"It's Octoooberrr!" Mari jumped out from behind a tree, making both Dia and Kanan jump. In her hands was a small jack-o-lantern with a grin to match her own. "Don't you just love that crisp fall air?"
"Honestly, Mari!" Dia scolded, trying to pretend that Mari hadn't spooked her. "It's been October for nearly two weeks now. You have to stop with this, this... trickery!"
"Aw Dia, she's just having fun." Kanan tried to play peacemaker, though she too was getting a bit tired of having Mari jump out from behind random things and scare them. How did she even hide herself without either of them knowing?
"Exactly!" She set the pumpkin down on the ground and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. "And in honor of this lovely weather, the fall festival will begin tomorrow! You both will be there of course, right? Everybody who's anybody will be there."
"We have a fall festival every year, Mari. Regardless of the weather." Dia shrugged Mari's hand off and bent over to pick up the pumpkin, looking at its facial design curiously. "But yes, we'll be there, of course. Should I even assume that you've told Riko about it?" Unlike the rest of Aqours, Riko hadn't lived there for most - or all - of her life, so she might be out of the loop.
"Of course!" Mari scoffed, as if it was unbelievable that anyone would think she didn't do something that important. "Well, okay, I didn't do it personally, but I told Chika to do it. That's just as good, isn't it?" Dia sighed, but she did have a point. As far as any of them could tell, Chika was Riko's best friend, and they lived next door to each other. She was the perfect messenger.
"Well, I guess. As long as she knows." She wondered if Chika knew how lucky she was. Living next to Riko must've been quite the treat. Though it wasn't something she readily shared with anyone, she liked Riko quite a bit. She was a quiet, respectable girl, and the two of them got along really well. Due to their friend circles and the fact that they weren't in the same grade, they didn't get to hang out together too much. Plus, they weren't in the same subunit. If only she could've saved Riko from the disaster that was Mari and Yoshiko together.
"Hmm? Diaaa? You're spacing out!" Mari snapped her fingers in front of Dia's face, breaking her out of her thoughts. "What were you thinking of, Dia? Something steamy, perhaps?" That made Dia blush, but she wasn't going to let Mari get the best of her this time.
"As a matter of fact, I was thinking of having you be the person who gets dunked whenever someone hits the switch with a ball." Kanan giggled at that, while Mari pouted.
"Aww, Dia's so mean!"
For such a small town, they had a rather impressive fall festival. Mostly it was because they happened to have two rich families who were willing to chip in, plus some very eager child laborers (AKA the students). Everything had been set up in time for a fine October evening, and somehow Mari had wormed herself out of being the dunk girl. Instead, she was standing in front of an impressive-looking corn maze, with Dia and Kanan on opposite sides of her.
"Doesn't this look spooky and shiny, gals? I designed the routes myself!" She looked rather proud of herself, and Dia and Kanan had to admit that it did look pretty great. "So who wants to race me in it?"
"Mari, you designed the maze yourself. If we raced you, we'd lose." Dia rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. "I'm not wasting my time on that."
"Aw man... Now I wish I had amnesia." Mari began to pout, but then a new idea formed in her mind, and she jumped right back to being cheerful again. "Oh! You and Kanan should race! Whoever wins gets... whatever prize I win at the horse racing booth! How about it?" Dia wanted to point out that Mari could just buy the entire booth, but Kanan agreed before she could get a word in edgewise.
"That sounds like fun! I bet I can get out way before you, Dia." Kanan smirked as Dia visibly twitched. So, it was a challenge, was it? Well, a Kurosawa never backed down from a challenge.
"You're on, Matsuura! Prepare to lose." Clapping with joy, Mari guided the two of them to the start of the maze, where she had them stand side by side. There would be enough room for the two of them to run in at the same time.
"Alright! Now, on my mark. Three... two... one... go!" Both Dia and Kanan sprinted into the maze, keeping pace with each other at first. However, it didn't take long for Kanan to overtake Dia, due to her impressive stamina. That was something Dia had known going into the race, but she just wasn't able to back down from a challenge. If she kept following Kanan, she would surely lose. So she would need to take a different path.
There was a path that split into three other directions up ahead, and Kanan went to the left without pause. Well, that just meant Dia couldn't hesitate either, so she took the right one. Hopefully this would be the real path, and she could prove that she was the best at getting through corn mazes. It didn't sound so impressive in her head.
She wasn't sure what time it was as she kept running, until exhaustion started to get the better of her and she began to walk. It seemed that every step she took now led her into a dead end. She would go another way, only to reach an impassible wall. Had she already gone that way? Everything looked the same. Stupid maze! It was beginning to remind her of Tokyo all over again.
Dia whimpered softly, backing away from the latest dead end, only to bump into another wall. Yelping, she whipped around and ended up falling on her back. Looking up, she realized how dark the sky was getting. Somehow the sun had begun to set without her knowledge. She must've been very focused on the task at hand, or she had forgotten how late it really was when they started. Either way, something she didn't want to admit was becoming a stronger thought in her mind: she was lost.
