Yumi's family hosts a party for Christmas.
It was a chilly December night at the Takano household. Windows sealed up tight, extra large kotatsu pumping out heat, and trays of delicious food begging for someone to eat them could mean only one thing – it was time for a party. A little before one, at least, as both Yumi and her grandmother were hard at work making the last of the preparations before people arrived (Yumi in particular doing her best not to start eating right then and there).
Thankfully for her stomach, someone showed up right on time, meaning the permission to eat was granted as soon as they entered the house. Yumi rushed to the door as her grandmother walked one last dish into the sitting room, Kazuhiko stepping inside dramatically while combing his pompadour as soon as the door opened. Like before, he adamantly refused to change from his uniform, though he did choose to wear a white collared shirt for a bit of extra flair. "Merry Christmas, Takano family! I, Kazuhiko Mitsuru, have come from the far reaches of Chiba to attend your gathering at the behest of my close personal friend, Miss Yumi!" He was certainly in a mood tonight.
The rest of his act was interrupted when a hand was placed firmly on top of his head. "Mitsu, honey, we talked about this. No making speeches until we've been inside for 10 minutes." In comparison to her son's absolutely terrible fashion sense, she had on a much more practical navy pea coat over a turquoise sweater and a pair of boot cut khaki pants.
"Mom, you messed me up! It was going to be so good, too." From behind the both of them came Sachi, barely stopping for long enough to take her shoes and coat off and wave to Yumi before speeding into the other room at the smell of food. Amusingly, she was dressed almost the same as her mother (entirely on accident) save for her sweater featuring a cartoon catgirl from some unpopular mobile game that she inexplicably loved.
Kazuhiko's mother stepped around him as he grumbled, removing her coat to hang up on a rack beside the door and bowing to greet both Yumi and her grandmother as she came to the doorway. "It's nice to see everyone again," she said.
"Same to you," the older woman said. "We all really should have gotten together for something like this a lot sooner."
"Oh, I agree," she said cheerily. "But being a single working mother makes it hard to fit things into your schedule."
She nodded sagely, gesturing for the woman to follow her "Come on. We've got plenty to eat and something nice to drink. I brought out the good stuff just for the occasion."
"I love alcohol!" she exclaimed, putting her hands together in excitement. "I always say, nothing makes better friends faster than drinking." The two walked to the next room together, their children staying behind to catch up before joining the festivities.
"Looks like my mom is getting hammered," Kazuhiko said dryly. "We might have to stay over."
"Grandma already told me that's okay, so don't worry," Yumi said. "It might be fun. You've never slept over here before."
He nodded. "Nice outfit, by the way," he told her, gesturing to the crisp green yukata she was wearing, goggles still resting safely on her head as usual despite the style clash. At least her hair wasn't in pigtails for a change, lending the look a bit more cohesion that it might have otherwise. "That new?"
"No, I just haven't worn it in a while," she replied. "I thought about it during the festival but I didn't want to go through the effort. So now I'm wearing it for Christmas."
"Makes sense," he agreed. "Why'd you think about having this party, anyway? I don't think you ever told anyone."
She shrugged. "Well, it seemed like a fun idea. When we all went out the other day, we just did whatever we felt like, so a party where we could just hang out might be fun in a different way, you know?"
"I get it," he said. "Who else is coming?"
"Well, there's you and Hideo. Sakuya."
"No Ami and Suzy?"
"Ami went out of town again to visit some relatives and Suzy doesn't celebrate Christmas. She's in Tokyo now, too, so we're going to meet up before the tournament. And I never asked her, but Kaguya overheard me thinking about this idea on the last day of school and said she didn't want to come, but she did give me this really nice drawing of Majesty Magician, so I don't know what to think about that."
"That girl is weird," he said, making both a quick and accurate judgment of her based on their only meeting so far.
"Hey, I just remembered. Why are you here?" Kazuhiko looked at her strangely for a moment before she explained. "I mean, most people are on dates during Christmas, and since you're the only one of us who actually has someone to date, shouldn't you be with Kenji?"
He sighed loudly, putting his hands behind his head. "Yeah, that would be something. Might have even brought him here. But his parents kind of suck and don't like me, so he's not allowed out."
"Oh, I'm really sorry," she said, patting him on the shoulder. "I don't know if it'll make you feel better, but we at least have a lot of food."
"It's a start," he grinned, sniffing the air to try and predict what was waiting for them in the other room.
