Dagashi Kashi is property of Kotoyama and Shogakukan. Additional references belong to their respective companies.
The cool air of the winter months was especially rough in coastal towns. During especially brutal seasons, it was bad enough that they traditionally gathered together in one spot. Usually this would be an emergency facility, like a fire station or a school gym, but for the resident's of this town, they gathered at Shikada Dagashi.
A wood burning chimney was on the eastern wall of the two story shop. Giggling children, under the supervision of their elders, waddled up to a small bookcase sized shelf. Vines were growing out of the walls behind it, weaving up and through the shelves, bearing large fruits. The fruits were about the size of a small melon, about the size of the youth's faces, and had the consistency of paper. The children plucked them from the leafy canopy that sheltered them and split them in half.
In the center of the fruit laid a spherical chunk of chocolate.
Most children promptly cheered and removed the chocolate, handing the fruit to their bemused parents who tossed them away in the flame. The embers within roared to life, fed by the paper like material that the fruit possessed. One of the children didn't follow what the majority had done; she instead moved to sit on the thick skinned pelts of strange animals with her fruit.
She took out the piece of chocolate and rubbed it against the white innards of the fruit, revealing words.
"Mama," The girl looked up, catching the eyes of her parent. "Can you read this to me?"
Her mother swept her pants and sat down next to her daughter, letting her girl rest her head on her lap.
"Let's see," The mother started. "Once upon a time, there lived a young girl named Cinderella..."
A group of three boys rushed past the mother and daughter pair, chasing after a small puff of smoke that floated a foot over their heads. The trio of boys each held tiny bottles in death grips, staining their hands with the brown sugar. In their other, they held tiny sticks with a ring at the end, perfectly fitted to go inside the bottles. They heedless bumped into the legs of adults, most of the time not apologizing, but no one held it against them.
The tiny cloud over their heads started to fall.
"Keep it up! Keep it up!" Their leader shouted, "I'm not letting Shiro and his friends keep the record!"
All the boys started pumping the sticks into the sugar body, smearing it with what little liquid remained inside of the bottle. They each raised the sticks to their mouths and blew in concert. Grey, fluffy material rose from it, inflating and growing into a much smaller cloud. It rose up and met the cloud overhead, pushing it up further.
"Quick!" Their leader popped the bottle into his mouth, loudly crunching on it while reaching into his pocket with his now freed hand. He pulled out a hundred and fifty yen; once he had the money out, he gave it to the smallest of his three man group. "Get us some more!"
"Yes sir!" The boy snapped a messy salute, causing a few drops to stain his white shirt. "Oh no!"
"Just go, I'll tell mom it was my fault." The leader pointed to over to the drink bar that had most of its seats occupied by adults and children. "Just get us some more bubbles."
"Okay..." The little brother rushed away.
It was hard to navigate around the tables set up in the center, bowls of dagashi overflowing into the hands of eager people. He squeezed past the crowds and walked over towards the western side of the room. The young boy patiently waited for a little girl his age to happily take a cup full of frothy soda, with a heaping helping of sugar sitting pretty on top with a cherry.
"Here you go, honey." The lady behind the counter gave the girl a straw. It had a set of lines patterned on it. Curiously, the lines were empty. "Enjoy."
The little girl took out a small straw and stuck it onto the scoop of ice cream. The drink rapidly began to vanish, sucked up into the straw. The cola formed a golden brown line that decorated one side of the straw, and the ice cream was a pure white line that swirled alongside it. Once the drink was gone, the little girl put a golden cap at the bottom of her now colored in straw and walked away from the counter, sucking at it as she savored her drink.
"What can I do for ya?" The pretty lady behind the counter smiled warmly at him. "Thank you for your patience."
"Three more." He strained to put the money and his empty bottle on the countertop, next to the emptied glass from the last guest. "Thank you, miss."
"Of course!" She scooped up the empty bottle, and darted behind a curtain. "One sec!"
The boy scrambled onto the stool and lightly kicked his feet back and forth.
The curtain led way to a kitchen. At the moment it was packed full of boxes. The back door was open, leading out to a yard that was almost full of more boxes. Several had logos with foreign writing on them, but the one that the bartender bobbed and weaved towards had a purple top hat and was about two feet wide by a foot deep..
"Let's see," She opened it up, and lowered her entire head and upper shoulders inside. "Where are you?"
A metal shovel could be heard scraping against the ground in the background.
The bartender gripped the sides of the box, hauling herself out.
"Aren't you done yet?" She complained towards the male that was tirelessly shoveling material into a grey box.
"Not quite yet, Mitsumi." Yō smiled at his wife, resting against his shovel. It was deep inside a pile of marshmallows. Hints of a blue material were nestled within. "Weather won't stabilize, heck of a thing."
