I wake up to the clamoring of the crowds growing outside. Pushing up from my chair, I peel back the fluttering curtains and look out onto the bustling school grounds, uniformed students dashing about and preparing whatever club stall they're operating.

Thankfully today is the day of the festival, so I was allowed to sleep in. I shut my window and peel off last night's clothes, putting them in my hamper and slipping on another uniform, running a brush through my hair afterwards.

I step out of my room, pulling at the buttons of my uniform and loosening them. I peek at Kenji's door, figuring him the type to hiss at sunlight and social gatherings, especially ones with school involved.

I quickly make my way up the hallway to avoid contact with the epitome of a socially destructive human being. I pull out my phone and glance through the messages, eventually finding the contact for Naomi. I pull up a texting window, sitting down at the bench below the dorms.

The smell of fresh paint permeates the cool morning air, floating about and tugging at my nostrils.

[Sent:]
(Hey, where should we meet up?)

Naomi replies as I stand from the bench.

[One New Message]
(Naomi: newspaper stand, it's in between the aux and main building. be there in twenty!)

I make my way down the steps and follow the scent of paint, looking at the drying mural. Using the word 'human' loosely, seems to depict people. Melted down and smeared across the wall like refuse. The shapes bend and warp around the wall, coming to sudden halts and unknown twirls. The colors are warm, with odd splashes of cool thrown about.

The entire piece is pretty... interesting. I could never call myself an art critic, but the thing looks great. Couldn't say much more than that.

I turn on my heel, stepping off towards the school building before nearly bumping into a familiar figure.

Rin stands in my path, armless as usual. She glances at my chest, and simply says, "Hi."

I raise a hand to wave, before shoving it back in my pocket and slapping myself internally for the faux paus. I reply with but a simple, "Hi." as well.

"What are you doing?" Rin questions, staring off at the mural. It seems more like she's questioning the mural than me.

"I was, well, looking at the art. Was waiting for the time to pass." An honest reply, but Rin is probably going to find a way to make it confusing too.

"Oh." Not confusing. Just vague. That's fun, "Do you think it is good?" Or not vague. Just questioning.

She shifts her gaze from the mural to my chest again, "I think it looks great, personally."

"Why?" She shifts back to the mural again.

"...Because it just does? It looks good."

"..." She remains wholly silent, before puncturing the silence with her deadpan reply. "Fair enough."

"I've... Got places to be. I'll see you around Rin."

"Will you?" she questions the air, leaning in front of the mural and inspecting it closely.

I make my way towards the main two buildings, spotting Naomi and Natsume under a bench, chatting casually.

When I approach, they both turn and hush their conversation with a few hand gestures and shrugs.

"Hey, when's the track meet happening?"

"In about half an hour, we need to go make sure Ayao didn't burn down the newspaper stand though." Natsume pushes from the bench, grunting and wobbling. Naomi stands up a moment after, dusting off the forest green uniform skirt as she does.

Naomi and Natsume both glance towards the meandering crowds, sigh, and look to me, "Here's the time that we all hate; finding our way to the stall through the crowds. It's lovely." Natsume sighs.

"Probably for the best that we get on our way then." I step to the side, gesturing to the side. "Ladies first," I add as an afterthought, not wanting to take the lead in such an unfamiliar place. Even with a week under my belt, the school grounds are still foreign to me.

Naomi steps forward with a toothy grin, Natsume behind her, complete with agitated groaning with the walking. I follow behind the pair, watching the sights as we walk. They talk to each other, commenting on the individual stalls and on the decoration.

They seem to critique quite a bit, but at least they don't seem too hostile about it; they're just commenting, pointing things out.

We all reach the newspaper stand, nestled in a busy section of the grounds, filled with the high pitched sounds of little games and the succulent scent of fried foods flitting about the air.

A simple wood stand, a boldly designed bit of paper handing from the top of the supports.

Newspapers Here!
Festival Exclusive!