"I'm only going to warn you once, though, that I'm both willing and able to destroy you in Duel Monsters if you try to take the last takoyaki from me," Yumi told him with complete seriousness.
He scoffed, raising his fist in front of him. "Just try it! You might be the Chiba Champion, but I haven't been slacking off in my own training! I'll show you the power of anguish and hunger combined!" Before their banter was allowed to go any further, another knock came from the door.
It was Hideo, both Yumi and Kazuhiko giving them high fives at the same time. "Merry Christmas," Yumi greeted, Hideo returning the gesture via text. Before they could converse more, though, two other people let themselves in.
One was a towering man in thick glasses and an even thicker brown beard, smiling happily as he ducked through the door frame and said, "Hello, everyone," in a booming tone. He placed a large red coat on the nearby hanger, doing the same with a green one belonging to his companion moments later before straitening out the gray sweater he had on. "It's nice that we finally get to meet."
"Hideo always talks about you so much," the second said, a woman with a wiry frame and a bit of a nasally voice, blonde hair jutting out in all directions despite the obvious attempts made to contain it at some point prior to arriving. She wore a matching sweater, insofar as it seemed to be the exact same size given how it draped over her more like a robe. Without even needing to say so, it was immediately obvious that these were Hideo's enigmatic parents. The uncharacteristic shame they displayed when the two began to greet their friends, hunching forward far more than usual and pulling up the strings on their hoodie to expose the least amount of face possible, seemed to confirm it.
"Hey, it's nice to meet you guys," Kazuhiko said. "Never seen you before all the times I've been to your house, so it was kind of weird just meeting you now."
"You must be Kazuhiko, then," Hideo's father said, the two clasping hands to immediately begin a test of strength. "Sorry for not introducing ourselves sooner. My university research keeps me pretty busy."
Despite his friendly tone, Kazuhiko was already beginning to struggle under the massive grip strength. "Don't sweat it," he said, forcing a laugh as his arm began to shake.
"I'm always traveling to archaeological sites," his wife added. "It's rare we all get to be together like this, so it's good that we'll finally be able to see the wonderful people our adorable child has as friends." She cooed to Hideo, actually managing to get them to hold her hand, though it was clearly not an enjoyable experience (seemingly more for simple embarrassment as opposed to something sensory).
The only thing to match Hideo's growing teen angst was Kazuhiko's determination, pulling up energy from the parts of his soul he never even knew existed just to try and stand a chance at matching his opponent's strength. He was, of course, fighting a losing battle no matter how much he grit his teeth and strained, falling to one knee with sweat pouring from his forehead.
Seeing fit to end things, Hideo's father released Kazuhiko's grip, laughing uproariously and patting him roughly on the shoulder. "Good effort," he complimented.
"If he's as good at dueling as you are, I might have a new rival," Kazuhiko said to Hideo as he rubbed his thoroughly crushed hand.
"Say, isn't there usually one more of you?" their mother asked. "Hideo usually talks about three people."
"Oh, Sakuya's going to be here," Yumi spoke up, having silently taking in this very amusing scene up until now. "Soon, probably."
"I see," she replied. "Where are our manners, though. We almost forgot to thank you for having us over." She and her husband gave Yumi a respectful bow, something she returned a bit awkwardly.
"It's fine, you don't have to thank me," she said, pointing off to the side. "The party's through there. I don't think we're supposed to stand here all night, you know?"
Hideo's father gave another laugh. "You make a good point. Let's go meet everyone, Mama Bear."
"Right behind you, Papa Bear."
As they left to enter into the sitting room, the kids stayed behind for a moment. "So I guess you're the Baby Bear," Kazuhiko said, bathing in the sick satisfaction he felt at seeing Hideo so flustered after he'd been memed on for so long.
"They seem really nice," Yumi added, always overjoyed at the sight of couples in love even if they happened to be the parents of a friend. Thinking on it, that was actually fairly unusual for their group, all the rest of them having some form of single parentage.
Kazuhiko gestured towards the room with his head. "Come on, let's go get some food. Bet I can get your parents to tell me some goofy stories about you if I ask, too." Hideo responded with a threat to do the same with his mom. "You think that'll work? I'll gladly self-destruct if it means taking you with me!"
In the other room, things had really started to liven up. Sachi was currently devouring half the table, shoving fried shrimp and fish into her face in between different items cooked in the hot pot. Meanwhile, both Yumi's grandmother and Kazuhiko's mother welcomed Hideo's parents with open arms and plentiful alcohol.