A glance up showed that the grey rings rising from the container were swirling up into the skies above.
"Can't they just give us a break?" Mitsumi complained, pulling out three bottles. "It's Christmas. I don't want to keep the store open. I want to spend it with you and Kokonotsu."
"That's the exact reason they came here!" Yō said, grinning at his wife. "Who's ever heard of a Christmas without snow?"
"Yeah, snow!"
Mitsumi and Yō both looked behind them, and saw their four year old son toddle towards them. The Santa suit that he was dressed in had a few stains. His mouth had hints of chocolate around the lips, most likely from the small sampling tray he was carrying.
"Mama, daddy, I need more." He told them with a guileless smile, licking his lips. "Saya and To showed up and want some."
Yō and Mitsumi exchanged smiles.
"Let's go back inside," Mitsumi told Kokonotsu. "I'll get you and your friends some snacks."
Kokonotsu grinned.
Suddenly, the smoke stack behind Yō had several popping noises come from inside; it rattled in place once, and then belched a thick stream of smoke into the skies. The clouds grew darker by the moment, Kokonotsu ran over to his father while white flakes started falling downwards. The family jumped up to catch some, but only the youngest caught them.
"Sweet!" He cheered, licking his palm.
Yō laughed over towards the smokestack; he patted it while flashing his wife an arrogant look.
"I knew I could do it." He flexed an arm. "Just needed some more elbow grease."
Mitsumi shrugged.
"You were right, I guess." She said. "Let's get back and tell everyone Christmas is on."
Yō rooted, tossing his shovel carelessly next to the smoke stack, and practically skipped inside.
'Ah, men and their toys.' Mitsumi smirked, starting to follow, but she felt a tug on her hand.
"What is it Kokonotsu?"
The boy shyly lowered the tray, revealing he was holding a white candy string in the other hand. Mitsumi let out a gasp of recognition, kneeling down to her son's level. She smiled at her boy, running her hand through his hair.
"Are you going to share that with Saya-chan?" Mitsumi asked.
Kokonotsu lowered his head and shook it.
"No," He looked up at her, pouting. "I wanna make a promise with you!"
For a moment, she saw Yō's intense stare in her son's eyes, and was reminded of a day a long time ago.
"Are you sure?" She joked, touching her wedding ring. "Maybe you should make a promise with a cuter girl."
Kokonotsu ran into her, wrapped his arms around Mitsumi, and buried his face into her apron.
She smiled down at him, warmth filling her.
"Okay." Mitsumi stood, grunting as she lifted her son. "What do we promise?"
She walked back inside.
"...be together..." He mumbled, cheeks pink as he wrapped an end around his pinkie.
"Oh?" She shifted him, wrapping the other end of the Chou Hime Q around her finger too.
"...let's be together forever."
They tugged the string hard, cracking something inside the white mass. It flooded with dye, turning crimson between the two of them. Mother and child were smiling as they walked back inside, closing the door on the powdered yard behind them.
"Senpai, I cannot love you." A fluffy haired schoolgirl closed her eyes, tears leaking out. "Because I have a bomb that will go off if I ever feel your warmth."
A grim faced man in a classical black uniform clad in a heavy overcoat. He rubbed his thumb against his scarred cheek and walked over towards the schoolgirl. She briefly fought him, trying to shake his hand off her shoulder as he turned her towards him.
"It's fine." He mumbled, embracing her as he spoke into her hair. "The world isn't worth it without you."
She looked up.
A ticking noise started up.
"I love you."
"I do too."
They vanished in a flare of light...
"So," Yō Shikada set down the manuscript he had been reading, and looked towards his teenaged son with an arched eyebrow. "Where are the catgirls?"
Kokonotsu squirmed in his seat.
"I'll just see myself out." The young man said, pushing his chair out. "You're not going to take this seriously at all!"
"Kokonotsu." Yō leaned forwards, hands cupping his chin. "Wait up."
He stopped at a bead curtain heading out.
"What is it?" Kokonotsu asked, thrown off by his father's intense stare.
"Would you." Yō pointed at him.
"Would I?" The young man blinked. "Would I wha-"
"Happen to be..." His father interrupted.
Kokonotsu sighed, and mentally prepared himself for whatever junk his dad was going to tell him.
"A virgin?" Yō delicately covered his mouth with his palm.
Kokonotsu gasped, but the air went the wrong way. It caused a chain reaction where he started coughing. Unfortunately he was trying to convey his outrage, so he shook in place and made strange noises while stumbling towards his father.
Yō pulled the manuscript back from his son's clawing swipes.
