Sayaka 2: Kickball and Washing

Hiroshima; August 15th, 1994

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Despite everything that had happened, or maybe because of it, Makoto decided that the council should take a break and pick a random day to bond with each other to grow closer together. Kaito suggested a kickball game, and Makoto suggested they have a picnic afterwards, and everyone agreed. Leon then suggested they bring along their significant others who weren't involved in the council just so they'd have enough people, and the council reluctantly agreed on the grounds it would be just them and the game wouldn't turn into a community event. It was specifically just for the council, after all.

After agreeing on a place; the giant field surrounding the amphitheater, and a date of the fifteenth, the council all eagerly headed up to the hill, Kaito and his housemates being the first to arrive alongside Makoto and Sayaka. They were all wearing makeshift uniforms made from T-shirts or tank tops with tiny shorts and matching sneakers. The girls had their hair up.

"Okie-dokie! I think we should start setting up the area. I brought some cones for us to use, they can mark the bases," Kaito held out the orange cones.

"Please never say 'okie-dokie' ever again," Maki rolled her eyes.

"Setting them up sounds like a great idea!" Makoto nodded, and Kaito hurried off to go do that. He made sure each one was the same distance away from each other.

The last two to arrive were Leon and Kaede; the self-proclaimed 'Warriors of Hope' trailing after them.

"I thought they'd be great scorekeepers!" Kaede explained happily, ushering the children onto a nearby picnic table.

"Who's going to be on whose team?" Aoi asked curiously, looking around at everyone.

"Split it up four ways?" Makoto suggested. "Four people to start...you, Kaito-san, Harukawa-san, and...Leon-san,"

Those four nodded and took their place beside home plate.

"Sayaka-chan, first base. Hifumi-san, second base. Aiko-chan, third base. Yasuhiro-san and Kaede-chan and I will be out on the outfield," Makoto said as those four started to take their place. Chihiro stared at Makoto, his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Oh! You can be the person who rolls the ball to everyone,"

As long as nobody purposefully kicks it at me to be funny... Chihiro wrote out before he grabbed the red rubber ball and tossed it in his hands a bit before he took his own position.

"Oh! What should the winners get?" Aoi asked eagerly.

"I never thought that far ahead..." Makoto admitted, laughing awkwardly.

"It's okay. You'll think of something later," Sayaka reassured him, and with a simple hand gesture, the game begun.

Maki was the first one up to base and gently hit the ball against her foot, dashing down the field and landing on first base before anyone could catch it. Chihiro stared after her in disbelief, blinking.

"That's my girl!" Kaito cheered. Maki rolled her eyes at him.

"Oh, I'm next!" Aoi cheered eagerly, running straight towards the ball when it was rolled and kicking it hard, making it sail over practically everyone's heads. She giggled awkwardly and took off running, clearing all the bases. Maki had already made it back to Home and neither girl even broke a sweat. Kaede gasped as the ball sailed towards her and rushed after it, jumping up and grabbing it.

"Yeah!" She gasped, rolling it back over to Chihiro.

Aiko pouted a bit. "Can we switch?"

"We literally just started!" Sayaka gasped.

"I dunno...just standing here is tiring," Hifumi sighed. "I thought I had more stamina than this..."

Chihiro stifled his giggles and rolled the ball over to Kaito, who accidentally kicked it right at his face.

"Oh no!" Kaede gasped. Sayaka covered her mouth in shock. Chihiro hit the ground, groaning in pain as the ball rolled harmlessly away.

Aoi raced over to him, carefully helping him up. "Are you alright? You don't have a concussion or anything, right?" She asked slowly once he was looking at her. He shook his head.

Thank goodness some of my teeth had already been knocked-out long before..otherwise you would've taken them, He showed to Kaito when he picked the ball back up.

"Oh, right. Forgot about that," Kaito laughed awkwardly.

Chihiro gingerly rubbed at his lips, getting back on his knees.

"He didn't give you a black eye, did he?" Sayaka asked in concern.

"Now this game is getting interesting!" Masaru laughed from his position on the bench, making the other children snicker.

"It's not nice to laugh at people's pain," Maki scolded them.

"Sorry, Big Sister Maki..." Kotoko mumbled a bit.

The game continued; when it was time to switch, Aoi, Maki, Leon, and Kaito had collectively scored the most points for their team; 10 since they were using doubles.

"I'm still curious about what the winner should get!" Aoi teased Makoto as she walked past him. "Don't leave us hanging!"