"Did something happen there?" the older woman asked, the conversation having shifted to the subject of the lack of father for the Kazuhiko children.
"Oh, that?" she replied with a small laugh, voice retaining its normal upbeat timbre. "That rotten bastard left me when I was pregnant. Completely useless, that one. If there was one good thing he did in his miserable life, it's that he gave me my Mitsuru. Such a sweet boy." The group turned to watch as Kazuhiko entered, having begun a verbal/non-verbal sparring match with Hideo over who would get the most dirt out of the other's parents as Yumi watched. "So sweet. And don't even get me started on Sachiko's. There was a truly awful man."
"At least they're out of your life now," Hideo's mother said with a supportive nod, letting her child under the kotatsu next to her.
"And we get by just fine without either of them," she said cheerily, pounding a glass of beer like a real champ.
"Couple of scumbags," Kazuhiko echoed, sharing his mother's hatred for his and his sister's fathers.
"Gross," Sachi added next to her mother without looking up from her food. Though she wasn't alive to remember either of them, she was more than justified in her hatred with all the issues they'd caused for all three of them over the years. At the very least, it did make the family a much stronger unit when it counted.
Just as Yumi was about to sit down and finally taste some of her precious takoyaki, there came more knocking at the door. "I'll get it," she said, taking one last wanting look back at her favorite food before walking back towards the entrance. Seconds after leaving the toasty sitting room, she began to feel the true cold of her house and its lack of heating system or insulation. Scampering to the door as fast as possible and hoping to return to the warmth just as quickly, she opened it to reveal, of all people, Rio.
"Welcome," Yumi said a bit uneasily, stepping aside to allow her former enemy into her home.
"Thank you for inviting me," Rio said sweetly with a bow. In a strange turn of events, she was actually working to hide how overjoyed she was with something as opposed to concealing some dark thoughts or hatefulness. "Your house is really nice," she continued, hanging an expensive fur coat on the rack. "Is it as old as it looks? You don't see many like this around anymore."
"Rio, don't be rude," her father said as he came inside, his wife following close behind.
"I didn't mean it like that!" she said, panicked at the thought of having said something to further Yumi's dislike of her. "I was meaning it as a compliment! Like, how it's unique and looks like it has a lot of history."
"It's fine," Yumi said, bowing to the Mabuchi's. "Thank you for coming to the party." While she wasn't exactly thrilled at their arrival, she didn't have much of a choice in the matter. After all, they were her sponsors. Inviting your boss to a Christmas party seemed like something people did, though she doubted most of them actually had to deal with the consequences of said boss taking them up on that offer.
"Well, thank you for having us," he said with a smile, acting a lot more personable than she imagined the father of Rio would be. "Our daughter seemed very excited when you invited her here. I supposed I can understand that in a way. After all, I like to get to know the people our company sponsors. You'll be heading to the tournament in a few days, correct? Why don't we-"
His wife tapped him on the arm. "Dear, she doesn't want to talk about business during the holidays," she said. "There's plenty of time for that later."
"Right, right. My apologies." The two hung their coats, as well, officially making this the most use that fixture had ever gotten in the Takano household's history.
"The party's right this way," Yumi told them. "Just follow me."
"Oh, wait," Rio said. "Could you two go without us?" she asked her parents. "I wanted to catch up with Yumi for a moment."
"Of course," her mother replied. "Just through that door, right?"
"Right," Yumi said, her voice dropping a bit given her visible discomfort with being left alone with Rio. The adults didn't seem to notice, though, simply leaving the two be out in the cold. "Did you need something?" she asked.
The facade dropped at that, Rio's expression changing from one of chipper cuteness to her more natural, neutral state. "I just wanted to let you know something before the tournament. You probably guessed that I'll be attending already. That means we'll be dueling again." She went quiet for a moment, finally adding, "It won't be like last time. We'll settle things fair and square. No more tricks."
Yumi hesitate to respond, considering things before nodding. "Right," she said. Despite all the bad memories now associated with dueling Rio, she couldn't deny that the prospect of a rematch was a bit enticing. There was a lot she could say about the other girl, none of them being that she was a boring opponent to play.
"Anyway, that's all I wanted to say," she concluded before seeming to have remember something. "Oh, and, uh...I made you this." With a bit of hesitation, Rio reached into her pocket and retrieved a CD case. "I would have gotten this to you sooner but it takes a little while to make music."
