I am so very, very sorry for keeping everyone waiting. Thank you so much for your patience. This part is really difficult to write, because I have to carefully plan where these small elements are going to intersect. I hope it was worth the wait for you guys. Don't worry. It'll all make sense after the end of part 2, even if it feels weird now.

Thanks again for reading!

25th SCENT: THE SUMMER FESTIVAL

Saturday morning. July 23th. Sunrise...

"Thbbbbbbwwwwwwwwwuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnng."

Rise snapped awake to a loud snapping sound exploding through her room. She sat up in bed and rubbed at her eyes. "Hm?"

Teddie was sitting by the door playing with the rubber door stopper, and giggling as if he'd just found the worlds best toy.

Exhausted and barely conscious, she flopped back to the sound filling the room, and whined. "Bear-thing..." she planted the pillow over her face to drown out the sound. That's right...she had brought that bear-demon home from the Amagi Inn late last night, because she felt guilty for hitting him hard enough cause memory loss.

"This is the beary best thing I've ever seen!" His joy radiated through the room. "What it is?"

The pillow dropped to the floor by her weary hand as she blinked out at the dim morning light streaming through her curtains. So much for sleeping in. "This morning, it's my alarm clock." She glowered at him as the irritating noise continued, picked up the pillow, and hurled it at him. "Stop it!"

Teddie yelped as the enormous object slammed him into the floor.

Might as well get up now. She couldn't fall back asleep, and even if she did, sleep would find her for merely a few minutes before her grandmother would take charge. That woman was notoriously punctual, and had rarely slept in. Ame Kujikawa was probably already up considering what day it was. The delicious smell of breakfast drifted down the hall to her room.

Rise slipped on her shoes and picked up the bear demon. "Stay in here until I get back, ok? My grandmother can't know you're here."

Teddie frowned when she set him down on the bed. "I'm hungry and it smells delicious out there." He clutched his stomach to emphasize that he was starving.

Rise yawned. "I'll bring you something back. Just stay here." She stumbled out of the room into the kitchen, rubbing at her eyes.

"You're up earlier than I'd except from you," Ame's silver hair was twisted up in a neat bun held by a jade hair stick she'd received as present while she was a Maiko. It held incredible sentimental value to her, though she knew one day it would need to be passed on. Were they in different times, Rise would have started her training at her last birthday and the hair decoration would go to her. She greeted her granddaughter with a smile and a plate of pancakes.

Breakfast was eaten quickly –though not sloppily, and before Rise could be questioned about why she was eating with the vigor of an athlete, she stacked more pancakes on her plate and rushed back to her room. Exhaling, she set the plate on the floor. "Here. I managed to get some pancakes for you." Nothing answered. "Bear?" The room was empty of any other life. That could only mean...

Rise ran back out. If her grandmother saw him, she'd be dead, and he'd be out on the street with an angry boot to the pound. Panicked, Rise raced through the house. Where could that stupid animal demon kid be?

"Did you lose something?" Her grandmother cleared off the table.

Rise froze on her hands and knees to look under the couch. Think fast... "I can't find my other sock, and I'll be late."

"I did all of your laundry last night. It's all put away." Ame stepped out of the kitchen just as a small slip of a shadow rushed by behind her.

Rise quickly got to her feet. "Oh," she smiled through a half hearted chuckle. "Then, I must have just missed it." She ran past into her room and shut the door quickly.

Ame arched an eyebrow curiously. Her granddaughter had her mother's knack for being flighty, and her father's eye for detail, but her behavior this morning was odd even for her.

Rise exhaled, then scowled at the little bear-boy stuffing his face with pancakes. "You stupid bear. Why'd you leave?"

Teddie swallowed a large bite of food. "The outside looked beary inviting. These are delicious! Is there any more?"

