Chapter Ten: The Festival On The Roof, and Other Odd Holidays (AKA, Filler Chapter! Skip If You Don't Like Crazy!)
When Koji finally returned to the apartment, he was definitely to tired to even blink at Tenshi's shocked (But clearly amused ) face. It took him two hours to get there, there was only one day before that stupid festival, and to top it all off it was midnight now. He wanted sleep. And fast.
The boy even forgot to shower he was so tired- Something that most definitely did not happen under normal circumstances. However, hitting the futon with a -fmmp-, he had quickly rolled over and gotten to sleep, mentally telling himself that he would simply have to shower in the morning as he always did.
Next morning he got his shower of course. Not without its snags however.. Lack of sleep meant slight lack of control, and it was very difficult to explain to Shinri exactly how he cut his cheek in the shower...
"So you slipped and fell on Tenshi-San's razor?"
"....." In reality, he scratched it with claws when washing his face, but really, both were equally as embarrassing None the less, he managed to throw on a bathrobe and make it to the table with cereal before Tenshi could start making pancakes. Or french toast. ...Hell, normal toast was deadly in her hands. She could've been an assassin, her ability to create poisonous food being this skilled. Thoughts on just what Tenshi could do with perfectly innocent looking slices of bread vanished however, once the woman walked in to hear that last bit of the conversation.
"....Hm? Did you cut yourself Koji-Kun? I could swear I put the razor in the cupboard.."
Koji wisely chose not to answer this time. Eating the rest of his cereal, he muttered something about getting dressed before putting his dishes in the sink and leaving. Wasn't this a wonderful way to start the morning?..
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Standing on the roof of the impossibly large building of Section F, Koji couldn't help but feel that the majority of people around him were absolutely.. Pathetic. He had already been questioning the possible reason why they had a festival of all things on the highly secured roof-top of the building (A question that Tenshi had simply answered with 'To keep things more lively!'), but after noting that the actual head to the section was there?
This.. Was.. Absolutely insane. Worse than him being in the same location wearing a white and blue yukata. Shinri's voice cut him from his thoughts however, as she dragged him towards a game stand she'd seen. "Koji-kun!! Look look, they have charm carvings!" He looked around for someone to dump this on- Life debt or not, there was no way in hell he was staying this close to a festival game stand.
Just his luck that Jino and Rina had noticed the stands first and left him behind.. Koji inwardly groaned as Shinri fruitlessly tried to carve out a small turtle in the thin wooden slat handed to her. This was going to be a long day...
"Wuhaaaaaa... This is hard..." A very.. long day.. Koji sighed, walking over and taking a seat next to Shinri, watching the girl poke at the carving only to cause a large crack to appear in the wood. "Ahh!!! No!!" An eyebrow twitched visibly as Shinri quickly grabbed a bit of yen to buy another carving to work on. For the love of.. He was going to be stuck here all day at this rate!
Watching as yet another slat of wood was broken, the boy caved and grabbed Shinri's hand, taking the small, needle-like carving tool from her hand and taking one of the un-carved slats. "Here.. You need to be patient with things like this. Watch." Ignoring Shinri's complaints, Koji carefully twisted the tool around the shape, poking out the eyes and the hole for a string. "Once you have it, it isn't that difficult.." He looked up from his work (Oddly enough, a four leaf clover), only to scowl with annoyance. Shinri.. Had left him alone. "Dammit!!" Grabbing the charm and slamming some yen on the stand counter, he ran off after the girl. "Shinri!"
The girl in question looked up from where she was now fishing for turtles, before grinning at her 'friend'. "Heh? Ah!! Koji-Kun!!~" She waved happily, ignoring the obvious look of infuriation on Koji's face. "I was getting bored, so I came over here!~ Look! I already got one!!" At those words, Koji watched as Shinri held up a small goldfish bowl with a turtle in it. "I'm naming it Kero!"