Yumi took it in her hand, turning it over for a moment. "They're all unreleased so you'll be the only person besides me who's heard them if you listen before the start of next year." She cleared her throat, quickly adding, "You don't have to, of course. It's just that you asked to hear my songs before and I...thought maybe you could have them."
"Oh, right," she replied, their earlier conversation coming back into her mind. "I'll find a way to listen to it, thanks." Examining things more closely, Yumi was a bit surprised at just how professional this looked, though the fact that Rio and her family were obscenely wealthy made that somewhat less impressive. Either way, the high quality plastic featured custom album art, a pink and blue grid with the words "Neon Dreaming" in gold English in the top left, smaller black Japanese spelling it out along the bottom. Even the CD itself had a version of the cover printed on its surface.
"If you don't have a CD player or anything, I could you get you one of those," Rio offered, recoiling slightly to say, "Well, you might not want me to. I mean, it's up to you and it would be fine if you wanted one. It's really no problem."
"I'll take care of it," Yumi said, cracking a small smile. "Thank you. I'm going to go put it in my room, so go on ahead without me."
Rio nodded several times before shifting back into her performance, leaving to join the rest as Yumi dropped off the CD in her room. Finally making it back to the warm embrace of the sitting room, she arrived to find Kazuhiko and Hideo waaking to the beat of Feed the Flame coming out of the latter's phone, the rest clapping to them as they pulled off an impressively choreograph string of poses in tandem.
While Yumi happily joined in, Rio almost seemed in shock as Yumi took a seat a respectable distance from her. "Does this happen often?" she whispered, purposefully moving over towards Yumi so she could hear her.
"Every now and then," Yumi replied, more concerned with grabbing as many takoyaki as she could before Sachi managed to eat them all. As impressive as her friends' routine was, she was both cold and hungry and desperately needed something hot and delicious in her stomach.
"Wow, and they're not even drinking," Rio replied, quickly realizing her mistake. "I shouldn't say that, they're actually very good. I don't know why I'm like this." She grabbed herself some food and tried to analyze why that was her first response to this situation, doing like the guides she'd read had taught her and breaking down her emotions and responses to them.
The table clapped as the dance concluded, the two high fiving into an intense hand clasp. "All that work finally paid off," Kazuhiko declared as he caught his breath. In between dueling, getting into misadventures, and having deep existential conversations that usually weren't nearly as deep as either of them believed them to be, they'd spent hours practicing different full performance routines at the arcade dance machine. While it was unlikely they'd ever have to bust them out in any serious capacity, parties like this were more than reason enough to have that kind of thing on lock.
Everyone was beginning to settle in and enjoy the party, the adults partaking in pleasant conversation mostly pertaining to the absolutely bizarre fossil finds or biological samples Hideo's parents had gotten involved in over the years while the children occupied their time with talk of dueling (save for Sachi as she was too busy working on the food). While the general sentiment was obvious distrust for Rio, things were cordial enough at the moment.
As time ticked away, though, so did Yumi's patience. She began to feel jittery, bouncing her leg under the table and poking at her food in a way that wasn't generally socially acceptable. There was an obvious absence here that she couldn't overlook, that feeling of absence only growing more pronounced by the minute.
Sensing her unease, Kazuhiko got up from across the table to sit beside her, giving her a pat on the shoulder. "I wouldn't worry about Ishikawa," he said, already understanding where her mind had gone. "Probably just stuck in traffic, or maybe she's, like, rehearsing some French poetry stuff to say." This got a smile out of Yumi. "Besides, what you should really worry about is me taking the last takoyaki."
As he reached forward to grab it, Yumi's chopsticks shot forward, the two quickly engaging in a grappling match by way of utensils. "You're not getting it," she said calmly, determination flowing off of her like tranquil waves.
"Oh yeah?" he asked, leaning into her. "If you're really going to put up a fight, then how about we duel for it?"
"I didn't know you wanted to just give it to me!" she said with a smirk.
"I will force you to watch me eat it after we're through!" he shot back. Before either of them had time to grab their cards, though, Sachi swooped in and took the ball for herself without a second though, sending both of them tumbling over in shock.
"It's gone forever," Yumi moped, defeated.
"You can't just do that!" Kazuhiko yelled. "We were going to have a competition for it! We'd called dibs!"
"Should've just eaten it," she told him, not even the slightest hint of regret in her eyes. Her indifference was short lived, though, her brother quickly resorting to violence. "Mom!" she shouted as Kazuhiko put her in a headlock.