FREE OF CHARGE

Lined up on the top of the stand, are numerous shelves, filled with this issue of the club's paper. Each shelf has a little bar over it to keep the papers from flying off, too.

It fills me with a touch of pride when I glance down at the papers, each one endorsed with my name up in the corner.

Made by: Ayao Yui, Naomi Inoue, Natsume Ooe, and Hisao Nakai.

Even if I didn't do much, it still feels great to know people will see this. I've not done much in this sort of field before. It's really entertaining, in honesty.

Naomi taps me on the shoulder, pointing a thumb towards the watery crowd, all dribbling downstream to some destination.

"The track meet is starting soon, we've got time though. Yuu doesn't go for a while. We may miss Emi's run, but that's not a huge loss~." Naomi sticks her tongue out at me, before leaning back and staring at the sky as she walks.

"Naomi, don't fall or somethin-" She flips out her arm, whipping me across the chest.

"I know what I'm doing Hisao, jeez~!" She starts walking backwards, on top of leaning her head around.

Natsume pulls Naomi's head forwards, "Not in the crowds, stupid."

"..Jeez." She deflates slightly, but recovers upon seeing the track come into view, "Come on, let's go to our spot!"

The pair drag me around the side of the track, past the bleachers and to the edge of the woods around the setup. Seemingly cut out of the edge, is a stump and a surrounding bench, made from a split log.

"We dunno who left this all here, but Natsume and I have been using this for track meets since our 1st year at Yamaku!" Naomi sits down, swiping the flat and mildly crusty log with her hand, before setting her bag down and pulling out a rather large, yet somehow small blanket and laying it across the log.

I take a seat at the edge, putting one foot on the stump and turning towards the track. Not a bad spot, really.

"We eat lunch here sometimes, too. But only when it hits fall and cools down. The bugs come out en masse if we aren't careful. That's why we didn't bring food." Natsume adds, sitting on the outside edge of the stump, crossing her legs and leaning back against it with a grunt.

Naomi takes a seat on the opposite side of the log, glancing at the track. The runners have all lined up, and the referee has the starting gun aimed in the air, poised to fire off.

With the sound of the gun, birds fly from the trees behind us, and, more importantly, the runners take off down the track.

Numerous faces I don't recognize make their way around the corner, bolting at speeds I'll never be able to understand personally. They continue around the track, fighting one another for the lead, until they all cross the finish line; shouting comes from all around the stands and the interior of the field, everyone excited that their favorite team or runner did well. We all three glance to each other, and shrug, "Who was even in that race?"

"Nobody I know." Natsume shrugs. "Or, well, care about."

"Emi was in there, sheesh~!" Naomi bounces her leg up and down, bobbing the whole log violently. The starters take position once more, crouched over the line and ready to fire like springs. This time I do see Yuu in the lineup. When the gun fires, he bounces from the line, uncoiling and lunging across the straight. He takes the lead at first, rounding the first two corners gracefully, without a problem.

When he reaches the third, however, he seems to trip up just slightly, his pace falling out of line. He keeps running, but is passed by a runner from another school, taking quick advantage of the misstep. Yuu crosses the line in at second, staring bullets at the back of the guy who came in first.

He steps off the track and towards our group, hands behind his neck as he gulps in the air. He has a slight limp, but refuses to accept it, continuing at his casual pace towards us. He sits down on the log in between Naomi and me, huffing as he sits.

"Well that was subpar." He says to nobody in particular.

Natsume looks back at him from the stump, slapping him on the knee, "You got second, not last, get over it~."

Naomi glances at Natsume over the frame of her glasses, and pushing up off of the log, "You did great~! What happened to your leg or whatever? I could see you trip, all the way over here. You're going to the nurse for that, right?"

"It's fine, it's fine..." He droops his head over the back, only his upper back touching the log at this point.

When Yuu goes to lean forward, he moves his leg to the side and hisses under his breath at what I can only assume is pain. Natsume glances back at him again.

"Nice one. Are you gonna make us carry you to the nurse?"