"You get a prize from the gachapon machine," Sayaka teased. "Only 100 yen!"

"Oh, I love gachapon! This restaurant I used to visit with my parents had one inside and they had Hello Kitty stuff inside!" Aiko chimed in, her eyes sparkling. "I couldn't get the limited edition of her in the polka-dot dress though..."

"It would be on my honor as a gentleman to personally find you one of those then!" Hifumi placed his hands on his hips. "Even if I must spend every single ounce of my own money!"

"Even I'm familiar with those. My grandparents let me splurge and try them out every year on my birthday," Kaito smiled wistfully.

"I always couldn't wait for my daughter Hana-chan to grow up so I could teach her to use one," Kaede added.

They were one of the few things that brought me joy while I was traveling as a teenager. If I had anything left from working and meals, I'd try my luck. I didn't really keep anything I won though, instead giving them to any children I came across. Especially any orphans or foster children like myself. Chihiro wrote down, passing the note around to everyone before he closed up his notebook.

"Is there a gachapon machine anywhere around here though?" Leon asked. "I don't recall ever seeing one."

"Yes! There's one in the bank, believe it or not!" Sayaka exclaimed happily. "I saw it the other day when I was helping Kirigiri-san search for something."

"It's a strange place to have one though, right?" Aoi asked curiously, blinking.

"What did they have inside?" Aiko bounced up and down in excitement.

"Oh, I didn't look," Sayaka admitted in embarrassment. "But we can all go look together after this game!"

"Big Sister Sayaka? Could we please have something from the machine?" Kotoko asked nicely, and Sayaka nodded. "Yay! I want to get a princess doll!"

"I want to get Sailor Moon's wand!" Aiko posed.

With that, everyone was back in position again and the game restarted. That team was noticeably less athletic in comparison to the one who went before them, a fact multiple people pointed out to Makoto in amusement. Kaede ended up being the one who scored the most for her team and when it was time to switch again, they had six points.

By the end of the afternoon, Kaito's team had ended up winning with twenty points. Much to everyone's surprise, Sayaka's team placed second with twelve, and Makoto's team came in third with only eight points.

"Before we go to the bank to use the gachapon machines, I was thinking, that maybe...we could have a break for lunch? Sayaka-chan and I stayed up late last night, trying our best to make bento for everyone," Makoto trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Are they tailored to our tastes?" Maki asked curiously.

"We tried,"

Everyone took a seat at the picnic tables, pushing two of them together so they could all sit together and remain with their significant other. Sayaka carefully unwrapped the pile of red bento and started passing them out while Maki laid out a clean yellow blanket on the grass for the kids, giving them their own customized bento as well. Afterwards, everyone took their seat at the picnic tables and opened up their bento slowly, wanting to see what they had.

"I know a lot of what I put in there seems a bit...odd, but we're not really the most normal of people, are we?" Sayaka blushed lightly. "I still hope it's to your liking. I put a lot of normal things in there too," Her own was a simple side salad with an umeboshi on top of rice. Makoto just had an umeboshi and rice dish.

"Wow, they look really good! I can't even imagine how long it took you to make these!" Aoi beamed in appreciation. Hers had a side salad and grilled salmon with a small homemade doughnut. She went for that first, the powdered sugar coating her lips and fingers.

"A very long time," Makoto smiled awkwardly.

"I can't remember the last time I got to sit down and just eat with my friends, relaxing," Kaito begun, his chopsticks hovering over his beef noodles. "Sure, we all ate with Miss Chiaki, but that seemed to be more of a formality, you know. And I enjoyed that, don't get me wrong. I guess I just never realized how much I enjoyed being surrounded by good-spirited people,"

"You can turn any moment into a huge, emotional speech," Maki sighed, eating her chicken noodles. She also had a side of tsukemono.

"That's just the kind of person I am, Harumaki!" He jokingly pulled her closer to him, making her tense up slightly.

"Awww, these are so cute!" Aiko cooed over her panda-shaped riceballs. "Look, Master Hifumi! They're pandas!"

"They certainly are, Aiko-chan!" He nodded in agreement, mulling over his that were shaped like the moon and stars. "She really nailed your aesthetics!"

"They're almost too cute to eat..." She drooled a bit, staring at them.

Chihiro swigged from his cup of green tea and went back to eating; his meal being ramen with leeks and a fried egg on top. He managed to catch the egg in his chopsticks and slurped it up loudly.