Not willing to admit defeat, Dia stood back up and ran again, trying to find someplace that didn't seem familiar. However, every place looked the exact same. Her brain was on overdrive, unable to discern specific patterns that might tell the differing locations apart. After running into yet another dead end, she fell to her knees, whimpering softly. She really was lost.
Tears began to fall down her cheeks as her mind was flooded with unhappy memories of being lost in Tokyo. It had been the scariest time of her life, and even imagining getting lost like that again made her feel nervous. Now that she really was lost again, her reasonable thoughts weren't able to pierce the veil of fear that had shrouded her mind. There was no room for proper thinking: there was only time to cry. So cry she did.
She fell onto her side and pulled her legs close to her, sobbing pitifully. It was embarrassing, but at least no one was there to witness her breaking down. Though, without anyone there, they wouldn't know where she was, and they wouldn't come and help her. Kanan and Mari would know though, right? Maybe they didn't know. What if Kanan was lost too? Or if she had escaped, and they went to get that prize, never knowing that she was still in the maze? What if she was trapped in there forever? Tears began to spill anew as she shivered, shutting her eyes and wishing that she could somehow escape from this stupid prison.
"Help me..."
Riko sighed as she watched Chika try to knock over milk jugs with a baseball for the third time. She had a feeling that the game was rigged, but mentioning it twice hadn't deterred Chika in the slightest. Maybe she wasn't listening. It wouldn't be the first time that was the case. Secretly, she was relieved when she heard her name called. It at least meant that something different was going to happen. Although she didn't like the somewhat worried looks on Kanan and Mari's faces as they approached.
"Chika, Riko! Have either of you seen Dia?" Riko just blinked at Kanan's question. Surely out of all of them, they would know where Dia was, right? She had seen them walking together in a different direction. Maybe she had just wanted to see where Dia was going, but the two other third years were there too, so she had made a mental note of that.
"Nope!" Chika slung her final ball, nearly taking out the game runner's head on accident before turning to the third years. "Why? I thought you three were walking around together."
"We were, but then Dia and Kanan had a race in the corn maze. Kanan came out, and we went to go play the horse racing game." Mari frowned, looking guilty about the whole thing. "We thought that Dia would come out afterwards, and we'd tease her for a little bit, but we never saw her come out." Kanan looked worried too, but Mari looked particularly upset about it. It must've been her idea to do the race. "Are you sure you haven't seen her?"
"Sorry Mari, we haven't seen her since the fair started." Chika smiled sheepishly, but there was a hint of worry in her eyes as well. Riko didn't say anything, trying to wrack her brain for where Dia could've gone. Maybe she was still in the maze. Those were sometimes tough to get out, since there were so many dead ends... Her eyes widened as she thought about Dia being lost in all those dead ends. It would be just like... Tokyo, wouldn't it? She paled noticeably, having an unpleasant idea about what had happened.
"Why don't we try asking Ru- Riko?" The three girls turned to find Riko sprinting away from them. They yelled at her, but she ignored them, fumbling in her pocket for her phone as she kept running. She couldn't be a hundred percent positive, but she had an idea of what happened with Dia, and she felt like she couldn't just stand there and do nothing. There had to be something she could do, so she tried calling Dia.
After three rings, Riko was worried that Dia wouldn't pick up. Whether it was because she had left her phone somewhere, or something else had happened, she wasn't sure. There weren't many appealing thoughts behind that to be honest, so she was very much relieved when Dia answered on the fourth ring. "H-Hello?"
"Dia, it's Riko! Where are you?" She was standing outside the maze, the sun nearly completely set. Surely Dia had to be in there still.
"I-I'm in the corn maze." It sounded like Dia was trying and failing to maintain her cool, calm facade. Riko could hear what sounded like muffled crying though, and it stung at her heart. Without really thinking about it, she ran into the maze. "I, uh... R-Riko, I'm lost..." Exactly as she had feared.
"It's okay, Dia. Don't worry, I'm going to find you." She didn't really have a plan besides running in recklessly. Hearing Dia sound so vulnerable made her feet move automatically. There was no way she would stop until she could get Dia out of there. "I guess it's like Tokyo, isn't it?"
"I-It's darker than Tokyo," Dia admitted. Riko's heart twisted at how scared Dia sounded. It was going to be fine, though. She would find her for sure. All she needed to do was calm Dia down a bit while she tried to find her.
"Hey Dia, do you remember which directions you went when you came into the maze?"
"Uh, I... went straight for a couple passes, and then I went right... I just wanted to take a different path from Kanan." She didn't sound sure of herself after that, having trouble recalling which directions she took. "I-I don't know, Riko..."
"Okay, okay..." Riko stopped running, biting her lower lip nervously. With little idea of which way Dia took, she was liable to just get herself lost as well. She needed to come up with a better idea. "Hey Dia, do you think you can sing Aozora Jumping Heart with me?"