"Mitsu, no headlocks," she said calmly, immediately getting him to follow her command. "Nothing harder than a slap on the wrist like we talked about."
"Fine," they both replied, immediately proceeding to hit each other in the hands and wrists with chopsticks.
"Take our vengeance!" Yumi called from the sidelines, spurring Kazuhiko on given he was somehow losing ground to his much younger sibling. Of course, no one was really the winner in this game. It was more about who could hit the other the hardest and last the longest before they got in trouble again.
While she hoped to see which of them emerged the "victor" (she'd put down an especially large shrimp on Kazuhiko in a bet with Hideo), the sound of a car pulling up outside forced her attention elsewhere. "She's here," Yumi muttered, jumping from her seat and sprinting towards the door. Not even bothering to wait for the knock, Yumi ran into the yard and jumped into Sakuya's arms the moment she hopped out of her father's car.
"You took too long," she whined, the two hugging tightly while at the same time trying to navigate towards the house.
"My father just got lost on the way here," she explained. "You live out in the middle of nowhere, so I had to try and give him directions."
"You're really bad at those," Yumi said, finally being released from the hug as punishment.
"She really is," Sakuya's father agreed, shockingly having decided to put on his nicest blue suit for the occasion despite the rather informal nature of the gathering. "Nice to see you again, Yumi."
"Hi!" she called, waving to him. "Let's go inside, though. It's really cold out here." They made a brief stop to pile their coats onto the rack before emerging into the sitting room. "Everyone's here!" Yumi announced, taking Sakuya with her to slide under the kotatsu together.
Almost immediately, Sakuya began staring down Rio. "Oh, I forgot to mention," Yumi said, "Rio's here. I wasn't going to invite her at first but then she overhead me talking about it at school with Ami and Suzy, and she looked kind of really sad and like she might cry, plus her company pays me..."
"I see," Sakuya said coldly, her glare intensifying enough for Rio to begin to feel as if she was taking actual damage. "Then I guess we won't be having any problems if you invited her." This was clearly her way of threatening Rio into behaving, not that it was really necessary.
On the other end of the table, Sakuya's father was welcomed in next to the adults. "I can appreciate a man who dresses well," Rio's father complimented, drawing a comparison to his own attire with a small wave of his hand, though he was a bit more business casual in a brown tweed jacket and dark slacks.
"I wanted to make a good impression," he said. "I guess I am a little overdressed, though."
"You look good enough for it to not matter," Kazuhiko's mother told him, leaning against his shoulder. "So, you're here alone?"
"Mom, no!" Kazuhiko shouted, barely catching wind of the conversation in time to stop it. "Don't start down the path that ends up with me being related to Ishikawa!"
"Please don't," Sakuya agreed. "It's better for all of us if that doesn't happen."
"Oh, we're just having a little fun," his mother said with a giggle.
"I think you might have had a little too much to drink," Yumi's grandmother told her with a laugh. "Speaking of, do you want some?"
"None for me," Sakuya's father said with a wave of his hand, pouring himself a glass of tea instead.
"You call that fun?" Hideo's mother scoffed. "We can show you fun." She and her husband immediately began to fuss and coo over each other, the depths of their love being absolutely disgusting.
Things carried on like this for some time after, food and drinks disappearing as everyone had a good time. Despite having so many disparate elements at play like the recovering alcoholic surrounded by alcohol or the attempted murderer near her victim, no one could deny things were turning out quite well.
"And I'm about to sound like a very out of touch rich woman right now," Rio's mother said in the middle of her story about a lavish family vacation, "but I have to be honest; Matsusaka is better than Kobe."
"That can't be right," Hideo's mother said. "We tried the real Kobe once. How is something better than that?"
"It's the truth," Rio's father agreed. "Everyone always talks about Kobe – and they've more than earned their reputation – but it feels like they're getting more recognition than the other two lately, especially Matsusaka."
"I'd say we could compare, but I don't just have millions lying around," Hideo's father laughed.
Rio's father replied, "Then the next time we're together, we'll bring some," without even the slightest hint of a joke.
With everyone's thoughts dominated by the presence of unparalleled beef on the horizon, Yumi took the opportunity to nudge Sakuya and say, "Hey, can we go outside for a second?"
Though a bit confused, Sakuya replied, "Okay, sure." What was it they were going to see outside? Maybe it was some kind of present. If that was true, though, how big would it have to be to not fit inside the house? Suddenly, she began to feel a bit apprehensive, hoping Yumi didn't spend some extravagant amount of money on her.