"Don't eat so fast there, Fujisaki-chi! What if your stomach gets upset?!" Yasuhiro scolded him, having a meal of grilled pork and rice with a small salad.

Chihiro swallowed and wrote: It's just an egg. It's not like I'm scarfing down sweet potatoes or something,

"Fried eggs can ruin your digestive system though! Knew a guy once who said it happened to him. All of his bowel movements from then on were super runny and he always had the sweats! You don't want that to happen to you too, right dude?!"

"Ewww, not when we're eating!" Aoi protested.

Kaede laughed a bit. Her meal was identical to Leon's; sweet-potato fries with elaborately-decorated hot-dogs without buns. They also had beers.

"You're enjoying the company, aren't you?" Leon assumed, and Kaede nodded.

"I love seeing everyone get along with each other,"

"That's why I'm really happy everyone was able to make it to this. I was afraid a few of you would decline..." Makoto admitted softly, looking down at his food.

"Heck no! We'd never decline an offer from a friend!" Kaito announced. "And that's what we're all now, friends. We all came from entirely different walks of life, and I don't know what brought us together-"

"The spirits," Yasuhiro stated.

"God," Kaede mumbled.

"Faith?" Sayaka offered.

A lucky set of coincidences, Chihiro tapped his pencil against his paper.

"-But regardless, it did what it was supposed to, and now we're together. We should toast or something!" Kaito finally finished.

"You don't have to make it sound like you're dying," Maki scolded.

Leon took a sudden chill as he recalled the note Chihiro gave to him, and Sayaka stared at him. "Are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, fantastic. The ketchup hit me weirdly," He brushed it off, running a hand through his hair. "Nothing you gotta worry about."

"We can't toast, but..." Kaede trailed off a bit and gently kissed Leon, giggling. Sayaka blushed a bit and followed her example, pulling Makoto close to her. Kaito swept Maki off her feet, kissing her deeply in a way that made her eyes widen and the rest of the table chuckle and cheer. Aoi pulled Chihiro closer to her, keeping her hands on his back as they kissed. Aiko and Hifumi looked at each other and scooted further away, Aiko's cheeks pink.

The children giggled a bit, watching them. Maki stood up from her meal, having finished, and walked over to them.

"It's also rude to watch people in their private moments," She scolded.

"How could it be private if you were kissing in public?" Monaca piped up, closing the book her and Nagisa were reading. She then stood up and brushed the dirt off her dress.

"It looks like almost everyone is finished eating here, so we can go check out the bank's gachapon machine!" Sayaka nodded, starting to pack up the empty boxes.

"You'll still let me get something, right?" Kotoko asked shyly, and Kaede smiled.

"I don't see why not!" She reassured her, and the little girl cheered and ran ahead of the others.

Most of the group remained together even as they walked down to the bank, Aiko happily pulling on Hifumi's arm and trying to get him to look at all the dress stores they passed by. Chihiro hung back near the end with Kaito and Maki; Aoi was with Sayaka and Makoto.

"That food was surprisingly good though, huh? Not as good as Miss Chiaki's, but that's to be expected. She's spent her whole entire life cooking, probably," Kaito addressed them. "I think that just goes to show you good food can always be made no matter what,"

Maki ran her hand through her hair, not responding. Chihiro slipped his hands into his pockets and burped loudly.

"Yeah, that's the ticket! It shows how satisfied you were!" Leon cheered.

"That's gross! Don't encourage him!" Aoi immediately scolded. Chihiro looked away, burping again.

"It's from the fried egg! I warned you, dude!" Yasuhiro spoke up.

I think I have heartburn, Chihiro admitted, blushing. He stifled another burp.

"The bank!" Aiko announced happily, running ahead of everyone else up the steps and throwing open the doors. Sayaka smiled a bit.

The machine was tucked into a corner of the lobby, behind some chairs, and was painted a pastel blue. Maki walked over to it first and assessed it carefully.

"I wonder what's in it?" Sayaka asked.

"It's not broken, which means the machine is likely still at least somewhat full. Nobody stole from it and even though nobody could refill it, nobody was able to use it for several months. So we should be able to use it fine as long as we have money," Maki finally announced. Despite being on the winning team, she made no further movements, so Kaito eventually went first, pulling out his money and feeding the coins into the machine before turning the crank.