Naomi sighs, lowering a hand to help Yuu up, "Hisao, support him, we'll have to take him up to the nurse. He's probably broken something. "

"Gah, don't talk like that, Naomi! It's just a sprain!" Yuu closes his eyes, leaning his head back to the sun. I lower a hand to him, helping him up, gingerly lifting him to a stand. He leans mostly into me, his left arm hooked around my neck, balancing on his right leg precariously. Naomi takes the opposite side, Natsume following from behind. We all three escort him as casually as we can, but still receive stares. When we reach the gates up to the school buildings, Emi bounds over, a curious look on get face, "What happened, Yuu?" She pouts just slightly, glancing to me with a tilt of the head, "Don't tell me, you broke something…"

"It's probably just a sprain, Emi." He says, pushing us forwards with a roll of the shoulders, "I'll talk to you later, I'm getting ice or something."

She crosses her arms, watching us walk off with Yuu. Complete with some cross between puppy dog eyes and death stare, she bounces on her fake legs, a constant click following us through the air as we walk off.

When we get to the nurse's office, Yuu slumps out into the chair, using good good leg to push the chair back and lean his leg forwards, staring at the ceiling.

"So, what did Yuu do today?" The nurse leans forwards, "Still keeping careful on the track?"

"I tripped over myself on the last corner of the race."

"Well, that'll do it, then. I did tell you that you're supposed to be careful about these things. I never even liked the idea of you joining the track team. I knew it would lead to things like this." The nurse leans back in his chair, planting one foot on the top of his desk, spinning himself around lazily, "Let's have a look at it, then. Hisao, Naomi, thank you very much for bringing him here. And a good job for not letting Natsume help." He grins at Natsume, who is leaning on the doorway, "Go enjoy your day, though. I have a feeling Yuu will be here a while." He winks at Yuu, laughing casually, "Seriously though, I'm glad you two dragged him here. He's too stubborn to do it on his own."

We slowly nod, turning to the door. The last sight in the room, is Yuu sitting in his chair, arms crossed and head hung low.

We made our way out of the building, to the grounds. The sky is a fluffy, cerulean blue, the sun high enough in the sky to make it warm. Clouds fill much of the sky, making it comfortable enough. Perfect festival weather, in truth.

We all three walk to the first stall we see and then start walking.

"Hisao, are you good at games?" Naomi spouts out of nowhere.

I tilt my head back and forth. "Probably."

Natsume rolls her eyes, and Naomi grins.

"You either are or you aren't, sheesh." Natsume glances at the numerous games and tilts her nose at the scent of fried food. We all sort of gravitate to the soba stand, the line already filling up.

"Bad food is the best food!" Naomi bounces up and down on the balls of her feet, glancing over the shoulder of the man in front of her. The students are all wearing uniforms today. They said it was so we could all look as one student body. Honestly, it seems more like it's putting a massive warning sign on our backs rather than a sense of pride. Pride is... Not this.

Natsume leans back, sighing and pushing herself back forwards.

"I haven't had soba in so long, honestly."

"Really? It's so great~! Natsume and I get it everytime we go into town!" Naomi holds her hands behind her back, rotating and bouncing at the same time. The rhythm this girl has sometimes…

"We do, yeah. It's a habit at this point." Natsume glances down at her uniform. "Probably shouldn't have so much of it though..."

"Oh, hush Natsume. You're in need of some extra size anyways. You're thin as a bone~!"

I shrug. "You look fine, Natsume." I'm not lying, and she grins in response.

"Well I'm glad you think so, lover boy." She nudges me in the side with her elbow. I turn my head and laugh, stepping forwards in the line.

Naomi laughs along as well, picking up her soba and taking to it immediately, eating akin to a voracious dog, starved of it's meal for the day. She finishes her plate before Natsume even sits down. When we all three finish eating, we bring our plates back to the stand and continue our walk around the grounds.

We stop by a stand selling drinks and each pick up something. Naomi buys a can of strawberry soda, Natsume gets cold coffee, and I pick something at random. I ended up with a can of tea.