"It's just," The man tried to find the words. "This romance is super cliche. Like, even my old man would've turned up his nose at it. Have you been cribing your stuff from new wave authors? Those guys are most definitely virgins, y'know? I mean, why else is there so much harem elements in everything these days? No, following such trite, safe words are just going to lead to your ruin."
As Yō spoke, he wiggled in place and juked and jived, refusing to give up the pages he had taken upon himself to review for his son.
"Excuse me?" Kokonotsu finally got his breathing and manuscript back under his control.
Yō waved it off, looking up at him with a patient look.
"It's fine," His father said. "No, as your father, I think it's good that you still rely on these sort of words."
"I can't believe I'm listening to this..."
"There's so many temptations these days," Yō went on, making Kokonotsu's ears turn redder by the second. "I even thought maybe you and Saya-chan had a thing, but these words are definitely written by someone who hasn't even kissed a girl yet! This is going to be a problem, but we can work through it together. First thing we'll do is see if Saya-chan isn't seeing anyone-"
"Dad!" Kokonotsu cut him off, his iron grip crumpled the manuscript. "I'm leaving, goodbye!"
"Bye, soooon." Yō grabbed one of their table napkins, waving him off. "Remember to come back and watch the store after class!"
"If I remember!"
Yō's smile faded; he stood up, and went about cleaning up mechanically when a minute or so passed. Once he was done, he walked past the bead curtains and around the counter in front of him. Yō tried to not look at the dusty, half disassembled bar to the other side of the room, and walked up to the door in the front of the shop. He flipped a faded sign from closed to open.
He picked up a small feather duster from a shelf next to the door and silently went about the small shop, dusting packages of candies, opening up jars to the air.
Once done, he went and stood back behind the counter, and stared at the door.
It would be a few hours before anyone showed up.
Yō chewed on his lower lip. Before him were three columns of cards. He had two choices where to move the Four of Spades, but if he made a mistake, he was sure he was going to lose soon. He looked over at a small mirror facing him within a case of sour drops. A mirror image of himself was slowly catching up to him, almost getting through the fourth column.
"Don't choke." Yō chanted over and over again.
Mirror Yō blew him a raspberry before returning to his cards, dedicated towards beating him at competitive Solitaire.
Yō was back at square one, pensively looking at his cards.
The front door's bell rang, pausing the mirror match. Yō carefully set the tray he had all his cards on to the side. He looked up; a young woman strode into his shop, she looked around the same age as his son. He wondered why she wasn't in school. Stranger still was her fashion, which was much more - elegant, maybe, than what most of the people wore out here in the sticks.
It looked almost more expensive than his whole shop, funnily enough.
"Ah, welcome to Shikada Dagashi." Yō assumed she must be a girl from the city. Probably visiting some relative and let out early from her classes. He tried to be on his best behavior as he continued. "How can I help you, Miss...?"
He trailed off.
A small green creature with bright orange hair crawled up to her shoulder from her back. It was dressed in a little set of overalls and had a feathered cap on his curly locks of hair. The creature gripped onto the young woman's earlobe and casually licked on the gem - no, it was a candy - that was set on her silver earring.
Yō blinked - recognizing the humanoid creature. How had a young lady like her found one of them? It had been years since he had heard about them.
"This place is a dump, Hotaru." It stated with a gravelly voice, and pointed straight at Yō. "And that guy looks like an even bigger piece of trash."
Mirror Yō swept all his cards off his desk, silently shouting something, because he had a foot up on his counter and shaking a fist in the direction of the creature.
Hotaru smiled, not at what her companion said, but because she saw the reaction of Yō's reflection in the tiny mirror.
"We finally meet, Yō Shikada." Hotaru said. "I'm Hotaru, and my friend here is..."
"Sancho." The tiny man introduced himself. "You owe me a staring fee, by the way."
"-and we've been looking for you for a very long time."
Not a very long time ago, Dachō Beach had monthly cookouts, and everyone in town came out to go from stand to stand as local businesses put on a show for the benefit of town. The anticipation also tended to make the sands look like an exciting place for the locals, who were sick and tired of the sea view by the time they were five. The main jewel of the show had been Shikada Dagashi's various tricks, he could still see the snowman over to the east side of the beach; he bet dad's last real invention was still chugging along inside of that thing, keeping the thing from melting.
But now...
Kokonotsu sat on the edge of the beach overlooking at two older girls frolicking through he waves, silently running his hands across the sand.
The grains slipped through his fingers as the breeze blew the sand away. The increased wind reminded him of something that was trying to flutter away; a manuscript was haphazardly stuffed in his pack pocket, squeezed between him and the beach.
The young man reached behind him and pulled out the pages.