"Kero?" Wasn't that the sound a frog made? Apparently not, as the turtle then made a loud croaking noise similar to a frog's as he said this. Laughing nervously, Koji walked over, scratching his head as he spoke. "Right... In any case, are we done here ye-" He scowled again, as Shinri disappeared from his view once more. Argggggg.... Deciding not to bother with it anymore, Koji began wandering around instead, soon finding himself at the railing of the building.
It was a rather remarkable view really. Leaning his arms on the lower bar as he took a seat, he could just barely make out a shadow on the horizon. Whether this was due to the sheer height of the building or just the distance from that shadow, Koji didn't know. But it seemed the one beside him did.
"Pretty small lookin' eh?" Koji jerked his head up to look at Jino, who was resting his arms on the taller bar for the railing while staring out in the direction that Koji once had. "That there's the main island of Japan. Pretty damn far away eh?" Koji blinked with slight surprise.
"That far huh..." Damn.. He was supposed to make it over there eventually? Shit, what did Tenshi think he was anyways!? He'd drown! "Hnn..." Staring off into the distance, the boy half-closed his eyes with thought, wondering just how he would do this in the end.
Koji's train of thought was brought to an end rather quickly however, when Jino pulled him up and turned to walk away. "Ahh.. Shin-Chan is off with Rina at the ring-toss ok? They wanted me to get you." With that he walked off, Koji scowling at the retreating doppleganger before leaving to find Shinri.
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The festival went far quicker than Koji had expected to be honest. After watching Rina throw a hoop on the red bottle with remarkable ease ('Mou Rina-chan! You make this look too easy!!'), Shinri ran off with her new soccer ball to a stand selling fans, using some of the money Tenshi had given her to buy one for Koji.. Who adamantly refused to take it, and thus was seen carrying it around for the rest of the day.
They'd run into Jino and Rina again later passing the Takoyaki stand, which they all hung around for before separating again, by which point Shinri was starting to get tired. Heading back, Koji turned his head to briefly watch the sky go from blue to a mix of oranges and violets before following the others back down. The day.. Didn't go all that bad really.
Two days later however, one could definitely wonder why Koji was holding a pillow over his ears as a loud 'kerooooo' was heard. He'd. Tried. Everything. Ever since the turtle's owner left for her mission in Osaka, it had been making noises that were most certainly not supposed to be made by a turtle. Kero, as he was accurately named, seemed to still be making frog noises. And they were very loud ones.
In the end, Koji had finally managed to stick an elastic around the turtle's mouth while silently thanking the seafood store on the ninth floor for giving him the leftover ones from their lobster claws. Silence had never been more beautiful. "Hwaaaah.... Thank god..." The pillow still sat on his head, and the boy lay back on the couch to take advantage of the silence.
-bzzztt.-
No. God dammit, no..
-bzzt. Bzzzzzzzzzzt-
"Arrrrrrgghhh...." Throwing the pillow across the room, Koji got up and opened the door to see Shinri and a rather pleased Tenshi at the door. 'God dammit.. They weren't supposed to finish for another week..' Resisting the urge to state his thoughts quite clearly (Cries of 'Koji-Kun!!! Tadaimah!!!' came from Shinri, and he winced), he opted to simply ask why they'd come early.
Tenshi's answer made him wonder how many people he'd killed that wanted him to suffer before dieing. "Oh.. Well, we didn't want to miss Sports Day- Shinri's old enough to compete this year." No. No no no no.. "Although, she has to enter with another person, so do you think you could enter with her?"
Damn it damn it- "Sure" Arrrrghh!!! Why did he say yes god dammit! As Shinri began yelling rather loudly about getting her clothes ready for the next day, Koji inwardly groaned and leaned against the wall before something in the girl's high pitched voice registered in his head.
"Wait, this is tomorrow??"
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"Allllright everyone, here we are at the annual, Section F Sports Event!~ I'm your host, Saki Jino,"
Who the hell decided to let that kid be a host instead of a competitor? Koji sat on the bench with the other children his 'age', wearing shorts and a t-shirt as he waited for his number. Listening to the list of events, he winced as another voice cut in.