Yumi led her through the front door, closing it behind them and sitting down on the porch. "Sit here with me," Yumi told her, patting a spot next to her while idly swinging her legs off the end.
"The sky's a lot clearer than in the city," Sakuya noted, never having thought to look up at night in all the times she'd been to visit her friend's home.
Yumi pointed upwards, gesturing towards a group of lights. "I like that one. It's Hercules, like the hero." Her hand shot even further up after that. "Oh, and that's the draco! It's like a dragon!"
"I guess that's my favorite, then," Sakuya said, always having had an affinity for dragons. She didn't spend long admiring it, though, remembering what initially took them out here to begin with. "Hey, before you do your thing, I want to give you something."
"Like a present?" Yumi asked, eyes going wide as Sakuya took a small wrapped box tied with a red bow out of her pocket.
"I don't know if you'll be able to use it, but I thought it seemed like your style," she said, almost seeming a bit hesitant to hand it over. "You could at least trade it for something. It's kind of rare."
Immediately tearing into it as soon as she took hold of it, Yumi found a slick black box under all the baby blue paper, lifting the lid to reveal a card inside. She audibly gasped at seeing the shiny green border around the card, reading off, "Rank-Up-Magic..." from its name.
"Honestly, it's probably too late to change your deck at this point," Sakuya said nervously. "You don't have to use it in the tournament. I don't even expect you to. But if it might help at some other time, you can-"
"I'm definitely using it!" Yumi promised, hugging the card against her chest. "I've never even thought of something like this before! And it works so well with my deck already!" She set the card down, pulling Sakuya into a hug. "Thank you so much."
Just as quickly, though, she pulled back. "Oh. Now I...well..." Yumi sighed, falling backwards onto the porch. "Now I feel even worse."
"Why?" Sakuya asked. "Does it not work for you after all? You don't have to feel bad about that."
"No, it's..." She lifted her arm over her head only to let it fall lifelessly to the ground a second later. "I didn't get you anything."
Sakuya blinked. "Is that all?" she asked, relieved that there wasn't something more serious on her mind. "That's completely fine. I didn't get you something expecting a gift in return."
"But I wanted to," Yumi stressed, sitting up with a look of urgency. "I kept trying to think of a good gift, but none of them seemed right. I got really lucky with the pin before and just couldn't think of anything that was as good as that. I'm sorry I waited so long and didn't have time to come up with a better idea."
"You can get me something another time," she offered. "It doesn't have to be right now. Besides, I'm not that hard to shop for. I'd like anything if it was from you."
"I want it to be good, though," she grumbled, disappointment in herself refusing to lessen. "It has to be something that represents how I feel about you."
Snapping to attention, Sakuya hesitantly asked what that was supposed to mean. "How you feel about me?"
"Something that...shows you how much I care. And how much I appreciate you being my friend and helping me get to where I am now." She gave a small laugh, adding, "I feel like I say this a lot, but it's still true."
"Then you should know I don't need a gift to tell that," Sakuya told her, placing her hand over Yumi's reassuringly. "And I hope you know that's true, too."
"Yeah, but I still wish I could have gotten you something." Squeezing Sakuya's hand in her own, gears began turning in Yumi's head, a half-baked, fairly bizarre idea tumbling out of her mouth. "Wait! I know what I can give you!" she said suddenly with a smile.
"What?" Sakuya asked, unsure of what to expect on such short notice but confident it would be great.
"I can let you kiss me," she said without even the slightest hint of self-awareness.
Several seconds passed between them, the only sounds being from the party in the next room and the few insects that hadn't yet taken the hint that it was winter. Her soul descending back into her body, Sakuya let out a confused and distressed, "Huh?"
"Yeah!" Yumi said, hyping herself up even further. "I've never done it before, and I could let you have my first. That's supposed to be valuable, right?"
"But that's why you shouldn't!" Sakuya exclaimed, face having turned a bright crimson. "If it's important, don't give it to someone like me! Wait until there's someone who's worth it first!"
"Why aren't you worth it?" Yumi asked, tilting her head to the side innocently.
"Well, I mean..." Under normal circumstances, Sakuya would likely be able to list off a myriad of reasons as to why she was somehow unworthy of a kiss. These were far from normal circumstances, though, her brain running about as well as a car without an engine, wheels, or gasoline. "We don't have...that type of relationship. So you should wait until you find someone for that. It wouldn't be fair for me to steal something like that."