Large sections of his images and dialogue were circled with red and blue ink, words striken down in flourishes. He really hadn't been running to sanctuary at all when he went to school. The twins had been more brutal than his dad.
At least he had summer break to shore his confidence up.
He pulled out a flier.
It was worn out, but the front was dominated with a young boy slouched over a desk with piles of papers- trashed work - piled up on each side, little scribbles probably representing intensity were drifting off the cartoon.
The flier wasn't exactly sugarcoating things, was it?
TOKYO YOUNG MANGAKA CONTEST - Accepting Early Applications. Semi-finalists get to come to Tokyo for judging! Top entries get to come meet and rub elbows with *real* Weekly Shonen Sunday staff. Be the future rising superstar of the world!
The young man looked away from his slaughtered manuscript, hoping to see the older girls, but they were long gone at this point.
"I am so lame."
Kokonotsu let out a sigh and fell onto his back, letting the sheets of paper drift away from him. Maybe the offering to the merciful sea would purify the offending words. Or at least clear any association between them and him.
His ears perked as he heard a crunching noise off to the side.
"Hey, littering isn't nice." A girl started.
Papers rustled.
"Especially when it's garbage like this, hoo-whee." Her companion continued. "Check this out, Hotaru, a bomb of love!"
Kokonotsu's form went from resting to ramrod straight, practically skipping every step in between.
"Hey, no one told you to read that!" He stammered. "That's mi...ne?"
His words drifted away. They held no power at the moment. Kokonotsu wasn't even sure he was even in the same reality he was before. Simply because he was seeing a six inch tall man in an outfit that made him think of yodeling or that Little Girl on the hot chocolate packages. It was calmly glancing through his manuscript while it sat on the shoulder of a young woman.
"What's that?" He asked the girl.
Kokonotsu attempted to find a point of reference in this new brave world by pointing at the tiny man.
"This is Sancho," The young woman crossed her arms in front of her decisively. "He's my best friend!"
"Yo." Sancho waved. "I question your grasp of some of these archetypes, kid."
Kokonotsu's arm felt distant, out of his own control as it waved back, as manners mostly took over for his shellshocked brain.
"Call me Hotaru." The young woman smiled at him, as sweet as a basket full of puppies. "Good thing that Master Shikada knew where you'd be if you weren't at the store."
She was holding onto the rest of his manuscript.
Kokonotsu was going to kill his dad.
"Cocooo, there you are~" Yō's voice drifted down from the road overlooking the beach.
Kokonotsu's almost dislocated something as he turned his head to stare up at Yō, nostrils flaring.
"Scary!" His father tried to hide all of his large frame behind a one foot nothing railing on the side of the road. "Hotaru, Coco is bullying me!"
"Well, that isn't good." Hotaru rolled with the conversation, smiling at him. "If something I did was an issue-"
"Give it back." Kokonotsu said, holding out his hand while looking at the ground. "It's mine."
Sancho lowered the page he was reading, staring at the boy quietly.
"Eh?" Hotaru blinked.
Kokonotsu started walking towards her.
"My manuscript." He started stomping towards her. "I'm tired of people making fun about it to me today, so give it back."
Hotaru's confident smile wavered a little.
"But I-" She stammered, holding out a hand with the pages.
"Why should she?" Sancho's following statement froze Kokonotsu in place. "She's more respectful to your dreams than you are."
Hotaru looked a little awkward, but lowered her hand after taking the sheet handed to her by Sancho.
"What? What's a little..." Kokonotsu finally looked up at them, breathing haggard with restrained emotion. "A little... thing like you know about anything?"
Hotaru frowned at the boy, but she especially gave the stink eye to Sancho.
"I'm just saying the tru-ow!" He gripped his forehead after Hotaru lightly flicked Sancho with her pinkie.
"That's enough. We didn't come here to fight. Here you go." She said, bulldozing through the built up tension without a care.
Hotaru promptly took the set of pages and gave it to a quietly stunned Kokonotsu.
"I'm sorry." Hotaru bowed her head towards the young man.
"He was tossing it awa- hey!" Sancho started, but Hotaru shook her head, causing him to grab on for dear life.
"You don't get to be so preachy, Sancho." She cut him off. "Now say you're sorry to Master Shikada's son."
"..."
Kokonotsu and Sancho stared at each other.
Of course, the moment was ruined as someone blundered onto the scene, whooping and waving their hands.
Yō came down from the stairway built into the seawall past the large sand dunes in the back of the beach.
"Well, this reminds me of that one time I had to fight off a gang for your mother's hand in marriage, Kokonotsu!" Yō bulled through, laughing as he held out his arms. He grabbed onto Hotaru and Kokonotsu's shoulders and shook them while laughing quite maniacally. "I think it happened on March 27th, about five in the morning...?"