"Oi oi! Jino! Get to the point already!" Awww frick.. "Oh! And I'm also hosting the sports day event!~ Vineland Rina, at your service!~" Vineland? Sounded oddly like 'Vineyard'.. Wasn't that Vermouth's- "Alright! Today we have five events, and lunch splitting them up! The sports fest has been cut short due to lack of entrants.." She glared at Jino, who paled visibly. "But we still have today! For the morning we have the 'Three-Legged Race', and the 'Egg and Spoon' race!~" AH! He was being set up! (Damn.. This explained why Shinri needed another person..) Plus.. Eggs.. His stomach growled slightly, and Koji narrowed his eyes. Goddamn it.. He couldn't get breakfast before Tenshi made it.. So he didn't eat anything..
"After the egg race there will be a short lunch break, followed by the relay race, the obstacle course, and last of all.. Hurdles!"
"YES!" Koji jerked his head to Tepache, blinking as the african-american man punched the air and began rambling in English about racing. "My best sport!" Something in the back of his mind told him that someone who smoked as heavily as Tepache should not be good at hurdles.. But he could always find out later..
It was Rina's voice that shook him out of these thoughts however, and Koji blinked as he was handed his number before paying attention. "Alright everyone, I want you to get your partners and line up!~ The three legged race is about to begin!" Feeling a tug at his arm, Koji sighed and walked over to the starting line with Shinri, before letting her tie one of his legs to hers. Looking up, the two waited until Jino's voice came over from the sidelines.
"Alllright! Racers! Your route is marked using the arrows on the walls! Just follow them to the finish line!!" His voice was quickly switched out with Rina, who snatched the megaphone from him.
"Everyone, Take your places!" A majority of the racers awkwardly kneeled down, in a start position, while Shinri and Koji simply braced themselves. "On your marks! Get set.." Eyes ahead, Koji squinted before making out an arrow pointing left up ahead.
"First one is left, alright?" A nod from Shinri, and-
"GO!" A series of hopping and falling ensued after this, Shinri and Koji barely walking to prevent falling flat on their faces. They were third out of the five teams to reach the arrow first.. By the third arrow they were fourth.. Last arrow in last..
Needless to say, Shinri was a bit upset that she lost, and was ready to get back at Koji during the egg and spoon race, where she was disqualified for throwing her egg at him. (It was a rather nice throw, considering that she used nothing but her mouth and the spoon however.) Koji, unfortunatly, was also disqualified a few minutes later, when his own egg smashed on the ground. It was oddly difficult to not eat it..
Still, seeing as how it was now lunch, he could definitly resist that. (Besides. Eating eggs of the ground.. Was not healthy. Especially not here.) Wiping off the egg from the last race and sending a glare over at the already eating Shinri, Koji took a seat with the bento that had been provided for the sports day. It wasn't too bad.. Swallowing some of the rice, he watched as Rina and Jino both began setting up the next event, relay. The obstacle course would be in the usual location.. While the hurdles would simply be the final part of said course.
He didn't think he'd do too well with hurdles..
A voice came over from the table Jino and Rina were sitting at, and Koji quickly swallowed the rest of his lunch. Three more races.. That was it. And the first one was..
"Alright everyone! It's time for the relay~" Rina's voice was inturupted by Jino, as he snatched the megaphone in a form of payback for the last time.
"Or as I like to call it, shuttle run! Competitors will run to the middle point of the track, grab a ball, run back, and drop it before heading back again! There are enough for three each, so don't worry!!" The megaphone was quickly taken back by Rina again, the girl glaring at Jino. This was starting to get annoying, the constant switching really..
"Anyone spotted with more than one ball at once will be disqualified! Now, will the competitors please line up!" Koji grunted, stretching his arms before doing so. Hwaaahh... Faster he got this done the faster he could sleep... "On your mark..." Shinri stood beside him, determined to beat him this time. "Get set.." Biting his lip, he breifly wondered if sitting out to just read or something would be such a bad idea. (He was still tired thanks to that damned turtle!) "GO!"