"We should go play a game~!" Naomi says, cracking the top off of her soda as she plops down on to the bench.

Natsume slowly sits down on the bench, groaning, "I just want a rest." I guess it makes sense that she's tired. Arthritis would make this much walking into a hell of a chore.

"We can always stop by your dorm and get the crutches if you want to keep going?" Naomi scratches the back of her head, hand resting in her short blonde hair.

Natsume sighs, letting her head rest against the back of the bench, "I hate those things~..."

"Well, I mean... I would too?" Naomi shrugs, "It's either that or sitting on a bench."

"I never do have much fun at these things. Let's go get the crutches." She leans forwards, pushing off of the bench with help from Naomi.

We all walk through the crowd, avoiding the glances from those from down in the town. When we arrive to the dorms, I let Naomi and Natsume go about their business inside, finding the crutches. I sit down on the bench from this morning and watch the crowds ebb and flow along the walkway.

Occasionally someone will glance at me with a confused look in their eyes, but they keep walking. I suppose I'm fortunate in that my "problem" is more internal, rather than Emi's or Rin's, who stand out like a sore thumb. People look at them, and they don't have to connect anything together or make assumptions. They just know.

I simply get gazes of "...What's wrong with him?"

Analytics of a human mind, boring into my skull. It doesn't feel too great.

Lost in thought, a sharp crack brings me back to the present. Naomi is holding one of the crutches, while Natsume straps the other to her hand. They're a lot different than most crutches, but you can tell they're made for comfort, regular crutches bore into someone's shoulder, I guess. I've only needed them once, for a few days. I didn't mind them, but I can see them being a problem for sometime having to use them a lot more than most people.

Naomi has a light gray coat, pulled from their trip inside most likely. We all take off towards the stalls again, Naomi with a cheery lilt to her every word, Natsume limbering behind and grumbling.

We stop by a gun game, one of those where you shoot the target with a water-gun, which fills up a balloon. You win it it bursts before the time limit.

"Come on, Hisao~! I want a brand new stuffed animal!" Naomi calls out, bouncing and twisting as she speaks.

I bring the gun up to stare down the… center? I try to line it up with the center of the target, but my shots end up hitting the balloon itself, and by the time I'm even filling the damned thing, my time is up. I let the water gun droop back down and look to Naomi and Natsume with a shrug, "I uh, I tried?" I laugh slowly, and Naomi steps over to the gun.

"Let's make it a bet~!" She glances to me with a grin.

"A bet?"

"If I win, you have to join the Newspaper Club~." She bounces again, hands behind her back.

Even if I was already contemplating it... "You're on. What do I get if you lose?"

"I won't lose! Sheesh!" She elbows me in the side, grabbing hold of the gun and staring down the middle. Seemingly out of nowhere, a glare hits the corner of her glasses, splashing off the side and boosting the tension. She takes aim, and the guy behind the counter presses a button. The second he presses it, the target lifts up.

Naomi fires the water straight into the hole, keeping a steady bead on it the whole time. The guy tilts his head to the side, pressing the button again. The target shifts suddenly, and Naomi loses all of her focus all at once.

The bell rings, and the guy lets out a "Pheew."

Letting go of the gun, she plants her palms onto the stand, "What the he-" Natsume slaps her on the back of the leg with her crutch, "What the heck was that for?"

"What was what for?" he puts his hands behind his back, whistling.

"You're not funny, sheesh. Let's go spend our money somewhere else." Naomi pouts, dropping her hands to her side. She turns to the pair of us, muttering under her breath, "Ass."

Natsume grins, "Let's just go play something else."

She glances to me, puppy dog eyes engaged. She says not a word, but turns around and stares dead on, at a large plush of a duck, set in the corner of the stand.

Natsume rolls her eyes, looking at the back in Naomi's head. I shrug, and turn to the stand again, pulling out some change to pay for my go.