"Yeah, I'm done." Kokonotsu slipped out of his dad's grip. "I ain't playing along for the day."
"Coco..."
The young man sped up his walking pace.
"Coco nothing, dad!" He said. "Watch the store for the rest of the day, heck - just watch over it for the rest of your life!"
Yō and Hotaru awkwardly stood on the beach, looking over Kokonotsu.
"My baby hates me." The older man theatrically fell onto the sand.
Sancho crossed his arms, nose thrust up.
"Man, what a jerk. I called it. Making his one and only family cry like that." He said. "You do know that I'd never do that to you, right bestest buddy, ol' pal?"
"No sucking up, butthead." Hotaru pronounced her judgment. "No snacks for you tonight."
"Damn." Sancho hissed.
"You're pretty calm..." Yō wiped away his crocodile tears, "This affects you too, little miss."
"It's okay." She shook her head. "I slipped in one of mine between all those pages."
"Oh." Yō said.
Sancho looked up, mumbling something through a full mouth.
"Yes, exactly, Sancho."
A very stiff dinner followed once Yō returned home. Father and son went about their respective businesses, closing up the shop for the night and cleaning the house. The only thing left to do was wash the dishes and put them up to dry overnight.
"When are we going to get a dishwasher?" Kokonotsu finally spoke for the first time in hours, taking another plate from his dad.
"Not in the budget." Yō answered.
"Lame." Kokonotsu declared.
"Quite." Yō agreed.
"Who was that girl?" Kokonotsu finally asked.
Yō smiled.
"You don't hate me." He declared. "You still loooove me."
"Don't press your luck." The younger man warned. "So?"
"Hm?"
"Who?"
Cups rattled as they touched.
"She's a chocolatier." Yō said. "An amazing chocolatier."
"Better than you?" Kokonotsu asked, shaking his head. "No way, that's not possible."
Yō looked a little embarrassed, but a hint of pleasure was on his face.
"Afraid so." The older man said. "I tried some of her stuff, it was the tops."
Utensils jockeyed for position in a drying bin as they were dropped inside.
"Are we going to get bought out?" The younger man finally breached the topic he was most worried about. "Is it over?"
Yō reached up and set plates back in their proper spots.
"She gave you one too." He said. "Check your manga, Kokonotsu."
Kokonotsu took that as a suggestion to leave.
"Coco."
The younger man looked back at his father.
"Keep trying," Yō said. "Never give up, no matter what anyone says."
Kokonotsu walked to his room.
Yō picked up the dish that Kokonotsu was using. It had a simple floral design, but he especially took care to store it away correctly. He couldn't afford to chip that one.
Kokonotsu walked past the beads seperating the kitchen from the front of the shop. He took an immediate right through a sliding door, ignored the half opened closet full of disassembled soda machine parts, kept his gaze straight ahead as he ascended past the pictures of a smiling trio of strangers on the stairs, and went upstairs.
He noted that the bananas on the mass of vines that spelled his name on his door were starting to fade, maybe he'd go buy some paint with To later this week and touch it up himself.
Once inside, he immediately avoided a pile of books on the floor, turned on the small Hawaiian dancer lamp that he had been given by a friend, and casually hung up his school jacket in his closet before throwing himself on his bed.
The dart board on the other side of the room stared at him until he reluctantly decided to get off his bed and to work.
He found the package in between his manuscript; It was a plastic pouch with a tear away top. There was no hint of branding on it, nor were there any dietary labels. He tore open the top of the mysterious item, and was immediately introduced to a familiar smell.
Cocoa.
The young man awkwardly widened the small tear he had made to look inside. It looked like simple powder. Then he poured a little bit of it into his hand, rubbing his thumb through it.
Was this what his father had been so amazed about?
Certainly, it was fine material - just rubbing it was still producing a wonderfully bitter scent. There had to be more to it than this. HIs father was one of the best when it came to candy.
He licked a little bit of the powder off his thumb.
Kokonotsu nearly dropped the pouch as he felt the grainy material thicken to a consistency like melted chocolate. He glanced at the pouch with a newfound consideration as he finished swallowing the chocolate. He rose from his bed and headed over towards his desk with a determined stride, holding onto the pouch delicately. The young man picked up the mostly empty glass of water.
Grateful he had forgotten, he also pulled in a plate he had used last night for some apple slices.
Kokonotsu poured a line of cocoa with a bit of water. A thin paste formed on the plate. He blinked, and stuck a finger on it, swirling it around as he tested the consistency. Understanding dawned on him, and Kokonotsu went out of his room to fetch some more water. The young man dumped the rest of the powder onto the plate with some more water.