Out slipped a tiny plastic capsule topped with a purple lid that contained a keychain of a bunny girl. He laughed a bit. "It's neat, but I also don't really think it's my thing,"

"I'll take that! It's probably some sort of limited edition thing...you know?" Hifumi announced. "Better off in my hands than yours anyway!"

"Hey, take it," Kaito tossed it to him.

Aoi got a pair of white lacy kid gloves, and Leon got a kitty-shaped barrette he immediately gave to Kaede. Maki went several times, getting mood-rings for each of the kids, who marveled and gasped over the different colours their plastic rings glowed.

"Today was productive," Sayaka smiled as she watched everyone start to disperse after the long day. She leaned her head on Makoto's shoulder.

He nodded. "Yeah...do you think everyone grew closer?"

"Hmm...I'm not sure. It seems like they did," She smiled up at him. "I just like to watch them all sometimes. It's truly amazing...Kaito-san's right, we came from all different backgrounds and personalities and even our accents are different...but we all managed to make it work,"

He held her close. "That's what hope does to people,"

The next day, Sayaka woke up with the sun and made breakfast, leaving the leftovers out for Makoto. She didn't want to wake him up again. She got dressed in her favourite frilly black housedress with the off-shoulder sleeves and purple flower print, cinched her waist with a belt, tied her hair back with a matching bow, then grabbed the washboard. She dragged an empty washing tub out into the middle of the road in the center of town, then filled it up with solution, stirring the mix carefully with a large spoon. The washboard was by her side, as was a large pile of clothing.

Today was the day her and a few other girls in the community decided on being their 'wash day', getting a giant haul of dirty clothes from their houses and doing them all together, all at once. Sayaka was the one who proposed it and the others thought it was a good idea for unwinding and went along with it.

As she finished stirring up a large lather, the remainder of the other girls arrived; Aoi, Maki, Kyoko, Aiko, and Kaede, each with their own buckets and washboards and clothing bags.

"Where's Ikusaba-san?" Sayaka asked curiously as Kaede finished stirring up her own lather.

"I couldn't seem to find her anywhere," She shrugged, though her voice showed how disappointed she was. She wore her hair loose for once with red sneakers, tiny jean shorts, and a black see-through crop top with lace flower appliqués.

"I don't think that's a bad thing...she just wants alone time," Aoi blushed slightly, wearing a blue scrunchie in her high ponytail with baggy overalls and a white blouse.

Maki was silent, wearing her usual grey checkered shirt; tied around her waist to reveal a black tank top and sneakers with high-waisted jeans. Her hair was up in a ponytail tied by a purple scrunchie.

Aiko pouted as she tried her hardest to scrub a T-shirt using a sponge and the washboard, concentrating fully. She wore a long cream dress with a purple flower print over a white turtleneck similar to Sayaka with her chestnut hair in pigtails.

"Don't be so rough on it!" Sayaka scolded. "I've learned the best way to go about this is to be gentle and slow,"

Kyoko was instead mending a jacket of Yasuhiro's, looking at something in the distance instead of at the other girls. She had her hair worn loose with a grey sweater and kneesocks, black saddle shoes, and a matching pleated skirt.

The girls silenced themselves as well, working hard at the task at hand with the utmost concentration. For a while, nobody had spoke until Aoi suddenly let out a large yawn.

"Are you not getting enough sleep?" Kyoko immediately asked.

"Kinda? I mean, I do sleep, but..." Aoi trailed off.

"It's hard to sleep at night now, I'll admit. Those two make a lot of racket. Some nights I find it hard to believe he's a mute," Maki announced, holding up a purple jacket to the light to see if it was clean enough yet.

Aoi giggled in embarrassment and rubbed the back of her neck with her hand.

"Oh, are you trying to have a baby too?" Sayaka asked eagerly.

"Actually, not really," Aoi admitted. "Harukawa-san, on the other hand...if you want to talk about loud, it always sounds like he's throwing her into the walls!"

Maki looked away at that, huffing. "We're just doing some late-night training. Nothing wrong with that,"

Sayaka giggled and finished scrubbing the pair of jeans she had in her hands. "I just realized, we have no place to let these dry at,"

"We could just leave them out in the sun," Kyoko suggested, and the other girls nodded in agreement.

"And come get them after lunch, when they'll likely be dry! That's a great idea!" Kaede exclaimed.

And so the girls returned to their work, cleaning and mending their clothes. Once they returned to the dry pieces, they immediately scooped them back up and surprised their housemates with them.

All was well.