Cherry Blossom Festival Date
The splashing of rain against the window was the sound which followed Shizuka throughout the whole day and made her depressed. It was the last day of the Golden Week and the cherry blossom festival should be taking place at the weekend but if it will keep raining like this the festival will be canceled even though Shizuka was really looking forwards to it.
After all it would be the first time to go to one after not going for several years – she had been too concentrated on her training to go to festivals.
"You should stop making such a face." Kisuke said without even looking at her, he was fully concentrating on his invention sitting with his back turned to Shizuka who sat with an English book next to the window in his laboratory and watched outside from time to time to hope that the clouds would disappear soon.
"But if the rain will keep falling the festival will get canceled." She sighed heavily and hid her face behind her book. Actually she had hoped to see Ichigo at the festival although he hadn't told her if he would come to the festival.
Lately she thought more about Ichigo and wondered why her heart was thumping a bit faster when she was thinking about him but she had also stopped seeing him as baby Itchy but instead only focused on remembering Ichigo looking down at her when she woke up after sleeping next to him on that bench which often made her face grow hot.
"I know you only wanted an excuse to see Kurosaki-san." Kisuke said but Shizuka tried to ignore him. Since ever she returned from the summer camp Kisuke has the opinion that she had changed and only talks about Ichigo – which wasn't even true – but she knew exactly that he only wants to tease her.
"Stop teasing me. How many times do I have to tell you that he's only a friend."
"From your reaction when you get a message from him I can judge what he's to you." Kisuke chuckled and turned his head slightly to her, smirking teasingly but Shizuka only snorted with an annoyed expression. She then stuck out her tongue to him and instead decided to concentrate on her book although she could feel Kisuke still trying to make fun of her even when she ignores him.
After a while she heard how the rain stopped and turned her head to the window, noticing the sun shining through the clouds which slowly lifted and her face brightened.
"The sky's clearing." Shizuka said and closed her book as she stood up and went over to her room instead of listening to her father's teasing.
As soon as she walked into her room and slid the shoji door back she heard her cell phone vibrating and walked over to her desk to take a look.
"Since the rain stopped the festival will probably take place. I'm not in the mood to go with my sisters and father, so wanna go together to the festival?" She read out aloud and noticed how her heart skipped a beat thinking about spending time with him and wondered if this was what people call a date. Thinking about this made her slip out a squeal and pressed her hands to her cheeks.
She really has no idea why she was reacting like that but was happy to be able to do something together with Ichigo after not being able to see him since they returned from their little vacation though it was barely two days ago.
She then wondered whether she should wear a yukata as it was common sense to wear one during a festival but still wasn't sure if she really should. She just had an old one which Kisuke once gave her around ten years ago.
"Ah, it's better having one than having none." She said as she checked on it and wrote Ichigo when they should meet up. He asked her if tomorrow would be good and Shizuka instantly replied, telling him it was all right.
"Great. Let's meet up tomorrow at 7 pm." Shizuka read out loud and smiled when thinking about spending time with him. She was really surprised that he wanted to go with her to the festival though but still happy that he asked. Otherwise she would have ended up with Kisuke going with her. She has nothing against him but since Kisuke was always hunting sweets it was really tiresome to go with him.
Clasping her cell phone in her hands she pressed them against her chest, looking forward to meet with Ichigo.
Somehow she managed it to put the hair ornament into her hair although it was really difficult to move in a yukata. She hadn't wore one for ages, after all. When she was younger it was normal to wear traditional Japanese clothes but meanwhile it has all became quite westernized after those wars.
"Done." She then said and looked at herself in the mirror. She had tried to wear something nice but somehow she felt that it was exaggerated to wear those things when going to the festival with Ichigo, her friend.
She then put on some Zori and went out of her room, ignoring Kisuke's teasing as she left the shop with flushed cheeks. Shizuka had asked Ichigo to wait at the gate of the shrine where the festival will be held so she hurried over to the shrine so Ichigo wouldn't need to wait so long for her although she had the feeling that she was the one leaving too early but she hates it letting people wait for her.
Soon she reached the gate of the shrine but Ichigo still wasn't here. Sighing she leaned against the stake of the gate and looked over to the festival. There were quite a lot of booths offering a lot of things and she spotted many young and old couples, some of them taking carrying small children in their arms or holding their hands but there were also many children which had came here without parents or just friends who decided to meet up here. Many of them were watching the cherry blossom trees which encompassed the shrine site and were the reason why the festival was taking place.
"Hey."