"They're called pancakes, and yes, there are." She slipped her socks on and grabbed her school bag. Having watching Yu and the fox, this was the only idea she could think of. "Obviously, I can't leave you here by yourself. My grandmother will see you, and I'll get in trouble, and you'll be sent off to the zoo or something, so you're coming with me." The little bear gave her no choice.

Teddie's eyes widened in joy. "A trip? Yay!"

She waited for him to crawl into the bag, and left her room quickly.

Ame watched her run from the tofu shop clutching the bag to her chest in one hand, and pulling a wagon with their supplies behind her in the other. She glanced to the rolled up cloth on the table and shook her head. That silly girl had forgotten to take the serving utensils. She'll have to deliver them, and then talk to her about rushing off without seeing everything through.

The residents of Inaba awakened as the morning sun warmed the waters of the Semigawa river. Many of the shop owners already had their cars pulled up near the shrine in a vacant lot up around the street corner, and were unloading their perishable goods in preparation for the first festival of summer. The repeated pulse of hammering added its percussion to the atmosphere of men and women calling out orders, working together, and putting the final touches on their stands for the festival that night. Rise moved through the middle of the organized chaos carrying the empty bag that once held the animal demon. "C'mon, don't lag behind. You said you wanted to help."

Teddie pulled the small cart filled with mini coolers of tofu, water, some ingredients to make individual orders there and ice behind him. "Did you have to bring so much tofu? This stuff is heavy."

"Of course," Rise moved aside to let him haul the wagon behind the stand when they arrived at the top of the hill. "We always sell tons at these festivals, so we have to have a pretty ample supply." She helped him move the coolers and set up. The bear boy's ears and tail were hidden, but he still complained like a small petulant child. He'd been conscripted into working as punishment for waking her up just before dawn.

She left the task of unpacking everything to the bear and supervised. Calling him by his animal type didn't run the risk of becoming bound to him if she decided to start using another name.

Naoto walked up to the stand and held out the steaming paper cup of coffee to Rise, who leaned heavily against the serving shelf of the tofu stand. "You look like you need this more than I do."

"Thanks." She was shocked the other thought of her, but the gesture made her happy. She sipped the coffee. "What are you doing here so early? The festival doesn't start for another couple of hours."

The cat demon rested against the side of the stand with her hands stuffed into her pockets. She straightened her slim blue tie and looked up at the trees. "I'm accompanying the officers performing the morning security sweep."

"Oh?" she could see through the cat's serious facade. "You sure you just didn't want to scope out the festival first?"

Ruffled, Naoto stood straight. "N-no, not at all. Anyway, you never said why you're so tired." She tried to hurry the conversation away from admitting Rise was right.

She yawned. "That bear woke me up at 6am -an hour before I had to actually get up."

That was the last thing Naoto expected to hear. "Bear?" She caught a glimpse of the short boy with wavy blond hair crouch down with his back to them to continue unpacking bowls. Her eyes widened. She'd only seen one other of his kind when they'd gone back to the Red World, and that had been the leader of the remaining animal demons fighting for survival against the Shadows. Could this be the same demon? "How did he get here?"

He turned, flashed her a smile, and went back to unpacking.

"I don't know. He just showed up out of nowhere at the Amagi Inn last night. I kinda hit him really hard, and now he can't remember his name." She stared at the design on the coffee cup's exterior. "I felt really guilty, so he's staying with me until he can recall who he is." The cat's pin-point focus stare peaked her curiosity. "Do you know him?"

If she answered in an affirmative, her friend would beg to know the demon's name. If she stayed silent, that would increase suspicions that she knew. Her answer had to be the third option –her least desirable, but most logical at this point: Lie. "No."

Rise sighed. "He'll have to remember on his own, then." She turned away from her assistant and leaned on the counter top, setting the coffee down. "But if he wakes me up again, he's out on his little bear butt."

Naoto thought back to every means she had used to wake up her parents that early, and settled on one she always seemed to go back to no matter how many times she'd been told to stop. "Did he find the rubber door stopper?"