I lean into the gun again, taking aim at the center of the target and taking in a deep breath. When the siren goes off, piercing the din of the festival, I pull the trigger. The water soars through the air at the target, hitting the center and filling the balloon. With seconds left on the clock, I'm still holding the stream steady, anticipating the click of the button. When he starts to worry, I see him press the button.

This is the moment of truth, I tell myself. He presses the button, and I let off of the trigger and tilt it just in time to fire off at the right time. The balloon, for all it's trouble, was broken.

The guy stares at the gun with a sigh, "Pick your prize." he says, shifting his glare to Naomi and me.

I point to the duck, and he shrugs, pulling it from the rack and handing it to me.

"Here's your duck." I hand it to her, triggering laughter to bubble forth from inside her.

"That was great, Hisao~!" She takes the duck and sets it atop her shoulder, making quack noises, before blinking at us and letting it go. She holds it by the neck, at her waist.

"Why a duck, though?"

"Because they're so cute~! All yellow and dorky, it's great~..." She stares off into the distance for a moment, "They're cute, alright! Don't give me that look, Natsume. At least I'm original~!"

"I do what I want." Natsume is sitting on the bench behind us, one eyebrow arched, eyes glossy and head on her palm, "What time does it get dark today?" She adds, glancing up at the sky.

"I dunno, but I'll have to check. I hate not being able to stick around for the fireworks..." Naomi droops her head to the ground, pushing herself back up, "But, I'll work with it! We'll head inside and watch a movie~!"

"Oh, that's a lot different than I expected, but... I like it." I put my hands in my pockets, grinning slightly, "We should get some food from down in the town if we're going to be penned up inside, then."

Natsume and Naomi both look to each other, then to me.

They both nod, "Yes. That, that is... Yes. Let's do it~!" Naomi says.

Natsume just nods, grinning before adding, "Yeah. Do that. That sounds good."

I shrug, and begin my way towards the gates. I fish around my pockets for my wallet, flipping it open and counting my money; thankfully I still have a good bit leftover from before the… ah, hospital visit. Plus some from my birthday.

We step through the gates and down the winding road to the town. The last time I saw this road, I was on my way in. It feels... right, to leave now. Less permanent, but much more freeing. It feels good to walk down to a little dilapidated town at the bottom of a massive hill, friends following along.

It's comfortable. It could be better. I could be back at my old school without all my problems today. But I can try to do better here. It's what I've been served.

It's rude to ask life to take back a dish served fresh.

As we walk down the hill, the sidewalk cuts out and reduces to but a simple gravel path, alongside the steel railing. On the other side of that railing, is a rolling drop, into hills populated by shrubs, trees, and just... green. Everywhere, green. I turn back to the road, watching the occasional car drive up the hill, sputtering along. On the opposite side of the road, an older man walks a spotted dog. I turn to Naomi and Natsume, the pair of them strutting behind me. Naomi has a pair of sunglasses on, and Natsume is walking with her crutches, a slight glare forwards with every click of their rubber bottoms.

At the bottom of the hill, I turn on my heel and sit on the steel rails, looking at the pair. "So, where to from here?"

Naomi droops the sunglasses slightly. "I suppose ladies first can apply here." Natsume's pace remains the same, following behind me as Naomi takes the lead. She marches forwards towards the convenience store of legend.

When we arrive at the store, the sun has finally started to descend, making it's way back down, slowly but surely. We step inside and step off to the side, each of us taking in a collective sigh of relief.

Natsume looks like she's about to slam someone into the ground with her crutch, and Naomi is looking at me with a cocked head, "Are you fine, Hisao? You look pale~..." She pokes my arm, glancing at me from over the frames of her sunglasses.

I lean against a rail, fanning myself with my flapping wrist, "Just a bit... tired. That's all."

I stand from the rail, using the tie from my uniform to wipe the sweat from my brow. I find Naomi and Natsume off in a corner of the store, pointing at individual drinks. I pull a bottle out at random, ending up with a weird blue soda. Blueberry. Right.