Before too long, he had amassed a handful of sweet smelling playdough on his plate.
Curiousity filled him, he wondered if it could do anything, Dagashi usually doubled as toys.
Looking around the room, he walked over towards his desk and picked up a discarded sheet of his manuscript. The page had been crumbled to near uselessness, but his drawings were still legible. He put the ball of dough onto the paper and rubbed it onto the drawing.
"I doubt this is gonna work." He muttered, but still pulled the dough off and looked at it.
The surface on the dough was completely white - his sketches preserved on it.
While a thin layer of chocolate was left sitting pretty on the surface of the page.
Kokonotsu took in the material before him with surprise, but that wasn't enough to miss the tapping he heard towards his window.
The young man turned towards it.
His window slid open, letting Hotaru just duck into his room. Upon landing, she threw out her arms to the side like a gymnast. The strange girl gave him a bow with an easy going smile on her face.
"Mister Shikada said you were good." She said. "Didn't take you long to figure it out."
Sancho crawled out of a large pocket sewn onto her skirt, scrambling up towards his seat on her shoulder.
For a second, he didn't look like he was going to say anything, but Hotaru gave him a patient look.
Sancho looked off to the side and then back at Kokonotsu.
"Hey," He said. "Sorry for being an ass."
"That's fine." Kokonotsu said, wanting bygones to be bygones - but then did a double take. "Hey! What are you two doing here?!"
Hotaru played with her skirt.
"Is it not okay?" She asked, looking troubled.
He realized he was in his bedroom with a cute looking girl.
Kokonotsu nervously tried to look away from her pout.
"Y-yes!" He shored up his defenses. "You're the one that wants to buy us out, right?!"
"Uh, no."
The young man audibly deflated.
"What?" He asked.
Hotaru shook her head, smiling at him.
"The world needs more Dagashi." She chided. "Why would I take it away from any children?"
"T-then...?" He started to ask.
Hotaru swayed towards him lackadaiscally.
"I want your father to join mine at our candy company." She announced.
On the other hand, Konotsu tensed up as the young woman drew closer.
"Didn't you just say you didn't want to shut us down?!" He blurted, throwing his fists to his sides.
Hotaru leaned back, covering her mouth.
"Huh?" Sancho blinked. "Didn't your father tell you?"
Kokonotsu clenched his fists, preparing himself.
"About what?"
His door practically burst off its hinges, with his father strutting through with his arms splayed apart and a grin on his face.
"Did you manage to convince Coco to take over the shop yet, lil' Hotaru?" He asked.
Kokonotsu looked at the group: Hotaru, who had the decency to looked embarrassed; Sancho, who simply looked like he was rubbing a headache away; and finally his father.
Who was holding a suitcase.
"You fool!" Kokonotsu howled.
The playdough slammed into his father's face, knocking him down and letting Kokonotsu rush past the older man towards the exit.
"W-wait!" Hotaru yelped, plucking Sancho off her shoulder and dropping him onto Yō's stomach with his marching orders. "Make sure Mister Shikada is alright."
"Aye."
Hotaru dashed away after Kokonotsu, leaving Yō and Sancho in the room before too long. The tiny man reached up to the ball that had plastered itself tightly agaisnt Yō's head. It was quite difficult peeling it off, but Sancho managed it with a little elbow grease.
"You're awful." Sancho proclaimed.
Yō stared up at the ceiling.
"Why do you say that?"
"Dough don't lie." He pointed at it.
A fairly calculating look was imprinted on it.
The night life was catatonic in their town despite the many attempts from his peers. Most people ran to the nearby cities and simply snuck back home after curfew. Many of the adults didn't particularly mind, most of them remembering their own adventures back when they were young.
This worked out in Kokonotsu's favor - it let him stew.
The quiet streets blended together as he ran his anger away, letting the burn seep out of his brain and pour into his limbs. He eventually got tired after seeing the same mail box the fourth time. Afraid that he'd get undue attention, he started widening the scope of his venting, heading further away from home. He considered a brief detour, Saya and To were both smarter than him - they could tell him what to do.
Saya might even let him stay overnight and think, she was sweet like that.
To would be laughing at him if he had heard the admission.
Kokonotsu looked up the hill that went to the twin's shop and home, and decided to walk away.
There was really only one place he could go.
"Kokonotsu!" He heard a call in the distance.
Damn, that girl had a set of legs on her.
Kokonotsu turned down an alley and vanished into the shadows, just barely avoiding running across Hotaru.
Sweat ran in rivulets down his back as he approached the wooden bridge. It used to see a lot of traffic coming and going from the big city. At least until the fancy new highway was made a couple years back.