"Yeah," she sighed. "How'd you guess?"

"That's an amazing invention." She chuckled. "I love that thing."

Rise eyed her with a dubious look of disbelief, like she hadn't correctly caught the punch line of a joke. "Seriously?"

"I remember the first time I came across one of those in the police station. For a while, it was the coolest thing in the world. For some reason, the sound it made was a lot of fun." She cleared her throat. "Sorry."

Their friendship had reached a point where the other first year finally started to trust her and be comfortable around her. It was rare that Naoto opened up about anything, which made Rise smile. She felt honored. "Don't be. With the way you usually look, I forget you're the same age as Yosuke –whatever that may be."

The simplest things would make Naoto smile, even though she considered herself a detective holding true to the prestige of the Shirogane name. Sometimes it felt good to act as young as she was, and to drop the mask of a serious high school student. She adjusted the cap on her head and stepped away from the stand. "I need to get back with the patrolling officers. Enjoy the coffee."

"Thanks. See ya tonight." Rise sipped the drink and melted into the chirping of the morning birds. It really was a beautiful spring day, and it held the promise of an unforgettable evening. Since she'd obtained an unexpected helper for the festival, she may get a chance to snag Yu away all to herself.

The banging clatter of dishes distracted her away from her reverie. "Hey, be careful with that."

"Sorry, Rise," Teddie stacked up the bowls on a side table.

She helped him restack the boxes carefully so they wouldn't fall over. "I've got it. Look, can you go get me some ice from the truck?" Giving him something to do would get him out of her hair for a while, so she could at least relax for a second and drink the coffee Naoto gave her. Luckily for her, the little bear already possessed the ability to transform into a Human, so she didn't have to worry about concealing his true nature –unless he slipped up.

"But we have a lot of ice already," he whined.

"Just go."

Teddie stood tall and suddenly hugged her tightly. She tensed at the unexpected action. "Rest assured that I'm the bear for the job!" He hopped over the table and sauntered back through the maze of stands whistling a spritely tune.

"Don't forget to tell them it's booth P4 at the corner! Row 4!" She sighed, then smirked. He really did remind her of how a teddie bear might act if it were alive. The image of the stuffed toy stayed with her whenever that animal demon was nearby. She could never call him anything other than 'bear,' though, which was unfortunate. The name 'Teddie' would really fit his personality. Finally, she could relax a little, close her eyes for a moment and the enjoy the coffee.

Teddie hummed along as he bounded down the hill toward a cluster of vehicles nearby. He bounced up to the open gate of a pick up truck bed packed with coolers. "Hi! S'cuse me."

A slim woman sitting daintily on a cooler stopped tapping her blue pen against a clipboard perched on her lap. "Yes?" Her tone lilted clear and friendly. She smiled beneath long, wavy blond hair at the short boy.

"I need some ice."

The woman clicked her pen delicately as she poised it over the form. "Ah yes. Booth number, please?"

Teddie scratched at his head where his ear would have been. "Um..." How horrible! He'd just been told by Rise not moments ago, and couldn't remember! There was a letter involved in it somewhere. G? No, E? No... "We, uh..."

The woman lifted a bag of ice from one of the coolers and set it on the tail gate and crouched down. Her eyes were gold –an odd color. "You're with that girl from the Tofu shop, right?"

"Yes!" Teddie grinned, not bothered by her strange irises at all. It seemed normal and not worth mentioning.

"Your name?"

Teddie's jaw slacked. He couldn't tell her it was 'Bear,' or anything at all. He still couldn't remember. Rise hadn't hit him hard enough for the effect to last this long. "Well, I-"

"You're a friend, then? Who are you here with?"

His posture perked up. "Rise Kujikawa and her delicious tofu!"

"Then you're in P4." She checked off the number of ice bags given to that booth, and the time. "Come back when you need more, ok?"

