Piercing the pitch black rain clouds that had suddenly covered the sky, a single thunderbolt struck the center of the basin of a waterfall. Immediately, the pierced water surface swelled as if lifted from below, and a huge dragon suddenly appeared in an enormous splash.
After glancing at the girl dressed as a shrine maiden, who stood near the waterfall, the dragon soared straight towards the sky. As the girl watched it go, she had a complex expression on her face that was quite neither compassion nor resignation, nor did it resemble a prayer or a curse.
"Dear dragon. Hear me, dragon that has since ancient times been gathering the strength to save the world inside this waterfall. Now is the time for you to save my brethren from their numerous hardships!"
Directing her words rather at herself instead of the dragon, the girl whispered, but at the same time shouted so, and with the same expression still on her face, she gazed at the sky where the dragon had soared.
As if answering the girl, the dragon that had flown so high that one could no longer discern it gave out a cry in a wonderful timbre.
陰陽座百物語 第廿伍話「龍の雲を得る如し」
突如として空を覆った真っ黒な雨雲を切り裂いて一筋の稲妻が滝壺の中心を撃った。その直後、穿たれた水面が逆に下から持ち上げられる様に膨らみ、中から一匹の巨大な龍が途轍も無い水飛沫と共に躍り出た。
滝の辺に佇んでいた巫女姿の少女をちらりと窺ってから龍は真っ直ぐに空へ向かって舞い上がって行った。それを見送る少女の顔には、哀れみとも諦めとも、祈りとも呪いともつかない、複雑な表情が浮かんでいた。
「龍よ。古よりこの滝で、この世を救う為に力を育んで来た龍よ。今こそ、我が同胞達を幾多の苦難から救っておくれ！」
少女は龍に向かってと言うよりは、寧ろ自らに言い聞かせる様に、呟く様にそれでいて叫ぶ様にそう言うと、龍の舞い上がった空を先程と同じ表情を浮かべた儘見詰めていた。
もう姿が見えない程高くまで舞い上がった龍はそれに答える様に不思議な音色で一声鳴いた。
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