It was pretty worthless to the town now.
But to him?
Never, never worthless.
Kokonotsu found his hand rising as he approached, a babbling brook lapping at the stones beneath the man made edifice.
A weird desire bubbled up deep within his gut. How are you, have you been doing alright, and other nonsense came to mind. He didn't want to vocalize his thoughts, put power to words and questions he really didn't want to know the answers to right now.
She wasn't here to answer them, so it really didn't matter what questions he had.
Kokonotsu sighed as he pressed up against the railing. His hands felt along the weather worn surface. Felt along familiar swirls in the wood. He had once heard that you could tell how old a tree was from the rings in the bark - so, could you tell how old a bridge was from how much of the stuff beneath the varnish you could feel?
He leaned against the bridge and looked back the way he came.
His town was nothing but glimmers of light. It was hard to feel anything when something was reduced to just distant scenery. He wondered if his father felt this way when he agreed to that girl's request.
But...
This was where he had promised-
The bushes nearby rustled.
His body tensed up, ready to run.
"Who's out there?" He demanded. "I've got a defense baton and I know how to use i-"
"Woah, woah, it's me!" Hotaru popped out of cover, hands held high overhead.
"Oh." He deflated, and mean spiritedly started reaching for his hip anyway.
"D-don't joke like that!" She whined.
"Eh." Kokonotsu turned back towards the brook beneath the bridge.
Hotaru lowered her arms with a sigh of relief.
"You're pretty fast." He said. "Guess I wasn't able to cover my trail."
Hotaru flexed her arm.
"I do radio calisthenics everyday." She stretched from side to side.
"Mmm."
Hotaru's smile faded away as she took in his listless gaze.
"That's not how it was supposed to go." She told him, staying off the bridge. "Both times - I mean. I guess, I wanted it to go that way, but not this way. I wanted to just talk to you and-"
Kokonotsu looked back at her with a patient gaze.
"Ah," Hotaru stopped, turning a little pink at the edges of her ears. "I... Mister Shikada, your father, he's one of the best. If he joined us, we could do so much more..."
"Was." The young man countered. "That's why you came? To buy us out?"
Hotaru's hands uneasily played with her skirt.
"No, I already said that isn't how it'd be." She shook her head. "I want you to take over the shop; Mister Shikada could go with me, and th..."
"Right," He smiled. "And where does what I want come into this picture?"
Hotaru came up short with words.
"I want to be a mangaka." He said. "If my father leaves, that's it, we're done."
Hotaru's mouth fell agape.
"...what's with that reaction?!" He demanded.
Did she really think he was going to accept just like that?!
"B-but, you instinctively knew how to prepare chocodough!" She stammered, pointing at him over and over again, as if that was going to make her point anymore compelling.
Like 'you break it, you bought it' sort of flailing.
"That doesn't prove anything!" Kokonotsu blurted, stunned that such a low bar of entry was being applied towards his future careers. "Don't arbitrarily set up dumb tests!"
"It's not dumb!" She exclaimed. "Our testers couldn't do it at first!"
Hotaru hopped forwards.
"That's because they're dumb kids!" He retorted.
Kokonotsu spun towards her.
"They were thirty years old!" She triumphantly countered.
Both parties stepped apart, overwhelmed for various reasons.
Kokonotsu stared up at the sky.
"Seriously, it was a stupid test." He said.
Hotaru gasped for breath, fanning her face.
"Oh, that's right." Hotaru held up a bag with a colorful set of grapes on it. Only the word premium could be seen on it. She shook the bag towards him. "Want one?"
"Why do you have those?" He snapped. "We're just childr...en."
Hotaru had a grin as she approached.
The package really was a small bag of grapes.
"It isn't haichu." She said, tugging the bag open, reaching in, and pulling out a grape. "Good work for your mind to shoot there."
"That..."
"You looked happy." She interrupted him. "When you were playing with the chocodough."
Kokonotsu closed his mouth, looking away as she offered him a piece of fruit.
"Dagashi are dumb." He shook his head. "They just take time away from more important things."
From working on his manga, Hotaru rightly assumed.
"Can't you do both?" She wondered. "If it doesn't work out-"
"No." He cut her off then and there. "It'll work."
Well, okay, that was the wrong way of doing it.
"I'm done for the night." Kokonotsu decided, sighing and rubbing the bridge of his head above his eyebrows. "Sorry, but I'm heading out now."
He didn't want to emotionally explode in front of the girl, despite being the cause of all of this. The young man walked towards Hotaru, expecting her to step aside for him, but he came up short when she shook her head. A dire emotion started to bubble in the depths of his heart, seemingly boiling up from the bottom of his stomach upwards, but she surprised him again by thrusting a hand into another portion of her skirt.
