Well this took a little longer than I'd hoped. :'D
Without Owner-sama's permission, I made multiple cameos for this chapter. *insert Kogure's signature ushishishi*
Disclaimer: Oh, come on, I don't even own 96% of the pencils I keep in my stash.
9: The Treasure Map of Sorts
And to whom might this misadventure lead to?
"I want to go to the carnival just near Yushi-san's shop,"
"Woman, it's seven in the morning; ask me next week," An exhausted tealnet groaned as he rolled over to the side, covering his face with a nearby pillow. "But I want to go today; this is my only free day!" The voice insisted, and to make sleeping even more impossible, there was a consistent pull-and-release force on the bed, annoying Sakuma to the core. "Ask Kidou to go with you,"
"He's on siscon mode,"
"What the—" Now that woke him up (A/N: …Time to change the rating!).
"Alright, you're up, so you're coming with me!" Sokudone sang as she hopped off the boy's bed that Saturday. How could she be so hyper after a week of projects and awkwardness?
Sakuma yawned for the ninth time that morning. Sokudone had insisted they walked instead of cramming inside his car, much to his dismay. "It's not that boring!" She insisted, her once happy-go-lucky grin being replaced by a frustrated half-pout, half-sneer. "We're not even there yet!" She continued, but Sakuma, despite the sleepy disposition, already had a retort up his sleeve. "The thought of it already is."
"Then think of it as a punishment,"
"For doing what?" The sleepyhead's eyebrows bumped into each other to signify his disbelief.
"Gee, I wonder who texted Koujirou last Wednesday."
Busted.
"The Prism Stars Fair?" Sakuma demanded with a raised brow at his vertically-challenged companion. "A pop idol carnival," Sokudone had cringed beside him. "Really."
"Oh, shut up," She argued with him. "What would you know about females, you arrogant yana yats—"
"My sentiments exactly!" An older and deeper voice quipped behind the duo. As they spun to meet the interrupter's eyes, another small creature wrung its arms around the blackette's legs. "I'm Hono Aruto," The taller redhead (A/N: Is he, Owner-sama?) introduced himself while simultaneously keeping Sokudone balanced from the sudden force of the ten-year-old boy gripping her. "And your little admirer there is Hono Akoto," He grinned. "Shall we get started on the tour?"
"In order to raise funds for our next out-of-town promotion concert, the Prism Stars had decided on reestablishing the Hono family's carnival with a few new improvements here and there, of course, and since this was their idea in the first place, the girls have taken the initiative to operate the whole place," Aruto explained, his gleaming eyes full of pride. "Questions?"
"What's the most popular game here?"
Sokudone elbowed her companion despite little Akoto's arms loosely wrapped around her neck and his legs on her waist. "Itte!" Sakuma hissed. "Did you just stab me with a blade? That hurt!" But the female paid no attention to the tealnet. "So what do you and Akoto—"
Now Sakuma, the ever competitive one, elbowed her. And for good measure too; Sokudone never used her honorifics like the spoiled little Commander's girl that she was.
"…Akoto-kun." The girl managed an annoyed glare before continuing, "Do around here if you're not manning the stalls?"
"Akoto's supposed to tour you guys around, but some old geezer took him hostage in his sweet shop once, so I decided to come with him. Although initially I'm the girls' manager and accountant for this carnival too." Sokudone sweatdropped. That old geezer was the ever pedophilic Yushi-san, the man she worked part-time for other than Hibiki-san (A/N: Yushi is made-up. And he's in Sun VS Sword too! *self-promoting hog*).
"Good shot, Mini Minister-donno!" A twintailed redhead sang as she handed a pinkette wearing a beanie her well-earned starfish plushie. "Ohoho," The Osakan companion put the back of her hand in front of her mouth. "Yer jes showin' off, now, dahling!" (A/N: Osakans have a different dialect, but since this is in English, I decided to change the accent.) She huffed, but the Okinawa local patted the pink-haired girl. "Don't mind her, Touko!" He grinned at both girls. "Rika's just jealous~"
"What'd ya say, ya walkin' octuh-puss? Ah'll fry ya fer good!" Rika yelled, and as Tsunami ran, the former gave chase, and Touko was left to apologize to Aira. "Naw, it's okay, Mini Minister-chan," She laughed. "You've got adorable friends."
"You can come out now, Ichinose," A brunette was laughing along with another one of her hair color and height. Rika had just left the scene, questioningly chasing after a cackling Tsunami, and fearing for his life, Ichinose decided not to risk showing up on her radar. "Is she gone, Akemi-chan?"