Shizuka jumped when she heard a voice next to her and looked around only to realize that it was Ichigo who talked to her. Looking around to him she noticed that Ichigo wasn't really looking at her, he rather looked away shyly, his ears reddened and scratching his neck.
"There you are." She said and smiled when she noticed that he seemed to be pretty flustered when he took a closer look at her.
"Sorry for running late. I was held back by my sisters." He replied but then changed from looking flustered to happy that she was here and smiled. "Wanna go?"
"Sure."
The two of them then left the entrance and walked onto the festival grounds, taking a look around. Shizuka was eagerly looking around the festival grounds and she smiled.
"Do you want to do something specific?" Ichigo then asked but Shizuka only shook her head.
"Not really. I haven't visited a festival for a long time so I don't really know what to do here."
"Then let's go, I'll show you around." Ichigo held out his hand to her with a smile and without even thinking about it Shizuka placed her hand in his though her heart jumped at the feeling of his long slender fingers clasping around her hand and pulling her deeper into the festival site although at some point they had to walk extremely close to each other because it was really packed her but Ichigo still lead her first to a booth which was offering grilled fish in a crust of salt.
"It looks really delicious." Shizuka muttered. She hadn't ate anything since the breakfast as she was too excited to go to the festival with Ichigo.
"All right, wait a moment then." Ichigo said and when Shizuka looked over to him she noticed that he bought two of them for them even though she was against it but Ichigo still handed her the fish though she pouted.
"Stop looking like that, eat." Ichigo said as he ate his share of the fish but Shizuka still pouted while eating the fish even though it was really delicious.
"By the way, why didn't you wanted to go to this festival with your family?" She asked after they ate the fish and threw away the sticks.
"Because of my father. He's annoying me lately." Ichigo only replied with a long sigh as he then took hold of her hand and Shizuka wondered why he looked so casually whenever he was reaching out to hold her hand.
"You told me a lot of times that he annoys you." She replied. "When does he not annoy you?"
"When he's acting like a normal adult instead of a little child." Ichigo said as he lead Shizuka over to a booth which was selling cotton candy. "Do you want some?"
Ichigo pointed at the colorful cotton candy the clerk handed a little girl and nodded, she hadn't tasted any cotton candy for a long time. Ichigo was about to go and buy her some but she stopped him fast enough by grabbing her hand.
"Stop, I can buy myself some." She said but Ichigo shook his head, gently pulling her hand off his.
"I asked you out so stop complaining, I'm gonna buy myself some, too." He replied and headed towards the clerk while Shizuka only stood there, sighing.
She hadn't expected him to treat her for everything but she felt her heart leaping faster in her chest, pressing her hands against the bouncy flesh.
"Heey!" She then heard someone shouting and looked around, Keigo was running up to her and Mizuiro followed him. "Shizuka-san! Nice to see you here, too."
"Haven't expected you to show up here, too." She replied as also Mizuiro looked up to her, his eyes widen when he noticed that she was wearing a kimono.
"You look really nice in that kimono. Your princess-like aura is stronger than usually." Mizuiro chuckled and Shizuka furrowed her brows out of surprise.
"Princess-like aura?" She muttered irritated, many people she had met before told her that she behaves like royalty though she was never taught to behave like that, she did it naturally without realizing how she was behaving.
"Here." Ichigo then returned and handed Shizuka her cotton candy, taking a look over to his two friends who were looking quite shocked.
"You two have a date?" Keigo asked while Ichigo only shrugged as he ate a piece of his own cotton candy.
"Something like that. You two came over here like usually, huh?" He asked and Shizuka wondered what he meant with usually as she plucked some of the cotton candy and stuffed it into her mouth.
"We just happened to meet each other here." Mizuiro replied and then grabbed Keigo's shirt, pulling him away although the latter complained but the shorter boy still dragged him away. "No one should interrupt anyone's date, come on."
Shizuka and Ichigo watched them disappear but then chuckled as they made their way down the overcrowded street, buying some more food only available during a festival and they soon came across fish catching.
"Ooh, I haven't played this one for years." Shizuka shouted excited and pressed her hands against her cheeks as she saw the fish swimming around in the fish tank.
"Wanna have a go?" The clerk asked and Shizuka nodded, she gave him some yen coins and grabbed the paper net. She then knelt down in front of the fish tank and Ichigo also crouched down next to her, helping her catch the fish but as Shizuka was about to finally catch the fish the net teared and she sighed defeated.