"What?" He asked.
How many pockets did she have?
"It's dark." She pulled out a clear package. It had some kind of black band around it, and objects drawn on it, but it was too dark to distinguish them. She undid the band and flipped the package open. When she saw the lost expression on his face, she explained. "We've been out here for more than an hour now. I got something to light up the way. Don't wanna trip, right?"
Had she been waiting out here with him?
"Uh, thanks." Kokonostsu mumbled.
Hotaru smiled at him, but simply kept fiddling with the case. She pulled out a set of small oblong shaped objects out of the case. They sort of looked like little light bulbs. Then, to his great surprise, she upended them and let them spill towards the ground. He instinctively jerked to catch them; his mind's earlier association made him think about the mess they were going to make if they broke, but he was surprised as they lit up in front of his nose. He let out a gasp of surprise when they floated out of the way of his attempted rescue.
The six little objects were floating around him. They weaved and danced through the air, always returning to each other. Each seemed to glow, bright enough to ward off the darkness a little, but once gathered together became a respectable source of light.
One of them landed on the tip of his outstretched finger for a moment. Closer inspection showed that it was still the same thing as before. It didn't have any sort of mechanic to it, did it? The light bulb took flight again, leaving a trail of glittering powder in its wake.
It looked like sugar.
Kokonotsu licked his finger, and stuck his tongue out with a shudder.
Spicy.
His dad did say she wa better, but...
Hotaru was in the midst of opening three more cases, lighting up the night.
"Oops," Hotaru's eyes twinkled in the light. "Surprised ya, huh?"
She started walking down the path, swinging her arms from to side.
Kokonotsu started jogging after Hotaru.
"What is this?" He had to know. "My dad needed machines to do this sort of thing!"
Hotaru covered her lips with her hand, and said nothing as she kept walking ahead.
"Hey!" He yelped, "Wait up!"
She never did tell him.
The following morning, Kokonotsu stumbled out of his room with a serious case of bedhead, and such a startling lack of energy that he stumbled over the throw in the bathroom while getting ready. Normally, this was the part of the day that his dad would jump him, bursting through the bathroom to give him a bear hug and start to throttle him lovingly. Oddly, it never came this morning, and a very disturbed young man came out of the bathroom.
He crept over to his dad's room.
It was unlocked like always.
A discretionary look into his dad's room showed it was empty, futon folded. His dad must have gotten an especially early morning start - the laundry was already hanging from the line on the balcony. The rest of the room was spic and span with all the drawers pushed in just right and every door shut, offending Kokonotsu on a profoundly deep level.
Kokonotsu walked inside, picked up one of the pens from a cup on his dad's desk, and calmly set it down on the ground before leaving.
Then he stopped.
He returned to the pen, turned it at about a forty five degree angle, and then left the room.
Once downstairs, he heard music drifting from the front, and he blinked as he saw a figure bouncing up and down through the door.
"No way." He said.
Kokonotsu ran around the counter and out the front door.
Upbeat music was burbling from a radio on one of the stools from their kitchen, attended to by a little green man wearing shades and had strings of gold off his overalls.
"'sup?" Sancho flashed him some sort of sign with his hands.
Kokonotsu awkwardly answered the alien signal with the only thing he knew.
"Lame." Sancho judged his ninja sign. "They'd eat you alive on the West Coast."
"Ah, morning my wonderful son!" Yō waved while doing jumping jacks in a jersey and sweatpants. "You ready for another wonderful day of selling Dagashi?!"
"Explain?!" Kokonotsu held his hands outs.
Yō sighed.
Hotaru stopped her exercises and walked towards Kokonotsu. She was wearing exercise shorts and a t-shi- Wait, did she always carry *those*?
"Good morning, Kokonotsu!" She said, stretching from side to side. "I hope you're feeling better today."
"Uh, morning." He dully responded. "Kinda?"
"Why nothing for me?!" Yō's complaint went unheard. "I'm a person too!"
Shut up dad, cute girl talking.
"You seem to be set in your decision." Hotaru told him, lips curled downwards in disappointment. "I could accept that, people should choose what they want to do, and forcing you to change isn't nice."
"Uh, well, okay then."
She walked past the young man and pulled out a pair of bottles from a cooler sitting on another stool.
"But," She handed one of them to him. "There's a problem here."
He blinked at her.
"You seem to be under the belief that Dagashi aren't fun."
She tapped her bottle against his.
"I'm going to correct that."
There was a challenge in her eyes.
Kokonotsu looked from his bottle to the flushed young woman that was staring him in the eyes, and he couldn't help but feel like answering her in kind.
"Not for all the candy in the world." He smiled.