Being the ever sarcastic timekeeper that she was, the girl replied, "Of course not, that's why we can't see her anymore."
"Akemi-chan!" Aki giggled as Ichinose blushed at the remark. A man's got to fear for his life every once in a while.
"Alright, who's up next on the Shine Rocket?" An aquamarine-haired girl had a sneaky look in her lavender eyes as she asked this. "Anou," The doubting Aki caught the handler's attention. She was no more than fourteen years old, just like them. "What exactly is the Shine Rocket?"
The girl, whose name tag read Suzuki, had an encouraging smile, yet a sly glint in her eyes. "It's a drop tower ride," She explained as the three passengers began to seat themselves among their thirteen other companions. "It goes high up to the top," Suzuki had the same kind smile on her face as she backed away from the platform. But by the time she said her last words about the drop tower, she was out of earshot, and Akemi prayed to Kamisama to keep her seatmates' and her seatmates' seatmates' meals in their stomachs for the whole duration of the ride. "And drops insanely back to the bottom!"
And when the ever sneaky Suzuki pressed on the button, the whole world screamed.
A girl who went by the name Sarah ogled at her teammate's manic face. "Suzu sure looks like she's enjoying herself…" Her brunette companion gave a once-over of her view before resuming to retune her guitar. "You could always switch with her," She said without looking up. "The Tunnel of Love might bore her back to sanity," Amber chuckled softly as Sarah quietly giggled along.
"Uh," An American accent brought the two girls back to focusing on their idyllic station. Behold, in his American playful boy aura, a blonde with blue shades stood beside a heavily breathing girl with silver hair. "You guys might want to clean up on the Cupids back there."
The Prism Starlets stared at the two.
"That ride was stupid," The barefooted girl sneered at her companion in flawless English. "And to think the hyperactive Dylan Keith was a man of thrills!" She mocked him with a knowing smile. Dylan played along and looked aghast. "I'm telling Mark!"
And that set off another goose chase in the fair while Sarah volunteered to check the status of their Cupids. To her surprise, each one had two or three arrows lodged into them. She sighed into her walkie-talkie. "Amber-chan, please bring some pliers with you."
"I-I'm not sure about this, Kogure," A stuttering first year looked behind his pushing companion. He slyly chuckled in response. "It's just a ride, Tachimukai," He grinned deviously as the teenage operator secured the passengers' belts. "Just a huge spinning swing ride!"
"WHAT—!"
"Enjoy the Microphone Dance!" The happy-go-lucky operator's smile matched that of her glimmering nametag that read Gwenny as she looked up at the swinging Frisbee ride. She waved at the passersby reassuringly when she saw the two redheads wave at her while the blackette ogled at the thrilling beauty and the tealnet attempted to put her jaw back on.
"I wanna go on that ride," Sokudone giggled giddily. A swinging gondola that rotated simultaneously? Where was the queue?
"But first," Aruto hushed her as he led the two towards the game booths. The one he was headed to looked familiar to Sokudone…
"Aira?"
"Yakuza girl's onii's girlfriend!" (A/N: Refer to Chap 4.)
"You know each other?" Sakuma and Aruto both had their brows raised. "Seriously?" Sokudone ignored the two older males as she approached the twintail redhead. "It's Sokudone; and he's definitely not my boyfriend," She offered her hand while at the same time making a face. Aira picked up the idle Akoto from the other girl's back. "Roger that," She laughed heartily. Then she looked at her older brother for the first time since the quartet arrived. "Yes?"
"Sakuma-kun, this is my younger sister, Hono Aira," Aruto said. His sister held out her hand, which Sakuma obligingly shook. "If you guys get lost, and you can't find either of us handsome men in this crowd, Aira's always rooted to the shooting range booth, okay?"
The duo nodded dutifully.
"Now enjoy yourselves!" Aruto and Aira grinned, their faces biologically identical to one another, including Akoto's.
"Oi, Ichi-kun," Kazemaru's latest received text message read, "I make fate look so coincidental, even the Greek Fates are ashamed."
Long charater-filled chapter bursting with filler chapter description all over it! :D Don't worry, Sakuma's lucky girl will be revealed in the next chapter, which, yes, I assure you, is already in the works! :3
And~ I'm very proud of this chapter for reintroducing the OCs I've already revealed in previous chapters. So the owner-tachi don't feel like I forgot about them just because the previous two chapters were full of Genda-Claire fluff. x3
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-Strawbeariiis