"To see a beauty like you? I'll come back even if I don't." Teddie hefted the bag of ice and shivered from the cold. "Thank you!" He sneezed.

"Bless you. Be careful to not catch a cold. I've heard there's something going around." She warned.

"I'll be fine. Nothing gets me down!" He took off running back up the hill.

Margaret chuckled to herself. "What an adorable little bear-demon." So, the leader of the last group of animal demons was now in play. This one was still very young –one of the new demons to be introduced to the valley before the Shadow infestation. He must have a name, and that caused her to ponder what had stolen that identity. Only a select few beings could affect an individual in that manner. He must have encountered one of them.

She turned to help another boothy with an ice request, and smiled slightly. Things should prove to become very interesting. She, like her master, was intrigued at what sort of journey this new addition would help to create.

He stopped near the top to look out at the morning glow brushing the clouds. At first, he'd thought it was a beautiful sight to be appreciated and savored –like the beauty of Rise, or that woman at the ice truck, or that girl at the Amagi Inn. As a flock of birds drifted on invisible currents beneath the rays of sunlight, it started to become more. Leaves rustled in the trees along the early summer breeze. He stared as an image scratched at the back of his mind. He remembered seeing something this breathtaking before –a very similar scene only without buildings. It lived in a quick flash through his minds eye, then disappeared. The power it held was enough to draw the content smile away from his lips. It was something special that he lost. He reached for it again, ignoring the cold ice over his shoulder, and focused to regain the image. If he could just snag it for one more brief moment, he could remember what it was all about, where it was, and why it held such strength.

What he found held no such welcoming grace. Instead, what surfaced marred his mind by its scraping, scratching, death rattle... of chains.

He shivered with wide blue eyes. The sound held no imagery, only horror. He stepped back, shutting his eyes tightly to will that sound away, and gripping the quickly melting ice. Why would he recall such an awful, terrifying sound? He turned to run, eyes still closed. He just needed to get away, he had to get away, he had to run and hide or else the thing rattling the chains would-

Someone slammed into him as he barreled past a booth. Ice spilled all across the pathway, melting quickly and turning the wet dirt into mud. "Ow," he groaned.

"Watch where you're running," the lazy drawl of a sleep deprived teen answered.

Teddie stood. "Sorry. I guess I wasn't paying attention." He grinned to the boy about his age.

"That's fine," he muttered back.

Had his ears been visible, they would have pulled forward in interest. "Have we met before?"

"No," came a short, abrupt answer.

"Oh. You seem beary familiar." Teddie frowned at the wet, ice-strewn dirt. "Oh no oh no oh no! Rise's going to have my beautiful hide!" He ran back down the hill. "See you later!" he waved back to the boy.

Mitsuo stared at the ice, bent to pick up a cube, and let it melt in his hand. "That's ok," he whispered as water dripped to the ground, "Bear." He stood, wiped his hand on his jeans, and walked away toward the shopping district.

Teddie explained what happened in great, dramatic, pantomiming detail to the woman in the truck, but couldn't get the solid black eyes of that kid out of his mind. They and he reminded him of the chains.

Rise looked up as Teddie came back shrugging a heavy bag of ice. "Hey, what took you so long? They opened up to the public five minutes ago."

He set the bag of ice down and shivered. "That's beary cold, you know. It's not nice to ask a person to carry that all the way up the hill twice." He flopped over on a bench in the back of the booth. "I'm a pooped out bear."

"Twice? I only asked for one bag," Rise began to argue, but the bear-boy was already napping with his lips draped over the bench. He really could sleep anywhere.

Well, at least she had some silence, and another hour before the festival really started to pick up. She eyed the bag with her mother's yukata in it and smiled. Only half the day to go before she felt confident in leaving the booth to the care of the sleepy animal demon –once she trained him, of course. Then she could find Yu and have her fireworks moment. The day was looking up, and with it, her hopes and her heart.