Deciding that it was a bad idea as soon as Jino said 'go' however, Koji took off at top speed, heading off towards the pile of balls at the end of the hallway. Mind as well go through with it! So far he was tied with Shinri... Grabbing one of the balls he swiftly kicked back from the ground to turn, eyes frozen on the finish line. If he paid attention to the line, then he could probably ignore the looks he was getting from the girl.. (Though really, when he thought about it, it was not often that he bothered doing stuff like this without too much prompting from Tenshi..)
First ball dropped off. Koji caught a glimpse of Shinri, the girl's face twisted into a mix of pain and determination, but he ignored it and pressed on. He grabbed the second ball, twisting around and running back just as Shinri reached the pile herself. Second ball dropped off.. Third ball picked up.. He was almost there and-
"Wuaaah!! Chibi-Gi-" The megaphone was quickly wrenched from Jino's hands.
"We have a winner! First place goes to Koji! Second goes to Shinri!.." The ranking continued, Koji collapsing by the wall as Shinri took a seat beside him, breathing heavilly as she turned towards him.
"Next time.. I'm gonna.. Win... Ok, Koji-Kun?.." Looking at the tired girl, Koji simply chuckled in a way oddly similar to his laughter when he was on her trail.
"Heh... You're on.."
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The last two races went as follows. Koji, being completely worn out from the first race, came in last for the obstacle course, with Shinri frowning and calling him 'lazy'. Shinri herself in the meantime, ignoring the boy's glare, had come in first place.
More suprising however.. Was the final hurdles race. When the race began, Tepache simply handed his cigarette to one of the people watching, before taking off with the rest. Though Koji was certain he was ahead of everyone at first, he looked ahead to see him practically flying over them!
"W-What!?! How!!?" Of course, when Tepache came in first (And got his cigarette back), Jino chose to award the second place people rather than first, Rina smacking him across the head for being a jerk.
But at least, Koji thought as he collapsed back on the futon in Tenshi's apartment, it was finally over. Thank... God..... "Eugh....." He'd almost forgotten to grab something to eat before Tenshi cooked supper he was so out of it... But at least everything was over for now. Rolling over onto his back, he stared at the ceiling as he recounted the days events. For a section of the black organization, they did a hell of a lot of 'non-organizational' activities. But none of these had started until the summer!! (Maybe it was just because of the fact that it was summer. ) Bah..
Where was an events calendar when he needed it.. He wanted a fair warning for whatever holiday he'd be forced into next..
The next morning Koji woke up much later than he preferred- It was already eleven by the time he was out of the showever and dressed. On the brightside however, he was able to grab something to eat before Tenshi came in from the hallway holding a file. Seemed that Shinri only got that one day off her last assignment; She had to leave again with Jino earlier that morning.
Shinri would likely be gone for one more week, before Halloween came up. It was at these words, that Koji almost chocked on his cereal.
"K- Halloween??" Wiping his mouth of the milk that had come flying out with the cough, he watched as Tenshi simply nodded with a smile and poured herself some cereal.
"That's right- Since a majority of Section F is a mix of Japanese and American peoples, we tend to have the children celebrate Halloween." She took a spoon of her cereal, before continuing. "If it's not to much to ask Koji, I was wondering if-"
"NO." Tenshi gained an upset look, while Koji frowned and continued eating.
"But.. Koji, why-"
Swallowing his food, Koji looked up, the frown still in place. "I am not going to wander around the building in an embarrassing costume asking for candy. I don't know if you noticed, but I still have limits, Tomoyo."
The woman across from him sighed, before trying again. "Shinri was really looking forward to-"
"I SAID NO." Well, clearly Koji was adamant about this. ...Tenshi would have to wait until Shinri returned it seemed.
In the meantime, hopefully that tiger costume would fit- Wait!
"It would be a good opprotunity to practice using your other half..." Tenshi slowly spun the milk and bits of cereal around, waiting for Koji to take the bait.
