School student... Consider this incident as her helping the Student Council solve the problem from the beginning, without expecting any reward. However, Kanon was very curious about the painting "Beauty roaming through the Night," so she went to the museum to see it.
The art museum consists of many floors, located right within the school grounds, surrounded by many trees, which already give it a serene atmosphere, adding a sense of gloominess, making the paintings even more eerie. Kanon approached a large painting depicting a young woman in a white kimono, with disheveled hair and a sorrowful face, holding a white cat. The painting was so vivid that Kanon kept staring at it, as if wanting to enter the world within the painting, truly wanting to know if the young woman would eventually find her cat.
"Isn't it beautiful, right?"
An elderly voice sounded in Kanon's ear, startling her.
Standing next to her was an old man wearing an old and worn kimono, looking elderly and dignified, his hands clasped behind his hunched back, his sad face gazing at the painting "Beauty roaming through the Night." After a moment of silence, seeing Kanon not saying anything but just looking at him, he smiled and said:
"I really like this painting, it reminds me of my daughter."
"Your daughter, sir?"
"Yes, she had a story similar to the girl in this painting, but it's been a long time, I can't remember much anymore. Only when I look at this painting do I feel the memory of my daughter."
With that, he looked sadly back at the painting. Kanon didn't know what else to say, so she just stood there silently, gazing until someone placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Hanazaki-sama? Why are you standing still like that?"
Kanon startled for the second time, turned around to see Seiji looking at her with concern.
"What's wrong with you? You've been staring at the painting for 2 hours without moving."
Seiji expressed his disbelief to Kanon.
"Ha ha, you're kidding me, how could I stand for a long...
Just then, Seiji raised his wristwatch to Kanon's eye level for her to see.
"Huh? Really 2 hours? Why didn't I feel anything, when did you come here?"
"Since you came in, I followed and stood behind you watching you stare at the painting for 2 hours."
Kanon was shocked, she didn't feel anything at all, it was strange. Then she remembered the old man talking to her, but when she looked over, there was no one there. Seeing his lady like this, Seiji furrowed his brows and asked:
"What are you looking for?"
"Did you see a grandpa I was talking to earlier? I want to say goodbye to him."
"Which grandpa?"
Seiji asked back, his brows furrowing even tighter. Today, his lady was truly peculiar.
"At first, there was a grandpa in an old kimono talking to me, he was standing right next to me."
"Well, I was standing right here too, didn't see anyone, just saw you turn to the side for a moment and then look at the painting again."
Kanon was taken aback, who was she talking to earlier then? Could it be...
It was very possible. Considering her strange abilities, adding another strange occurrence wasn't really surprising. That old man, Kanon recalled his attire, the story he told; he could very well be the father of the young woman in the painting. Looking at the painting, people often only thought about the soul of the girl, never considering how the father must have suffered from losing his daughter. Parents, truly the highest and hardest positions in this world.
That's why this week's short story by Kanon has stolen countless tears from readers when writing about a father's love for his daughter. Kanon mentioned in the introduction that he was inspired by the painting "Beauty roaming through the Night" for her story. A girl had jumped into a sea of flames to save her cat, a father, out of pity for his daughter, had asked an artist to repaint the painting of a young girl holding a cat so that his daughter could always be with her beloved cat. Everyone had thought the story ended there, but no, the father had suffered, he had always gazed at the painting of his daughter, had talked to the painting after a hard day's work, and had even cooked two portions of food. His wife had passed away, leaving him only with this daughter, and now he was left all alone. His only joy had been talking to his daughter in the painting until one day a neighbor found him lying next to the painting, no longer breathing. His soul had still lingered next to the painting, longing to reunite with his daughter's soul, but he had never done so. He had eventually only remembered that he once had a daughter like that. The story had ended with the old man's conversation with Kanon in the museum and her wish for the old man to transcend, hoping to be a father to his daughter again in the next life.
"Lady, this story..."
Seiji didn't know how to ask about what happened at the museum after reading his lady's new short story. Kanon was sitting next to him in the library, planning illustrations for her book. She paused for a moment and turned to look at Seiji.
"Anything can happen, senpai. It's just a story..."
"Ha, anything can happen, huh?"
Seiji suddenly recalled that sentence and then smiled, of course, to you, my lady, anything can happen.
The story ended there, but the consequences of it did not stop there. Manami had come to Kanon's modern literature club room to express her desire to collaborate. The girl couldn't stop sobbing when mentioning the story of "The Beauty roaming through the Night" because she had used that story to cover up for her cats. She said that after reading the story, she felt that Kanon was a person who understood everything, making her admire Kanon, so she really wanted to collaborate and also hoped to become Kanon's friend. Of course, Kanon happily agreed.
But the more serious consequence was that Suoh had to bring Kanon to his traditional literature research society at all costs to explain the story behind "The Beauty roaming through the Night" because it was not only one of the 7 wonders of Clamp School but also the inspiration for countless literary works from ancient times to the present. So far, there had been no work that featured a father as the main character like this, according to Suoh, this perspective was full of humanity and extremely fresh, needed to be promoted, making Kanon cry while Nokoru was very understanding, tears in his eyes, waving his handkerchief as he watched Kanon being pulled away by Suoh.
Author note: The story of "The Beauty roaming through the Night" in this chapter is taken from the anime, not the manga.
In the manga, this painting is the work of Sakuranka Manami using for the competition.
In the anime, this painting is one of the 7 wonders of Clamp School. According to legend, the woman in the painting saved her cat in a fire and perished in the flames along with it. Her father, overwhelmed with grief, hired an artist to paint a new image of his daughter and her cat. Manami later remade the painting and created a ghost to scare people away from her cats.
