#katanuki

For the festival's opening ceremony Sanae was solemn as a living god, but tonight she's just another excited festivalgoer. This is her first festival with Tsukasa, so she's swerving from booth to booth, showing off the kind of party the Moriya Shrine can throw. By now, Tsukasa is laden with gewgaws and stuffed full of chocolate bananas and fish-shaped pastries, but Sanae's pace hasn't slackened.

"Look, Tsukasa, there's a cutout candy stall!"

"Cutout candy? More sweets?" Tsukasa smiles and flicks her tail.

"It's not really for eating." Sanae raises a finger to expound. "I mean, you can eat it, but it's not tasty. Cutout candy is a game where you get a little wafer made out of sugar and flour, and it's got an outline of a shape engraved in it. The point of the game is to cut out the shape from the surrounding wafer without breaking it, and turn it in intact for a prize. I was really good at it growing up. Come on, let's try."

*plunk* *plunk* *plunk* *plunk* *plunk* *plunk* Six coins buy two thin pink candy wafers, two shots at winning a Mishaguji plushie. The yamawaro vendor hands Tsukasa a toothpick for scratching out the shape, but Sanae refuses hers.

"Once you know what you're doing," Sanae explains, "it's actually quicker and easier to just break off the outside part at the lines. See, like-" *CRACK* "Ah."

Sanae's wafer is in two halves, the frog she was trying to break free decapitated in her hands.

"I can certainly see how that's quicker." Tsukasa doesn't look up from tracing her wafer's imprinted shape with her toothpick. *scratch* *scratch*

"There's a trick to it. I just used too much force by accident."

*scratch* *scratch* Tsukasa angles her wafer to avoid getting sugar dust on her kimono. "Buy another? I'm sure you'll get it next time."

*plunk* *plunk* *plunk* Sanae again waves off the offered toothpick.

"See, what you have to do," Sanae says, sizing up her new wafer, "is snap off the surrounding material with one hand while supporting the shape with your other hand so it doesn't break. If you take off just a little at a time, all the way around the outline, you'll get it."

"Makes sense." *scratch* *scratch* "Slow and steady wins the race."

The two work in silence, Sanae nibbling around the edges of her wafer while Tsukasa scrapes the groove on hers deeper. When Sanae has her snake shape halfway freed, the silence is broken by the yamawaro.

"Hey, you're out." He points to the snake's tail, which Sanae has just broken loose. The very tip of the tail is missing.

"What? Oh come on, that's hardly anything. It's still good, I'm getting it."

"Sorry, those are the rules." The yamawaro doesn't look sorry. "The game is to get the whole thing out without breaking it, that means the whole thing. Bad luck, no prize this time. If you wanna try again, maybe use the toothpick?"

"It's fine. I know what I'm doing!" *plunk* *plunk* *plunk*

"Perfection is a lot to ask, isn't it?" Tsukasa sympathizes. *scratch* *scratch*

Sanae stares at the wafer. "How do I…" she mutters.

*scratch* *scratch*

*scratch* *scratch*

Finally Sanae makes up her mind. She raises the wafer above her head and declares:

"Moses's Miracle - The Day The Candy Split!"

A point of brilliant white light appears on Sanae's wafer. It buzzes and hums as it traces all the way around the outline, then flashes and disappears. As it fades, the surrounding candy crumbles away, and Sanae is left holding a factory-sharp candy cutout of the Moriya Shrine ropeway.

"Ohhh, very nice." Tsukasa carefully sets her wafer down to applaud, then returns to her task. *scratch* *scratch*

The yamawaro is less impressed. "Hey, now, that's cheating! You can't use magic!"

"It's not magic! It's not cheating! It's a miracle." Sanae shoves the cutout in his face. "A bona fide Moriya Shrine miracle. Maybe you forgot, but the gods here work miracles. That's kind of the whole point of this festival, if you think about it."

"I don't care if the customer is God, business is business! I'm running an honest business here. You can't cheat your way to a prize."

Tsukasa moves to intercede. "Now, now, now. There's no need for slanderous accusations like that. Sanae was just offering a demonstration of the shrine's divine power. Of course she's not asking for the prize, with that… unorthodox technique. The real prize here is witnessing a miracle."

"Right… yeah!" Sanae places the cutout on the counter. "Hang this up in your stall, it's a genuine relic now. I'm sure it'll bring some sort of useful blessings. Anyway, Tsukasa! Let's move on, this is boring. They have goldfish scooping over there, and candy apples."

"You go on ahead." *scratch* *scratch* "I'll be along in a moment."

After Sanae leaves, Tsukasa addresses the yamawaro. "Just between us, it would have been smarter for you to give her the prize." *scratch* *scratch* "One plushie can't be worth damaging your relationship with the woman who runs the festivals on this mountain."

"No way. Us yamawaro are the shrine's business partners, we're not their servants. I'm not gonna be strongarmed by the Moriya."

"Well, suit yourself." *scratch* *scratch* "Aha."

The toothpick has finally scratched through. The outer candy falls away easily, leaving an unblemished cutout of the shrine's torii gate resting in Tsukasa's palm. The yamawaro starts to grab a plushie from the shelf, but Tsukasa closes her fist on the torii, crushing it to bits.

"Hey, whatdya do that for?!?"