"......" Koji in the meantime, simply glared. This implied that, not only was there already a costume for him around here somewhere, but that it was a tiger costume. The boy's eyes narrowed, Koji slowly chewing the last bits of his cereal before swallowing. He could practice elsewhere.. With less embarrassing things.. But the fact was, he couldn't very well practice going 'half way' otherwise... "Fine...." Fiiiiiine! AUURG. Watching Tenshi grin as she grabbed the dishes and began rambling on and on about how happy she was that he agreed, he took that moment to go leave for the thirteenth floor. Damn.. Blackmailing...
Of course, one week later when Shinri returned, she was more than happy at the knowledge that Koji would be going with her for halloween- For some reason, she was afraid that he was going to refuse! Oh if only she knew.. Unfortunatly, she also insisted on seeing what costume he had. Koji was.. More than thankful when Tenshi came in at that moment and told Shinri that it would be a suprise. Almost.
So here he was, in the bedroom, staring at the costume with a rather large grimace. "Uggh..." One week until halloween, and he gets to spend it practicing the whole 'tiger' deal. With a kid's costume on. Picking it up with two fingers, Koji held it up and examined it before mentally groaning yet again. Good god.. Why did he agree to this again?
The costume looked like a regular costume really- But it lacked a tail and ear headband. Which meant, of course, he got to replace them.
He had just been conned into running around as a cat-boy. Dropping the costume, he groaned yet again and lay on his back, wishing that he could turn back time. This really stank.. Was he really not in hell?...
But he still needed to practice really. Sighing, the boy picked up the costume and went to try it on. One week... Just one week, and he'd get to collapse until christmas..
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"Koji-Kun~~~" Koji winced visibly as Shinri's voice cut through his ears. Cats.. Cats really could hear 10 times better, this fucking hurt! "Koji-Kun~~ Your costume is so cute!!!" Koji resisted the urge to tell her to 'shut the fuck up', simply nodding mutely while his eyebrow twitched.
"Remind me again why we're starting at 8 in the morning Shinri..? And why does the hallway look like this.." The entire floor it seemed, looked as though it was remodeled by Satan- The few windows that were there were blacked out, while the lights had been replaced with a dim red, causing the building to appear as though it was being viewed through a bloody curtain.
Skeletons, gothic wire fences, and cobwebs decorated the halls, multiple jack-o-lanterns sitting outside of the doors to people's apartments. Koji had been so busy taking it all in however, that he had barely realized that there was someone else behind him.
"Koji-kun.. You already know just how large the building is.. It will take at least a full day to visit all of the apartments on this floor!"
"Gah!" Turning abruptly, Koji looked up to see Tenshi dressed up in an angel costume. "Ah... Tenshi-basan..." Damn, calling this woman his aunt while in Shinri's presence was a tad annoying.. "...Nice costume..."
Shinri also turned at this, her dragon-horn headband shifting slightly as she looked up and frowned. "Neh.. Kaa-san! You wore that last year!!!" Proceeding to pout and tell her 'mother' off for being cheap, she pointed towards the now arriving Jino and Rina, who had dressed up as a pair of game characters from 'Kingdom Hearts'. "At least they got something new!"
Koji meanwhile blinked at the words 'kaa-san'- Shinri had never actually called Tenshi 'mother' before really, and it seemed Tenshi agreed with this fact as she herself had not yet answered the girl. She didn't have to however, as Jino had gotten close enough to speak by that point.
"Wh-why do I have to be mickey..." That was a suprise. Half-lidded stares from both Koji and Shinri came to look at a rather upset looking Jino, as well as an extremely smug looking Rina. Jino in question was wearing extremely large mouse ears, a long tail, and the largest shoes he'd ever seen. Ever. The answer to Jino's question was quickly given however, and Koji found himself mentally laughing with the half-lidded stare still on his face.
"Because you lost the bet, that's why. Besides, Mickey suits you." Ahahaa... It figured it'd be something like that... Rina's outfit was definitly better at least, considering that she had likely chosen the costumes for both of them. She was wearing a simple, short white dress, and had straightened her hair. Of course.. Having not played any video games since.. Quite a while ago, he had no idea who she was...