She tied her hair back by a white bandana, and waited for the flow of people to ebb her direction. "Good morning!" She happily greeted her first customer of the day. "Welcome. What can I get for you?"

The Dojima Residence. Mid morning...

10am, and the sun was already heating up the world outside the Dojima home. Thankfully, the air conditioner gave Nanako no troubles this morning as it filled the house with a slight cooling breeze. It was a small victory, since that machine was so fickle it didn't know if it was going to be an AC unit one day, or a hole in the wall the next. It normally only worked when it wanted do.

She sighed heavily as she leaned back on her hands to watch t.v, still dressed in her pajamas. The jaunty characters on her favorite morning cartoon usually made her laugh, but all she could think of was the festival. Her toes twitched in anticipation. Her father had said he'd be home from work early enough to go in the evening and see the fireworks. Before then, she'd been hoping to spend time with her friends. They'd asked her to join them with smiles of excitement, though before she could answer, the chatter had turned back to the one topic owning their past week at school: the art competition.

Each kid from her grade had drawn, painted, paper-machet'd, and glued together their finest works of art to be displayed at the festival for the scrutiny and appreciation by the festival goers. The art would be judged at 5pm before set up for the fireworks, and the grand prize was 5,000 yen. That was more money than Nanako had ever saved up in her short lifetime.

She glanced up as her cousin walked down the stairs. "Good morning."

"Good morning." He poured a bowl of cereal and sat on a cushion at the living room table to eat. "Are you going to the festival today?"

She nodded. "Uh huh. When daddy gets home, he said we can go, but-" she bit her tongue. Her cousin didn't need to know of her problems. Little kid stuff wasn't a big deal to big kids and high schoolers. Even if she told him, he'd probably do what her father did and 'hm' an answer while not paying attention.

He watched her frown in her silent battle. "Something wrong?"

She shook her head, then turned a smile to him. "It's fine. Really."

Nanako was many things—adorable, friendly, tiny, and sweet—but she wasn't a good liar. That had to be a trait from her mother, because the Dojimas, and the Setas on his mother's side naturally had amazing poker faces. He could see through the mask she put up without hardly trying. Reading people was a skill he used in kenjutsu competitions, but it also helped in getting a beat on someone. "You sure? You seem a little sad."

She got up and walked to the table where her painting lay and picked it up. "I gotta turn this in at the art booth by noon, but I can't stay with my friends." she pouted.

"Why not?"

She rubbed her foot against the floor and stared at the stars on her paining. It was a picture of a clear night sky over the Samegawa flood plane. "I don't have a yukata, and everyone will be wearing one but me. They'll laugh."

He couldn't leave her here alone. Even though he had plans to meet up with this friends at the Amagi Inn, knowing she was sitting here waiting around all day for her father and missing the festivities, would drag him down. The sun was shining, the grass was green, and there was no way he was going to let her stay indoors. "Let's go get you one, then."

Her eyes lit up. "Really? You mean it?"

Yu finished off his breakfast and put the dish in the sink. He nodded to her with a slight smile. "Yeah, sure."

"Wow, thanks!" She set her painting on the table and ran upstairs. "I'm gonna get ready!"

Best cousin ever, huh? That was some high praise from an 8 year old. He was thankful she didn't know anything about the TV world, personas, or his recent run in with that transfiguring beam or she might have said 'good kitty' instead. He reached up to rub his head. The animal ear bumps were almost completely gone, and he was very close to his original height again. The need to make a conscious effort to put shoes on every day was lessening as well. The raccoon had been right about footwear being uncomfortable. Some of it lingered, because he still wanted to go barefoot. He'd tried to go to school without them every day since the incident. He did miss being able to see at night, though. That part, at least, was pretty cool.

Nanako came bounding down the stairs in her pink jumper and white socks. She slipped on her shoes, grabbed her precious artwork, and waited while he sent a text to let his friends know he'll be a little late.

