It was another calm day at Ayakashi-kan. Residents were gathered in the dining hall, Nobara and Renshou playing cards at one table, while Watanuki, Karuta, and Ririchiyo were seated at another. Miketsukami dutifully served Ririchiyo her afternoon tea; she sipped at it daintily while casting a glance towards her schoolmates.
"Holy crap, Karuta," Watanuki commented, watching the pink-haired girl craft a sculpture of sweets in front of her. Ririchiyo's eyes went wide when she saw the monstrosity looming before them.
Layers upon layers of cake were piled on top of each other - all of varying flavors and colors - held together by a cementing of numerous icings, ice creams, caramel, chocolate fudge. Wedged between some of the layers were cookies - wafers, peanut-butter, chocolate chip. Candies stuck out from all cracks and crevices, both sweet and sour, shiny gumdrops and sprinkled sugar sparkling under the ceiling lights. At the very top of the mountain, on each side, was a mound of whipped cream, accented by shredded chocolate, and in the center of it all, two bright maraschino cherries popped out like Christmas lights.
It was gigantic. Massive. Terrifying. It towered at least three feet above Ririchiyo's head, about as tall as Miketsukami stood, and stretched out an arms-length wide across the table. Karuta took a piece of candy paper and carefully bent it into a light curve; she then stood, balancing on the top of her chair, and placed the little paper at the very top of her creation, between the mountains of whipped cream.
Ririchiyo wondered how on Earth she could not have noticed the construction of such a beast right beside her. How did Karuta make the damn thing anyway? It looked terribly unstable.
"Wow, Karuta-chan!" Zange sang from beside an awe-struck Watanuki. "It's a masterpiece!"
Ririchiyo made a small, choked noise from the back of her throat and twitched. Masterpiece? "Monstrosity" was more like it. She tried to tear her gaze away from the God-awful thing, but it kept drawing back her eyes, like a train wreck that she just couldn't look away from. It was very strange, though. The more she looked at it, the more she thought she recognized its shape.
"Does it have a title?" Zange continued, encouraging the madness for nothing more than his own amusement. "What's it called~?"
Ririchiyo swore the monstrosity reminded her of something.
Karuta stepped down from the chair in silence and stared at her creation. "... Watanuki."
"Huh?" Watanuki tore his gaze away from the sugary mess to stare at her. "What is it, Karuta?"
Karuta took a hold of Watanuki and Ririchiyo's hands, pulled them up, and led them away from the table. They followed her in bewilderment - Ririchiyo looked over to Watanuki for a clue as to what was going on, since he knew Karuta and her strange ways best, but he looked just as lost as she. After a few steps, they turned around to face Karuta's creation again. What they saw put them in a state of even greater shock, if at all possible.
When viewed from a distance, Karuta's creation seemed to take on an identifiable shape - a very familiar shape. The mound of cake and icing became a cute, round face; the whipped cream mountains became soft little ears; the cherries became beady little eyes; and at the center was a large purple gumdrop for the nose, black licorice stemmed off it from both sides in a little curve, making the mouth. The green candy paper at the top now revealed itself to be a tiny leaf on top of an adorable little critter's head.
Ririchiyo stared at the colorful, sweet-constructed face of Watanuki's tanuki form, and it stared right back. She knew she had recognized that shape.
"Watanuki," Karuta restated, introducing the title of her masterpiece.
The real Watanuki, standing right beside her, made a small noise in the back of his throat, much like the sound that Ririchiyo had first made, blushed furiously, and collapsed.