Kannon-ji and the Snake Pond

[Somewhere Outside the Northeast Gate]

"So, a pond where a dragon dwells is, in other words, a dungeon, and the dragon uses the dungeon's power to make it rain. That's the gist of it."

Marie summed up Vasanti's account. The two ladies-in-waiting, set to return after a single night's stay, did not come along and instead took their rest. The nun, her attendant old serving-woman, and the snake remained at the dungeon, searching for a place to build Kannon-ji.

"That's about the size of it, yes."

Vasanti, in high spirits, had cracked open a chūhai requisitioned for the Dungeon Master.

"And so, this area here is the spot you'd recommend, Vasanti-san."

A place atop the plateau, but slightly lower-lying.

"As my dwelling, draw water from the Core and make me a spring; for tribute, liquor twice a day. And once every few days, offer up an egg, or a live mouse, or a chick. Also, I'd like a broad pond for exercise, though that one I won't demand right away."

"Mice we may not have yet, perhaps. This dungeon hasn't been in existence all that long, after all."

In point of fact, mice could indeed be summoned as dungeon monsters, but Marie had not looked over the summon list properly. To say nothing of mice, even the deathwatch beetles, booklice, and silverfish at the very tail of the summon list could, used cleverly, become part of a dungeon's fighting strength, but Marie did not adopt such methods.

"In that case, if you would share a portion of the dungeon's power with me, I can also take on a human form. Then human food will do fine. Only, a human form gets hungrier than a dragon's, so I'll need sacred offerings morning and evening. And, if rain is wanted in winter too, then naturally I'll need to be in human form. A dragon hibernates in winter, you see."

Hibernation? Now isn't that just a snake. That was what Marie found herself wanting to say, and held it in.

"A snake… no, I mean a dragon, there are people who fear them, so for ceremonies and the like the human form would be better. Won't you try it for us?"

"Very well. I have no clothing, so might I have a square of cloth about a shaku on a side?"

"A towel, ah, a hand-towel, shall I lend you one? But a single shaku is awfully small. A bath towel… er, you don't want a larger one?"

Marie picked up one of the towels that could be summoned as supplies for Tier-Group 425. Doubling as advertising, locally produced towels were used, so they could be summoned within the dungeon too, and Marie was fond of them.

"Even taking human form, adding to my weight is beyond a dragon's power."

Because there is a law of conservation of mass, foxes and tanuki and snakes alike, no matter how they shapeshift, ordinarily do not change in weight. There are, of course, those who alter their apparent size.

The snake slipped beneath the towel, transformed into a girl of about forty centimeters in height, and deftly wound the towel about her body. That said, since she was originally a reptile, even naked it didn't exactly count as R-18.

"Oh, how darling. Just like a little doll."

So said the nun. Ichimatsu dolls were costly things, used by daughters of samurai houses as part of their trousseaux or for practicing needlework.

"I say it of myself, but I am rather darling, no? I'd like a mirror. Look now, shrines often keep a mirror set out, don't they."

"Princess, how nostalgic this is. I'm reminded of how, when you were still a child, princess, you used to make dolls' clothes out of scraps of cloth."

"That doll I gave my daughter as part of her trousseau, but this time let's make some clothes for the snake-san, shall we?"

"I keep telling you, I am a dragon… Anyhow, the clothes I'll gladly accept."

"Then we'll ask you to build Kannon-ji right here. Director of Books-sama, ours may not be a very long acquaintance, I expect, but I look forward to working with you."

"Yes. I'll prepare the snake pond, and Kannon-ji… in terms of size, Tier-Group 1 would be just right…"

"And how large would that be?"

"About a hundred and fifty tsubo, I'd say. There's a reading room of around sixty tsubo that would become the main hall, and a space that could serve as the priests' quarters too. The other neighboring libraries come with community centers attached and the like, so they're hopelessly too big. We could pull over a suitable branch from somewhere around Ageo, or, going the other way, just summon something like Plaza North outright and turn the rooms we don't use into storehouses. That's another option."

"There will be preparations to make as well, I imagine, so I won't ask for it at once."

"It's quite all right. The summoning itself can be done immediately. Even if the temple-name plaque has to be handwritten for the time being."

And so, the first temple of the Library-City Dungeon, Kannon-ji, was founded. Afterward, in Kishi Village, Gassan-ji, with the Bodhisattva Seishi as its principal image, was founded as well.

A dragon that turns into a girl and is "easy game." It's a stock convention, but unfortunately the Dungeon Master is a shut-in, and Marie has, in fact, no sex. In the end, in this dungeon she's nothing but a plain sea hare (amefurashi, a homophone of ame-furashi, "rainmaker"). Say that, though, and she'd likely be even angrier than at being called a snake.