"Ah, what a pity. I'm never going to catch one of those." She muttered but then felt someone patting her head and looked up, noticing that it was Ichigo.
"There's always a next time. Do you want to try again?"
"No, I don't want to lose all my money for just one game, there are plenty other here. Let's try another one." She straightened herself and pointed with a simple nod to the stand where one could threw tennis balls at cans. "Do you want to try it out, too?"
"Sure. Let's go."
They then walked over to the stand and made a competition out of this though Shizuka felt bad for spending her money on it. In the end she lost and Ichigo won, grinning when he counted all the points together.
"You were quite amazing, you are able to hit the things from far away with such precision." She said dumbfounded, he seemed to have not held back while Shizuka tried to not hit too hard or too precise. She was feeling that it was cheating because she was trained for this.
"That's nothing unusual, I have visited a dojo when I was young and trained my body to get stronger." Ichigo answered and looked over to the prizes. "You can choose one you like most."
"Hm..." Thinking which one she liked most she pressed her index finger to her bottom lip and found then some tickets for a movie she wanted to see for a long time. "This one, the movie tickets."
The clerk handed her the tickets and Shizuka beamed, putting them into the obi of her kimono and Ichigo also smiled when he saw her being happy.
"You seem to be really happy that you got them." He said and she nodded with a happy smile.
"I wanted to see this movie for a long time."
"What kind of movie it is?" Ichigo asked, seemingly taken interest in it.
"It's the premiere for a western thriller drama." She replied and clasped her hands together, smiling brightly. "But these are two tickets, it would be a shame to throw the other one away."
She wondered if she should ask Ichigo to come along and felt her heart jump thinking to go to the cinema with Ichigo and hesitated to ask him, she was too shy to ask him straight out but then looked up to him, realizing he was gone.
"Huh? Kurosaki-kun?" She asked and looked around but couldn't find her classmate anywhere although she concentrated on a person with orange hair. "Where could he go?"
She walked a bit further but then stopped, not knowing where she should search first and was about to search for him by picking out his reiatsu in the atmosphere – until she remembered that he not really possessed a reiatsu. Sighing she walked around and continued searching for Ichigo, being happy that she was taller than other females so she could overlook the crowd a bit.
"Are you lost?" She then heard a voice behind her and looked around, there were two guys with a weird smile on their faces and she raised one eyebrow.
"Not really... it shouldn't be your concern." Shizuka answered and the two young men looked at each other in surprise.
"Dude, what's with that old kind of language?"
"Are you royal or some shit like that?"
"What if I am?" She asked, ignoring the fact that these two were hitting on her and was about to walk away but one of the guys walked around her and stopped her in her tracks.
"Hey, wait a moment. You might be some kind of royal but this doesn't mean you can't hang out with us a little bit."
She was about to reply but then felt a strong tug on her arm and fell against someone's chest, looking up she realized it was Ichigo who pulled her to himself, glaring at the two men.
"Sorry but she's my date." He replied angrily while Shizuka noticed her heart beating faster and she blushed feeling him being so close to her especially when she remembered that he called her his date so she hung her head in embarrassment. The two thugs however stared surprised at Ichigo but their expression turned angry when they looked at Ichigo.
"It's him."
"Yeah... this hair color... Kurosaki!"
Ichigo looked quite perplexed when the two of them seemed to recognize him but he seemed not to recognize them but instead pulled Shizuka behind his back as if he wanted to protect her though she was about to tell him that she could protect herself if anything happens however Ichigo seemed not to react to her pleading.
"Who are you two?"
"What?!"
"How can't you not recognize us?! You have beat up our aniki Yoko-chan!"
Ichigo raised his eyebrows in surprise which seemingly angered the two thugs, they ran up to him to punch the orange haired boy, Shizuka was about to step in between and stop their fists but before she could do it two policemen stepped between them and grabbed hold of the thugs while people around them looked around to them to see what was going on.
"There you two delinquents are! This time you won't escape." The taller policeman said and put handcuffs on their wrists, wiping the sweat from his forehead while the shorter one looked over to Ichigo and Shizuka, smiling at them.
"Are you two all right?"
"Yeah, no harm done." Ichigo replied and nodded, grabbing Shizuka's hand tightly which startled her but she still blushed when turning her head away in embarrassment however she doesn't wanted to let go of his hand so she stayed like that.
"Good, those two had caused some problems here but it's over now. Have fun during the festival." They then frogmarched them off, leaving Shizuka and Ichigo behind.