Naomi and Natsume end up pulling out a six-pack of strawberry soda. We float through the aisles of the store, pulling out miscellaneous food items and tossing them in the basket. When the basket begins to dig into my arm I call it quits and drag it over to the cashier, letting its contents clink against the rubber track of the checkout line.

He places all of our junk food in the bags and calls off the total. I hand him the closest bill, shrugging when he goes to hand back the small amount of change left over.

Each of us take a bag, and we leave the store, the sun now much lower and the air significantly cooler.

We make our way back through the city, taking a much more casual pace for both mine and Natsume's sake.

When we reach the hill to Yamaku, we all three look at each other, and sigh in unison. We begin the trek, each of us pulling out a drink and slowly shambling through the rough gravel.

When the sidewalk begins, we sigh in relief. Naomi seems to just go along with it. Natsume and I both genuinely long for the moment when we can sit.

The gates come into view; their wrought iron, grey clay, and excessively red brick permeating through the dulling evening sky. We make our way through the crowds, which are all surging through the grounds at this point. The dorms, thankfully, are filled with nothing but the stray student-parent pair, chattering within their own little bubbles as we pass by. Stepping through the door to Naomi's room, I glance about.

Even if the reasoning for being here is pure, there will forever be something... interesting about being alone, in a room, with two girls and nobody else around.

I sit down on the floor, leaning my back into the frame of the bed with a groan. I set my bag on the floor next to me, and the pair both step over to Natsume's room, closing the door and coming back, moments later in casual clothes.

The room is clean, with a rather massive LCD TV placed atop a dresser. A desk is in the corner, littered with papers and books. The wall opposite the door is lined with newspaper clippings on cork board. A few pictures line the walls.

Sweat pants and a corny sweater for Natsume, baggy shorts and a tank top for Naomi. They both sit down atop the bed, lying down towards the television at the front of the room. Naomi pulls a remote from the inside the blankets, flipping on the TV and cycling to the DVD player. She glances to the closet, and pulls a small stack of films from it.

"I... Have an acquired taste for black and white films. No reason." She casually taps her free hand on the side of her glasses, "No reason at all~!" She pulls a movie from the middle of the stack, not even looking at the cover before sliding the disc into the ajar tray.

The film boots up, straight to the content: no ads or start menu, beginning credits skipped. When it starts, the film is in grainy black and white, sepia at times. It's an old movie, some romance about a royal samurai's daughter getting into an affair with a common man, and all the strife that arose because of it. Kinda corny, but I've heard of it before.

Powering through the movie, Naomi looks down over the bed at me, and pokes me, pointing to the window. The curtains are slightly shut, but from the angle I'm at, I can see through the crack.

The sky bursts alight, popping and crackling violently, shots of color bursting across the midnight blue sky. Naomi grins wistfully when I turn back, "It always seems so beautiful, judging from just the looks on people's faces. Someday I'd love to see a show, in honesty. But the seizures don't help that dream very much. " Natsume wakes up a few moments later, the sound of the crackling and popping serving as a distant alarm clock.

Yawning and stretching, she blinks at the pair of us, lifting an eyebrow. She watches the show from the window, silently. When it ends, she slowly slinks back into the same position she was in before; crumpled up in a ball of Natsume.

Naomi laughs, pushing herself back against the wall, clicking play on the TV again, "She can sleep in any position, sure, but she'll be feeling that tomorrow~!" She keeps laughing, piping up when the video stops loading and starts playing.

The movie continues, the sound of Natsume nearly snoring in the background. When the movie ends, I pull a candy bar from the bag next to me and peel it open. Naomi pushes from the bed, slipping another movie from the inside of the stack and sliding it in the tray, setting the last movie down without a second thought, "Now that Natsume is asleep, we can get into the real cinema~!" She sits back down, and the movie loads up soon after. Godzilla plays.

I start losing time from the movie, at first just a bit of the beginning credits, nothing really... major, then I miss a few punches thrown by Godzilla, then an entire fight, and then… the rest of the movie. And the night.