"That part's not really important to me," Yumi admitted. "I just want to like a person a lot before I kiss them, and I like you a whole lot, so it's okay." Sakuya's heart skipped a beat at hearing that, the blush on her face growing even more intense to the point where she was almost glowing in the darkness.
"But..." Sakuya was searching desperately for a reason why they couldn't, trying to find any further excuses to deny her feelings. She'd built up walls for most of her life all in an effort to protect herself. Consequently, she'd been alone for just as long, eventually getting it into her head that that was her place in life.
And yet, Yumi had continued to break down each and every one of those walls, showing her over and over again that she was valued and loved. Could that love even extend this far? The thought scared her as much as it tempted her.
Yumi laughed to try and defuse the tension, her own embarrassment beginning to catch up with her. "It's okay if you don't want to. I just thought it might be fun. Forget it, though. It was a weird thing to say." She looked back up at the stars to try and occupy her mind and hopefully move on from this, accidentally touching the tips of Sakuya's fingers with her own. Neither seemed to mind, though, and wouldn't move their hands.
"It's...maybe." Sakuya looked off to the side and swallowed hard. "But only for a second!" she demanded. "And...and it's only...practice. For when we both date someone for real and start kissing. Your first kiss has to be with someone you like that way, so I can't take that from you."
Yumi listened intently to her words, nodding with a smile. "Okay, but I wouldn't mind if it was for real. I mean, what would be wrong if we...you know? Were like that?"
While it was figurative before, Sakuya's heart actually skipped a beat now. It felt that way, at least. This girl was going to kill her one day if she let her guard down. "Fine..." she mumbled. "But you have to close your eyes. And no peaking. I can't do it if you look at me."
Yumi did as she was told, closing her eyes and waiting without much of an idea as to what would happen next. "Is this okay?" she asked despite the fact neither of them were exactly an expert on the subject.
Even in the cold, Sakuya was beginning to sweat. She tried to approach Yumi's face from different angles, but wasn't sure what to do or how to do it. "Just...yeah, just hold on," she said, working up her courage while forging some kind of attack plan. "Wait. Maybe we should hold hands first. I...saw people do that once. Maybe it helps."
Yumi giggled, eyes still closed, and took Sakuya's hand in hers once more. "Yeah, I think it's working," she said, mostly just happy about the fact they were holding hands again.
Sakuya was far less pleased about this development. She could feel how clammy her hands were compared to Yumi's, mind wandering as she focused in on how soft and warm the other girl felt. It was shameful how flustered she was. She was the mature one here, she told herself. She shouldn't be stalling like this.
"I...I haven't done this before," she admitted, trying to find an excuse for her inexperience. "Please be patient."
"It's okay. Neither have I." She paused for a moment. "I mean, you knew that. That's why we're doing this."
With a whine, she tried something different. "Okay, maybe we could stand up. I think that might help." Yumi complied, Sakuya helping her to her feet given her eyes were still closed. It was only now that she realized how much taller she'd gotten over the school year, only now noticing that she was nearly a whole head above Yumi at this point. Why was that making this seem even more appealing?
"Wait, no, we should sit," Sakuya suddenly declared, already moving downward.
Yumi laughed once more, beginning to find this whole thing a bit goofy. It was really starting to put into perspective how worried she'd been in the past. Still following her friend's lead, though, she sat back down. Getting on her knees, she shuffled forward a bit as the two took hands again.
Drawing up every last ounce of willpower inside her body, Sakuya took a deep breath, moving in slowly. She closed her eyes, trying to imagine it as a play in Duel Monsters, balancing the pros and cons of her strategy and what could happen further in the game if she did it. There were many issues with this kind of analogy, most of which she immediately pointed out to herself, becoming so frustrated that she junked it entirely. It was time to just wing it.
Suddenly, it happened. It was less of a proper kiss and more smooshing their lips together. Slowly, though, course corrected and they were engaged in what was almost the real deal. Sakuya gripped Yumi's hands tighter, leaning in deeper as a lot of strange feelings overcame her. What was she doing right now? This was just supposed to be practice. That's why she accepted the offer, right? Wait, why did she accept the offer?
While that question may have wanted to burn inside her mind, whatever flames of thought might have ignited inside her were quickly snuffed out. She wasn't thinking about much of anything at the moment save for the fact that kissing Yumi was...good. Better than good, even. So good, it made her want to do it all over again. Over and over.
