"Wow, okay."

"...uh, I used to go to a school for really rich kids. And they get up to some stuff."

"If it works it works!"

"Might not, but I don't have an obvious next best lead." He'd originally been thinking that money can buy everything but it has since occurred to him that buying a gun in Japan is the kind of thing Iwasaki Iemasa's kid probably can't get away with, even if the man himself could.

"If you know who you need, magic can like, nudge 'em in the brain a little. Jedi mind trick."

"—wait, it can?" That sounds extremely useful.

"Yeah, if your wish didn't go there it's kind of pricey, but it's a thing."

"Yeah my wish was, uh, very different. ...may I ask what yours was?" He speculated but now he's curious. It probably wasn't as cool as getting rid of fucking malaria simp less, my guy, simp less.

"I wanted to be a big star. I mostly wanted to be talented and lucky, but I can do a little of the Jedi thing. My old partner was better at it."

"Well you definitely got that. There's a boy at school who's a huge fan of yours," though technically Yutaka has not learned this this time around yet, "last time around I got your autograph and he was losing his mind about it."

"You want to do that again? I don't mind if you've got a pen."

"I don't have one on me, Haru always carries one but I didn't think to get one myself. I can get one after we're done, though."

"Huh, why does he always have one?"

"...I don't actually know."

"Huh. - there we go." They have dowsed their way to an overpass.

...an overpass with... presumably... a witch somewhere?

It doesn't look like there's anything abnormal at first. It's an overpass, seen one seen them all. Except...

As they get closer, something changes. It's like a mirage without the heat, the concrete wall swimming before their eyes, like space isn't quite right, there. Then, when they're right by the anomaly, their vision solidifies into a symbol, solid and glowing for all that it's standing midair with no support: three stylised cherry blossom petals, pink and red and black ink like a tattoo.

"Okay, cherry tree witch. When we get close to the middle, the petals might start swarming and they're sharp, but the damage's pretty superficial, do you know how to turn pain down?"

"—no. That's a thing?"

"Yup, try pinching yourself till you've got it? I don't think it's worth shielding against the cherry blossoms unless they're getting in your face, it's less magic to just heal from it afterwards, so you don't want the little cuts to distract you too much, but you want to keep enough that you'll notice if a squirrel bites you."

Okaaaaay uh. But he's kind of a wimp about pain. He'll try pinching himself and see how easily he can figure that one out? Worst-case he'll just stop time when he's attacked it's fine? Probably?

Yamanaka waits patiently. Summons her sword and stands guard in case any squirrels come out.

...he'll try that later. If it really does become a problem he can rewind to now.

"Ready."

"Here goes!"

In she steps.

The cherry tree is... big. They can walk on top of the branches without it being at all difficult to balance; even if they weren't magical they could probably walk on these twigs. The petals are not proportionate, they're a little bigger than real sakura but only a little. The squirrels are also not proportionate, only about dog-sized. They don't attack immediately.

Yamanaka leads the way through the perfumed sky-blue haze that backdrops the flowers and the tree bark. "We want to get to the trunk," she says. "And then when we get there we go down. You can't just go down and approach on the 'ground', it's not shaped that way."

"Not shaped that way?"