They left the house with Nanako skipping happily ahead. Movement to Yu's left made him pause. Sitting next to his uncle's old 10 speed road bike locked to a notch in the wall sat a large, yellow tabby cat. He recognized it as the same one Yosuke tried to fight a few weeks back. It locked its unblinking, calculating stare at him and flicked its tail in an idle, superior motion. Then it seemed to flash a smile, clearly arrogant, and bolted off across the street. He blinked. If the cat had sensed the feline animal element still within him, it wasn't intimidated by his size. This was his territory, and he was Alpha. The fox demon's nemesis was here to stay. He smirked, knowing full well he was more powerful than a simple tom cat, and shoved his hands in his pockets to follow Nanako to the shopping district. Yosuke could take him. What was the harm in a little rivalry between animals? If it got out of hand, Yu would show that cat just who really held the title of Alpha on this street.

Nanako waited at the end of the street for him to catch up and grabbed his hand.

It was a fare walk through the residential block south past a field to the shopping district. Nanako held her painting as she skipped along at her cousin's side. The warm weather convinced him that wearing his short sleeved white collared shirt was a good idea.

Yu stole a long look at the Moel gas station across the street when they turned to head up the district. He made it a point to go back on his own just to check the place out.

"That one looks pretty!" Nanako ran up the sidewalk to a small textile shop an array traditional clothing, and most were offering 'First Summer Festival' sales to entice would-be customers.

Yu glanced up at the sign. 'Tatsumi Textiles.' He smirked. Figures, it would belong to the family of one of his friends. If Kanji was here, he'd have a good reason to hang out for a bit while Nanako tried a few bits of clothing on.

The door slid open smoothly to a warm and homey shop. Various bolts of yukata and kimono fabric draped over bamboo poles on display. Some were folded up in the corner, and one long red stretch of silk took up an entire work table. It bore tiny marks where it was carefully measured to become someone's favorite kimono. The tailor responsible for such craftsmanship sat behind the table. She set down the marking pencil and grinned to her new customers.

"Good morning," Mrs. Tatsumi greeted them in her usual friendly, calm tone –the exact opposite of Kanji, Yu noticed. "How can I help you kids today?"

"My little cousin needs a yukata." He glanced to the clothing rack nestled along the wall. It looked like it had been brought out fairly recently, and wasn't a permanent staple in the shop.

"Ah, I have something perfect for you, then." She moved around the counter to the rack. "I have plenty of patterns for young girls; cherry blossoms, geometric patterns, flowers, butterflies, birds..."

Nanako tilted her head slightly to the side. So many choices! Where to begin. Thankfully, Mrs. Tatsumi had dealt with hundreds of confused customers before, so she grabbed a few, and a pretty pink child's obi, and lead the little girl to the dressing room.

Nanako emerged a minute or so later wearing a blue yukata with flowers. Yu gave a thumbs up. Happy, she went back in to try on another with help from the elder tailor.

Yu's phone buzzed in his pocket. He tapped on the screen to bring up the text from Yosuke.

[Still meeting at the inn?]

[Yeah. I'll be a minute.]

[Ok cool. We're still here.]

He pocketed the phone just as Nanako spun in a tiny circle to show off the next selection. He shook his head slightly from side to side. That color of salmon just wasn't right for her...or anybody. He liked to eat it. Not wear it. "Excuse me. Do you have a restroom I could use?"

"Around the corner. First door on the left." Mrs Tatsumi called from the dressing room.

"Thank you."

The door behind him slid open as another customer came in just as he disappeared around the corner.

"Hi, Mrs. Tatsumi. Oh," Chie smiled when she spotted her friend's little cousin exit the dressing room. "Hey, Nanako. What're you doin' here?"

"My cousin's helping me pick out a yukata" She held her arms out so the squares of the sleeves fell perfectly. It held a simple pink and white checked design.

