Hinako Shimizu felt as though she had just woken from an extraordinarily strange dream.
She had returned to Ebisugaoka — Ebisugaoka from many years ago.
She, Shu, Rinko, Sakuko, and Hisayuki — all of them were there, all still in the shapes of their teenage selves.
But there had been one more figure among them, someone who should only have existed in a tokusatsu show.
In that bizarre, kaleidoscopic dream, Sakuko had died suddenly without ever paying back the money she owed, and even after coming back to life, she still had no intention of repaying it.
Hisayuki was a fox spirit; his grandfather was a nine-tailed fox, eight tails swaying behind him. They told her that this wedding was, in truth, a ritual — a ceremony to offer a woman as a living sacrifice to the water dragon.
Then Ultraseven had chosen her, made her his human host in Oneness of Mind and Body, and together they defeated the fox spirit.
"Really, it was so surreal! It doesn't even make logical sense."
Hinako Shimizu murmured to herself, her voice so low only she could hear it.
She reached up and took off the cotton hood she was wearing, her fingers pausing briefly at the brim before she slowly pulled it free.
"Miss Shimizu?"
The priest officiating the wedding called out her surname, a tremor of unease running through his voice. His hand hovered above the bronze bell, the clapper suspended in midair, unmoving.
Across from Hinako Shimizu, Tsuneki Hisayuki lifted his head, his gaze complicated as he looked at his bride-to-be.
His lips parted slightly, then closed again. His fingers tightened on his knees until the knuckles went white.
"I'm sorry, but this wedding ends here."
Hinako Shimizu said it plainly, her voice not loud, her tone calm — as if she were stating the most ordinary fact in the world.
She still couldn't make sense of what kind of strange dream she'd just had, but one thing was clear now — she knew her own mind.
She would not marry Tsuneki Hisayuki simply because her parents wished it.
Her quiet words detonated into an uproar throughout the worship hall.
"What? The bride says she won't marry him?"
"What's going on?"
"Is this some kind of joke? This isn't the place for jokes!"
"Ha, the Tsuneki family's reputation is done for now!"
"I'm so glad I came today!"
...
The hall buzzed with murmurs as the guests leaned in to whisper to one another. Some wore the eager look of people anticipating a scene, the corners of their mouths curling upward; others frowned and shook their heads, muttering low words to those beside them. Their eyes kept flicking back and forth between Hinako Shimizu and Tsuneki Hisayuki, barely concealing their excitement.
Kanta Shimizu shot up from his seat, his face flushed red, the veins at his temples bulging, his lips trembling as he shouted, "Hinako! What nonsense are you spouting?!"
"Hinako…"
Kimie Shimizu rose as well, gripping her husband's sleeve, her face a mixture of shock and fear.
Shu Iwai stood a little further back. Hearing those words, he froze in place.
"It worked… hahahaha! It actually worked! That medicine really did make Hinako realize what she truly wanted!"
The next instant, the corners of his mouth curled upward against his will, bending into a smile he couldn't suppress.
He knew full well he shouldn't be smiling in a moment like this, that he couldn't let anyone see his expression — yet his shoulders still shook violently with the effort of holding it in.
Rinko Nishida stood beside him, watching it all unfold.
Watching Shu Iwai's poorly concealed joy, she felt something like a wad of cotton lodge in her chest, making it hard to breathe.
She drew a deep breath and turned her head away, refusing to look at him any longer. Her gaze swept past the crowd and settled on Hinako Shimizu instead, cold to the bottom.
Hinako Shimizu, meanwhile, paid no attention to anyone. Her gaze drifted past the crowd and came to rest on a corner at the side of the hall.
The friend who owed her five hundred yen was rubbing her head, looking as though she'd just woken up, eyes not yet fully open, fingers tangled in her hair.
Beside her friend stood a man Hinako had never seen before today. He had his head bowed, leaning against a woman beside him, his posture weary but relaxed. That woman… was so beautiful! A beauty that seemed to exceed the very bounds of human imagination — the kind that made you forget to breathe the instant you laid eyes on her. Hinako Shimizu's gaze went blank for a moment, caught in it.
But she quickly came back to herself, and her eyes shifted to the man.
Even from a distance, she couldn't make out his face or his expression — only the outline of him, head bowed, leaning there. And yet, inexplicably, Hinako Shimizu felt something about him drawing her in. She couldn't put words to it, only that it was like some invisible gravity, pulling her toward him from somewhere deep inside.
"Hinako!"
At that moment, a familiar voice rang out inside Hinako Shimizu's mind.
Her whole body shuddered.
Because that voice hadn't come from her ears — it had come from somewhere within her heart.
"Mr…. Ultraseven?"
Hinako Shimizu pressed a hand to her chest. She could feel her heart pounding violently, beat after beat, each pulse carrying a warmth that brought strength, spreading outward from her chest to every limb.
That was light!
So… what had happened just now hadn't been a dream at all?!
"It's me, Hinako. It's time for you to fight."
Amamiya Rin's voice was calm, carrying a steady, grounded strength.
"Understood!"
Hinako Shimizu raised her right hand, and a beam of light rose from her palm, tracing out a clear shape.
Under the stunned gaze of everyone present, a pair of red-tinted glasses materialized in her hand.
In an instant, the bustling worship hall fell silent — silent enough that a dropped pin might have been heard.
All the murmuring, the gasps, the angry shouts, cut off abruptly in the face of those sudden glasses.
The guests' eyes went wide, their mouths falling open into perfect circles as they stared, transfixed, at Hinako Shimizu, their faces written over with disbelief, as though they were witnessing something that defied the laws of the world.
"Hisayuki, I suppose this is goodbye for us."
Turning to glance once at Tsuneki Hisayuki, Hinako Shimizu didn't hesitate for even a moment as she put on the Ultraseven glasses.
"So — watch closely. My transformation — Ultraseven!"
A clear, ringing cry, carrying the resolve of a warrior of light, echoed through the jingū!
In the next instant, a soft yet irresistible golden light erupted from within Hinako Shimizu's body. The heavy white wedding kimono dissolved into motes of light within that radiance, and her body became a torrent of light itself — like starlight breaking free of its cage — surging straight through the hall and out toward the front gate of the worship hall.
"Wait! That's—!"
"Move, get out of the way!"
"Hinako!"
...
The stunned crowd finally came back to their senses, scrambling out in a mad rush, spilling into the courtyard beyond.
There, a towering, colossal figure stood between heaven and earth, its silver-and-crimson streamlined body upright and majestic, radiating a stern, weighty presence from every inch of it.
By the time the guests from the worship hall had all poured out through the main gate of the jingū, that silver-and-crimson figure had already become a streak of intertwined silver-red light, tearing across the sky, racing off toward the distance.
All that remained on the spot was a crowd left slack-jawed and utterly speechless, and a farcical wedding that had come to a complete and absolute end.
____
📢 WANT MORE CHAPTERS? HELP US HIT OUR MILESTONES!
💬 Reviews: Leave a review! For every 5 REVIEWS, 1 bonus chapter gets released. 💎 Power Stones: Hit 100 POWER STONES to unlock another bonus chapter! 🚀 P@treon: Want to read ahead? Join the P@treon (Walnut-chan) to get up to 40 chapters ahead and access 60+ stories!
🔥 New history: HSR x ZZZ x Genshin: My Life Is Streamed to Everyone! — posted on The_Mikudayo