"And Namine is better for you? You should have been Daisy or something.." Jino's comment resulted in a large smack to the head using the large sketchpad Rina was carrying, Shinri sighing before tugging on the girl's arm.
"Ano...." She made a hard-to-resist pleading face, Jino rubbing his head and getting caught by it. "Ano.. Shouldn't we head out already..?" While Koji simply frowned slightly, both Jino and Rina's hearts seemed to melt at the sight of it.
Or so it seemed. They were quickly brought out of this when Tenshi mentioned 'candy', and the three took off, Shinri gripping Koji's arm and tugging him along.
"O-Oi!!! I can walk by myself!" He quickly tugged his hand free, ignoring Shinri's grin before walking with the others to the first house. Oversized pillow case gripped tightly, he followed them up to the door before holding it open as the other three yelled an incredibly loud 'Trick or treat', taking his candy before following behind them once more. "Tch.. Are we seriously going to visit all the apartments on this floor?" It explained the pillow case, that was for sure..
"Of course!!" Shinri's response was accompanied by multiple nods from the other two, while Koji inwardly groaned. Couldn't he just read, or train or something... They walked up to yet another apartment, knocking on the door and getting candy before moving on yet again. The decorations so far were definitly.. Interesting.
They got to Jino's apartment rather quickly, and to the doppleganger's horror the door was answered by Tepache- It seemed that Tepache's original plans of celebrating halloween with his girlfriend were regrettably cancelled.
As soon as they left the doorway of the fog-filled room, a vampire Tepache gave them a grin and waved good-bye before shutting the door. Jino, in the meantime, was twitching rather oddly, and had dumped the candy Tepache gave him as soon as the door had shut.
While the four continued on their way, Koji scratched his ear as he went over how many more apartments there were- There were 110 on each floor that had them (About 3), some with famillies, some with one person, and others built like Tepache and Jino's. They had only gone through 10 of them now, due to the sheer complexity of the halls and spacing between apartments. And since Tenshi's was basically the 'end point' of the oddly built circle they would be taking, (He paused for a moment, opening the bag yet again before silently following behind the others) they would have gone through the easiest area of the floor so far.
Just his luck dammit.. That pillow case was going to weigh a ton.. And he didn't even want to eat it! And still, Tenshi insisted he collect the candy if not for him, then at least for her. Selfish little..
Approaching the next house, something seemed off for some reason. Frowning, Koji noted that the other three felt the same way, and all of them stared at the large mummy leaning next to the door with suspicion. Eventually, Jino got the courage to knock on the door, only to be the victim of something they had all foreseen.
"GRAAAH!!"
"EEEK!!"
"A-AHH! ASTI-NEECHAN!"
"........" It seemed that only Rina and Koji were unsurprised when Asti, who was completely wrapped in bandages, suddenly lept up from her leaning position to scare the shit out of Jino and Shinri. Taking the candies as they were awkwardly dumped into the bags by a nervously apologizing Asti, the four headed off for the next apartment once more, Jino and Shinri both looking around at the upcoming doors rather nervously.
Things calmed down rather quickly after this of course- They were now at 50 plus apartments. However, coming up to apartment number 67 (Almost there, almost there..), the four were in for a rather upsetting surprise.
As soon as the door opened, Koji smelled fresh eggs. And soon, as the three in front yelled 'Trick or Treat!' He knew why.
"TRICK!!"
-CRUNCH-
Eggs. Eggs everywhere.. A collective groan was heard as Koji's tail and ears both twitched simultaneously to rid himself of the gooey, smelly mass of egg white and yoke now covering him. "Ugh..." This was.. Disgusting... It took all of his willpower to not strangle Jino when he cheerily said that the candy wasn't ruined in any case. Thankfully, Rina did not have Koji's willpower, and proceeded to chase after him using her bag of candy as a bludgeon.
At least apartment number 81's trick involved hosing them down with water guns. Less eggs, the better.