"Oh, that's totally sweet. Guess he's kind of like your big bro, now, or something."

She blinked. "Big... bro?"

She chuckled her word slightly. "Yeah. He looks out for you. That's what big brothers do."

"Big bro..." Nanako turned the title over and over again in her head, and mouthed it a few times. The words felt right.

Mrs. Tatsumi brought out a white garment with bright yellow, green, and blue flowers mixed with hexagon shapes clustered together. "Here you are, dear. I got the stain out for you."

Chie lifted the yukata to the light. "Wow, there's nothing left. Thanks." She glanced to Nanako with a smug smirk. "My dog tried to run under the table and knocked a cup of tea onto it. Mrs. Tatsumi can get anything out of fabric, so I knew she could have it ready in time." She set down the garment so it could be folded correctly. "No matter what's happened this year, I wasn't going to miss this festival for the world."

"Were you two playing Chase?"

Chie knew the girl was reaching back to when she'd watched Yu and the fox demon playing in the backyard. "Well, …. Hey, that's a really pretty yukata. You should get that one. And some geta."

Nanako gasped happily and nodded. "Ok!"

Having the subject diverted from animal demons in public, Chie bowed lightly to Mrs. Tatsumi. "Thanks again. My dad said he'll pay you."

The older woman nodded. She'd had the Satonaka's as a customer for many years, and knew they were loyal, trustworthy people. "Enjoy the festival."

Chie left with her yukata and a grin.

Yu walked out of the bathroom just in time to see the back of Chie's head as she left the shop. He wondered what she was doing here. Nanako ran up to him. "I like this one! Chie says it's pretty and I need geta –whatever those are."

"They're wooden sandals." He helped her find the right size. "Ok. That's a good choice."

He opened his wallet to pay for the new ensemble, including the little two-teeth wooden clogs. He paused.

"I could have sworn I'd had enough money." He replayed the past couple of days regarding everything he'd bought until he finally realized exactly where he'd over spent. He'd given Yosuke some money for extra snacks this week. "Oh. Right. The fox took all my yen."

Nanako blinked up at him, and frowned at the thought of not going home with her amazing new yukata and weird wooden clogs.

"What's your name, boy?" Mrs. Tatsumi asked politely.

"Yu Narukami."

"Ah," she coo'd knowingly. "You're Kanji's friend. Well then, I can give you a discount. My son doesn't have many friends. Call this a bit of gratitude." She offered a new price, which the young man was able to afford and be left with some money for the festival as well. "Will that be all?"

"Yes. Wait, Actually..." That gave him another idea. "One more thing..."

Nanako waved to the kind woman with a smile and 'click clacked' out of the shop as he paid for the new dark blue folded clothes. He jogged out when he heard the little girl yelp in distress and took her hand to steady her until she could walk on her own. To help her balance, he hung the bag holding her normal clothing across his other arm.

"Thank you. These are really hard to walk in." she clutched at his arm.

"It takes some time, but you'll get use to them soon."

"You're the best, big bro ever." She giggled.

He paused. "Big bro?" He hadn't expected to hear that at all from her or anyone. And yet he was ok with it. Nanako hummed lightly as they walked up the street to the Tatsuhime shrine.

"I see the art booth over there!" And with that, she let go. "I can walk on my own now. Thanks!" The clacking of her little shoes disappeared into the buzz of the festival.

He spotted the Marukyu tofu stand up ahead, and figured a small snack wouldn't hurt his appetite before getting lunch later. He walked up to the booth, spotting Rise with her back turned as she dug ingredients out of a cooler. Just as he opened his mouth to get her attention, her assistant popped up suddenly from behind the counter. He blinked in shock. That blond hair, that silly frilly shirt, those blue eyes... It could only be one person. But what was he doing on this side?

"Hi!" The cheery boy grinned broadly. "Welcome to Marukyu Tofu, where every day is great with Tofu on your plate!"