It ended just as quickly as it began, the front door opening with a confused Kazuhiko standing at the edge of the house. "Wait, this ain't the bathroom," he laughed, nearly jumping out of his skin when Sakuya screamed and fell off the side of the porch. "What the hell's her problem?" he asked Yumi. "Wait, why are you two out here?"
"I don't know," Yumi stated, looking over to see Sakuya scrambling around on the ground "Oh, look what she gave me!" She held up the glossy card.
"Holy crap!" Kazuhiko shouted. "That thing is super rare! Wait here, I've got to go put out a fire. You should probably help her, too." He closed the door so as not to let any of the heat trapped inside escape, reversing down the hall in a hurry.
"You okay down there?" Yumi asked. "You didn't hit your head, right?"
"No, I'm...fine," Sakuya answered, climbing back up the short set of stairs back to the porch and wringing her hands, eyes darting around nervously across the ground as the taste of Yumi's lips still lingered. She opened her mouth several times, unsure of what she wanted to say. Eventually, though, she settled on a question.
"Was that...was what we did really okay?" she asked quietly. "I mean, did you...like it?"
Yumi nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, it was actually kind of fun. I know it doesn't mean anything coming from me, but I think you were pretty good at it, too. I guess I won't know for sure until I have more experience, but it felt like you were good."
Sakuya's fears subsided a bit at hearing that. "I'm glad," she sighed, relieved. Her mood turned around quite quickly, however, resolutely stating, "That didn't count, though. Remember that. It was just practice, okay?"
Yumi nodded with a smile. "Sure."
"And..." Sakuya added. "If we ever practice again...you can kiss me instead. It's not fair to make me do all the work if it was supposed to be my gift, anyway."
"You mean you want to do it again?" Yumi asked, bouncing on her heels. "Like when? Right now? Tomorrow?"
Her face glowing red once more, Sakuya tried to give as non-committal an answer as possible considering the circumstances. "Maybe," Sakuya muttered, still not sure of how to feel on the matter. "I'll think about it." Changing the subject, she then added, "We should go back, though. Everyone's going to wonder what's happening if we don't."
"Oh, good point," Yumi agreed, grabbing her card before taking Sakuya's hand. Seeing the embarrassed look on her friend's face, she explained, "It's fun holding your hand. I thought we could do it again for a little bit. At least until we get back." She tilted her head to the side. "Is that okay?"
Despite her frown, Sakuya agreed to this. Reentering the house, the two took their time getting back to the party. With all the frustration those feelings of longing gave them in the past, they were both quite relieved to finally have that out of their systems. Even so, they wouldn't be opposed to it coming back every now and then if this was the treatment.
Cards Used in Order of Appearance
Rank-Up-Magic Emerald Force
Normal Spell Card
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Here I come having a chapter set on Christmas in the middle of June. Part of that is, as I mentioned before, this wasn't meant to be a full chapter at first (more like the two smaller extras I've made so far), but it had a lot of good character stuff and fun moments, so I eventually converted it into what it is now. Consequently, I couldn't wait until December to post it given where it falls in the timeline. Not even Christmas in July, either. Can't even call it Gay Christmas since Halloween is already that, not Pride.
Either way, this was fun. Going back and rewriting my original draft was kind of trip since so many of the characters have changed since I first conceived of them. I think the strangest thing was how I apparently didn't intend for the kids to all hang out together and that each one was more Yumi's friend independently and they all sort of met at different times for different occasions. That would have been weird and less good, so I'm glad I changed that at some point.
We also finally get to see Hideo's parents. Given how much enigma and keeping you guessing is a part of their character, I wasn't sure when I would finally have them show up, but I did know I wanted them to appear at least once. This seemed like a good excuse, so now we know exactly why they're Like That.
I actually just learned about waaking the day of rewriting all of this and immediately thought, "Yeah, they're into that." I'm into that considering it seems like an excuse to dress like a JoJo's character and pose to some music. That's rad.
In typical Yumi fashion, she managed to bungle her way through her first kiss with good luck and strange, circuitous planning. At least they finally did it after so long. I wonder how this is going to affect their relationship going forward. Hopefully it's good.
Yumi's taking another leap forward with her very own Rank-Up-Magic. We'll probably find out what it does quite soon. In the meantime, you're probably not wondering whether Yumi got other people gifts, and she did. Probably going to mention them in the future, but since that happened prior to the party date, it didn't get brought up.
That's about all I have for this long ass message. Thanks for reading. Share if you're enjoying. Always remember not to trust people in mascot costumes.
These last two remembrances may have gotten switched.