"Wh-What? Why?"
"Well, since I don't know where you are in here, if you sing loud enough, maybe I'll be able to help you." She knew that Dia probably wasn't in the best state to sing, but she just hoped that something familiar would help calm her down. Plus, it would be easier to hear her. "I'll sing with you, okay?" It took a couple moments, but finally Dia acquiesced.
"O-Okay..." At first, Dia's voice was timid, a far cry from how she usually sang. There'd be no way her voice would carry through the maze like that. Despite that, Riko started to sing with her, hoping that having someone else doing it would help her open up a bit more. Thankfully it did, and soon enough Dia was singing through her tears, loud enough that Riko felt she'd have better luck now. Still singing along, she pulled the phone away from her ear and began to run.
At first, there wasn't anything to be heard outside of the noises coming from the phone. Soon enough though, she could hear faint singing coming from the maze. Encouraged, Riko hurried through the maze, singing and getting past dead ends to find Dia. The singing was getting louder, and she was getting more encouraged that she would soon find Dia.
Another dead end, but it sounded like the singing was coming from just behind the maze wall. The song was coming to an end, but as the final notes were sang, Riko burst into the opposite dead end. Dia was standing there, finishing singing. "Dia!" Turning around, Dia's eyes were shining with tears through the oncoming darkness. She ran over and hugged Riko tightly, nearly knocking both of them over.
"You found me," she whimpered out, relief evident all over her face. Riko smiled and nodded, gently rubbing Dia's back. It had been stupid of her to run in there without a plan, but Riko knew how Dia felt about being lost. She just couldn't sit around and do nothing, and by some miracle she had ended up finding her. How lucky was that? Now... How were they supposed to get out?
"Oh jeez..." Riko muttered, tightening her own grip on Dia. She had found Dia, but now they both were lost. Maybe she could find the way that she came from, but it was completely dark now. Every path was blacked out, and the walls looked intimidating with only the pale light of the moon illuminating them. Yup, she was pretty dumb. What were they going to do now? She considered who to call to get them out of this mess, when a whirring sound reached her ears. "Huh?"
Looking up, she yelped as the darkened visage of a helicopter flew overhead. A light shined down from it, so bright that Riko had to cover her eyes. She didn't need to look up to see who it was, though. Who else had a helicopter that they just flew around the town willy-nilly? "Rikooo! Diaaa!" Barely heard over the loud din of the helicopter blades was a very familiar voice...
"... Why didn't I think of that?" Riko sighed and slumped her shoulders. Of course she would take the path of most resistance. If only she hadn't ran off like an idiot trying to save Dia without a plan. At least they wouldn't be stuck there for the night. Dia let go of her and they both waited for a ladder to be rolled down. Both of them grabbed it and climbed one after the other into the helicopter, which then flew towards the closest proper landing spot.
"Wow, so exciting!" Mari squealed, only to back up when fixed with an angry glare from Dia. "Ahaha, is that any way to treat your savior, Dia?"
"If you breathe a word of this to anyone, and I mean anyone, I will personally see to it that this helicopter's next trip will be to Abu Dhabi. With you in it." Neither Riko nor Mari were sure if Dia was serious, but neither of them were willing to risk that. Not a word would be spoken about this to anyone. "If anyone asks, I was on the beach. Got it?" They nodded again. Not that they were sure that anyone would believe it, especially with the spectacle Mari made, but Dia went through quite the ordeal. She could at least keep her pride for now.
When they landed, the three of them began walking back to the festival. It was late, but there was still the fireworks left to ignite. Lagging behind Mari, Dia looked over at Riko and smiled softly. "That was very brave of you to come in to find me, Riko. I... I appreciate what you did. Hearing you singing with me was comforting." Riko couldn't help but beam, feeling warm all over from getting Dia's praise.
"I-I just know that you went through that before, and I wanted to, you know... come save you." She smiled guiltily. "I should've come up with a better plan, though." She didn't know whether or not Dia would agree with her, but she did not expect to feel a pair of warm lips pressing themselves on her cheek. Her feet stopped moving completely, her hand gently raising to her cheek as if to get touch confirmation that that had just happened.
"We got out though, right?" Dia had stopped too, still smiling, though even in the dark Riko could tell her cheeks were a bit pink. Though they probably weren't nearly as warm as her own. "I hope that you'll accept something from me in return. Dinner, if... if that would be alright with you?" Was Dia asking her out on a date? No way. Okay, yes way. Holy crap! She didn't trust herself to say anything intelligible, so she just nodded her head furiously. That was an obvious yes, and it made Dia smile brighter as she briefly took Riko's hand in her own. "It's a date then."
With that smile now burned into Riko's memory, Dia began to walk again, swiftly catching up to Mari. Riko stood frozen for another moment, then realized she was getting left behind. "W-Wait!" She yelped and rushed to catch up with the two third years, but her mind was now on another planet. A date... with Dia? That was worth running into a corn maze for. Maybe they should add hint arrows next time, though.