"I told you to stop saying that. It's stupid, and it sounds like the Junes theme." Rise snapped.

He pouted. "I like the Junes theme."

Yu stared at him, blinking repeatedly. "...What are you doing here?"

Rise gasped. She spun, dropping her bag of tofu squares and shoved Teddie aside. "Do you know him?" she blurted out. She had to stop Yu before he said anything remotely like a name.

"...Yes. He's-"

"SHUT UP!" She clamped her hand over his mouth, which meant she was halfway over the counter. "Don't say it! You could be-"

People had started to stare.

She cringed in embarrassment.

Yu backed up a step away from her hand and stayed silent until the crowd realized the weird action was over and moved on. He lowered his voice. "My original question stands."

She sighed heavily. This was not how she wanted to start the first day of the festival weekend with him. Still, he wanted to hear the story, and that meant he would stay to listen –at least for a little while. It sounded like a fair trade to her.

He paid attention as she recounted her violent encounter at the Amagi Inn with Teddie. The bear's identity wasn't a secret to everyone who's been in the red world except for Rise. She'd been under the influence of her Shadow, blacked out numerous times, and likely didn't hear or register some of the conversation the first time they'd met the animal demons. He was relieved that Yukiko hadn't let on that she knew Teddie. They did not need another complication with being bound to a second animal demon. The two of them were having a hard enough time dealing with their own.

He glanced to the bear-boy when she finally finished her story. "I see. Maybe he used the portal entrance at the inn to get here."

"There's one there too?" She leaned forward on the wooden counter. This was news to her. She'd thought the only one lay hidden within the large frame of the giant TV in Junes.

"Every TV can be used in that manner."

She eyed him carefully. That unusual sense mirroring that of an animal demon still existed with him, though it was nowhere near as strong as it was at the start of the week. Maybe she could finally get some answers if he was relaxed. "You found one there? Did you go back to that world?"

He scooted a foot back. "I...gotta go check on Nanako. See ya later, Rise."

"Hey!" she called after him, though groaned when he disappeared into the crowd. She propped her cheek up on her elbow with a disgruntled 'hmph' at his behavior. "Figures." She tapped Teddie on the head, who was still sulking on the ground for being pushed. "Sorry for that. You don't remember him, do you?"

Teddie shook his head. "Kinda, but it's right on the beary end of my brain. Right here," he tapped on his forehead, "kinda like sticky rice."

That made her smirk. It wasn't a bear pun, but at least it was funny...ish. She checked her phone. It was about time for her to changed. She dug around in the bag for a while, though frowned. "Darn. I left my geta at home. Hey, can you watch the stand for me?"

Teddied smoothed back his hair and gave her a thumbs up. "No problem! I've got this covered. I'll fill everyone's bellies with so much tofu that-"

"Don't use that catch phrase."

"Awe, but it's-"

"Bear," she threatened in a turned-up tone.

"Ok, ok," he harumphed as he watched her run out of the festival. Then let a mischievous grin snap up the ends of his lips. "She didn't say anything about variations on a theme."

Spotting his first victim, Teddie practically leaped over the counter top, startling the poor woman and her son. "Tofu's great when it's on your plate, but it's more yummy when it's in your tummy!"

They hurried away from the strange boy and his bad puns.

"You're not tofu-ling me! I 'koya' want some!" His smile remained. "You can dine and agadashi!"

An old woman wearing a dark veil chuckled as she passed by. "Those puns were bad enough, that I just have to stop. Can you give me some ganmadoki?"

"Right away!" He handed over the treat just as she asked, though without accepting payment.

"I knew a young man once who enjoyed bad jokes the same as you. You remind me of him. Ikutsuki's sense of humor never did get better." So tickled by this odd boy and the memories it conjured of her journeys to the city, Hisano Kuroda walked away without realizing she hadn't paid.

This continued on through the morning –horrible puns and all.

Next Scene: The Summer Festival. Part 2