"W-what..." She muttered surprised but then felt someone pinch her cheek and she squealed, putting her hand on her reddened cheek. "H-hey!"
"That was for suddenly disappearing."
"You were the one to suddenly disappear out of my sight. Besides, why did you pinched me?" She pouted but Ichigo only laughed and patted her head, Shizuka noticed for the first time that he had a different smile on his lips than towards the others.
"No reason." Ichigo said and squeezed her hand, pulling her further. "Now come on, let's go. There's sill some things we can take a look at."
It was as if he was trying to run from an awkward conversation but Shizuka still let him drag her around the festival grounds until they reached the offertory box where a few girls were standing and praying for something.
"Wanna leave a prayer?" Ichigo asked as Shizuka was looking over to them and she nodded. Whenever she had been on a festival Shizuka left behind a prayer for her family and friends to stay healthy and protected. She put 5 yen into the box, clasped her hands together and prayed for her friends and family to stay safe and healthy but noticed that she wanted Ichigo to stay protected the most, wondering if it was because she was concerned that something might happen to him since he's able to see ghosts which means Hollows will attack him sooner or later.
Finished praying she looked over to Ichigo who was still praying and smiled, she could imagine that he was thinking of his mother so she let him alone for a while, staring up to the sky which had already turned dark. Taking a look at her cell phone she noticed that it was already past 8 pm and realized that time has passed quite quickly but then felt a hand on her shoulders and looked around, in Ichigo's face.
"I have finished praying. Let's take a last look around." He said and the two of them bought Takoyaki on their way back home, Ichigo even insisted on bringing Shizuka home though she said that she could find her way home all by herself.
"No way, it's too dark to walk all alone at this time." Ichigo replied as he ate up his last Takoyaki so Shizuka gave up and let him accompany her, wondering why she was feeling glad that she could spend more time with Ichigo. Shizuka then remembered the movie tickets he had won for her and wondered if she should ask him to come along with her, after all it were two movie tickets and actually he had won them.
"Uhm, Kurosaki-kun... about these movie tickets you have given me... do you mind coming with me? After all these are two movie tickets and it would be a waste to use up only one." Shizuka asked and noticed that it sounded much like making up an excuse though Ichigo seemed not to notice it first.
"Which movie is it?"
"It's a horror movie. A group of teenager are stranded on the side of the road and see a house in the cornfield..." She continued to tell him what the trailer had shown and Ichigo scratched his head.
"I wouldn't have thought that you like movies like these." He admitted and she chuckled.
"Well, I actually do love to watch horror movies. But only the ones who were affecting someone psychologically instead of simple slasher movies. Those are getting boring after a while." Shizuka explained.
"Well, it does sound really good. I don't mind." He replied and nodded which made Shizuka happy though she had no idea why. "When is the movie playing?"
"Tomorrow, starting 10 pm." She answered. "It's a bit late, though..."
"I don't mind." Ichigo smirked at her and Shizuka tried not to grin as she felt stupid doing so so she instead bit on the inner of her cheek. She then noticed that they were standing in front of the Urahara Shop, sighing in disappointment that they were going to part but then wondered why she thought like this.
"This is my home." She answered and pointed at the building which seemed to surprise Ichigo.
"Isn't it a bit too small...?" He asked but Shizuka only chuckled as she stroked a few strands of hair out of her face. She was surprised that it was still open at this hour even though Kisuke usually closes the shop once it gets dark.
"Heh, it's actually bigger than it looks like." She told him and then noticed the front door opening, Kisuke stepped out while hiding his lower face behind the fan he was always carrying around.
"I was already wondering if you ever planned to return home." He said and raised his eyebrows as he looked from Shizuka to Ichigo and back.
"Stop exaggerating, Dad. It's not like I ran away from home." She replied and then looked over to Ichigo. "Thank you for spending this day with me."
"No worries, it was fun." He smiled at her. "Well then, see you tomorrow."
"Yes, see you tomorrow."
He waved before turning around and left though Shizuka noticed that she wanted him to stay, furrowing her brows. Looking back at her father she hit his upper arm as he had a teasing smile on his lips.
"Surprising that you have already appointed another date after being on one today." Kisuke noticed but Shizuka only made a grimace before she returned back inside, clasping the tickets to her chest which she would need tomorrow.
Walking to her room she wondered why there were actually tickets for horror movies to win at one of the booths but maybe it was for adults and the man thought they were around eighteen years old. Shrugging she reached her room and could finally took off her yukata as it was difficult to move around in it after a while.
