Warning: Honorics used now because it's disrespectful to not use them. Ooops


PLEASE READ!

Me: I'm probably squealing in my bed right now as you read this because…..we're are getting closer to our goal! I love you guys so much for all your continued support! Even my ghosts supporting me! My guest readers too that do not own accounts! I all of you! My story gets readings and viewing on a nice steady flow throughout the chapters so that means I must be keeping your attention! And to all my new people I love you!

Get Story to 100 (either follows or faves) before chapter 10:

Current State:

Follows: 97 ❣

Favorites: 80 ❣

Also, this one is a pretty short Arc this time and it's for character growth purposes and to shine some light on stuff. Here the chapters will most likely not be 8,000+ words.


RESPONSE TO REVIEWER(s)

1) xPricefieldx: Your favorite?! Oh wow, I'm completely floored and honored!

2) Miss Meep: Thank you! I enjoyed writing those parts a bunch!

3) Guest: Thank you and I'm glad to hear the characters don't seem like flat pancakes to you! I hope you continue to enjoy Keiko till the very end!


Disclaimer: I have no ownership over the original Kamisama Hajimeshita


Chapter 7: Winter Wonderland

"Um...Ein-chan, I don't think this is a good idea."

I nodded my head in agreement. "She's finally showing her true stupidity,"

Jumping out of the way of the snowball purposely thrown at my head I smirked to the side.

"And her childish tendencies it seems."

Rin waved her hands in a calming manner. "Keiko-san please do not tease Ein-chan."

Nanami squatted down and began making multiple snowballs with a wicked glint in her eyes. Deciding not to worry with her behavior right now, I turned back to the scene in front of myself.

Rin stood floundering around Ein trying to stop her steadily growing wall of snow. Her efforts would have been more successful if she actually made moves to prevent Ein instead of just telling her to please stop.

Blowing air into my freezing hands I shoved them into my coat pockets before making my way over to them. Leaning down to closer inspect the wall, I actually found myself impressed with the support.

Of course, I'd die before telling Ein she did a good job, in fact, one better than mine.

I risked a quick glare back to my own worthless wall meant to protect me and cringed at the weak and slouched structure.

Though Nanami's and Rin's wall structure undoubtedly looked the best out of our three walls.

I feel as if this needs some explaining.

Rin is a fairly new acquaintance of mine that I met through Ein and she is a complete butterfly. She's soft-spoken and gives off the Fluttershy persona is strong waves. Hell, she hasn't a bad bone in her body from the shirt amount of time I've known her.

She invited a rat like Ein and a jerk like myself over to her house for bonding time when nobody else at school really even likes us that much.

Well me mostly.

The last day of the seventh-grade year ended last Friday. No big deal except Dad and Sensei made a big deal out of it. Dad went out to gamble up some more money for gifts while Sensei shuffled us out after training.

Of course, I couldn't leave Nanami at home alone and having the sneaky suspension that Rin and herself would hit it off I couldn't resist.

Take that universe.

And I was right. Two minutes after meeting up Nanami had Rin wrapped around her middle schooler fingers. Nanami basically twinkled under the cuddling Rin issued onto her. Though, those twinkles dimmed down a bit when Rin wouldn't release her huge cheeks. Regardless when Ein introduced the idea of a snowball fight those two had immediately teamed up.

I wasn't jealous, not one damn bit.

"Rin-chan, you win."

Rin tilted her head in confusion and Ein scowled up at me.

"Oi, idiot. We haven't even started the snowball fight yet." She emphasized this by holding up a snowball she was compacting.

"Yeah, but your wall is crap and her's and Nanami's isn't," I said starting to make snowballs for myself. With my wall being weak, I'd need more ammo to compensate for that.

Ein flushed redder than she already was in the cold temperature. "Hey! What- Your wall is crap!" she retorted.

I chose to ignore her knowing it'd only serve to piss her off more than anything I could have said would.

My theory was proven correct when a snowball hit my shoulder.

Grunting, I knocked the remains off before it could melt and wet that spot. "Only proving my point," I whispered before lazily tossing the half-assed snowball I made at her wall.

I really didn't even want to play a snowball fight but everybody else did and I couldn't just bum inside Rin's house while they played at the park.

Looking around I noticed a lot of the park itself was emptied and the few people walking looked to be couples are friends out for a stroll. The flashy Christmas lights and decorations adorned the walk paths making the park seem like some winter wonderland.

It's pretty.

Nothing like the ratty brokedown park on our side of town. Now that I think about it, there didn't seem to be just about any Christmas decorations or lights save for on light poles and phone lines on the other side of town.

Rin's lucky.

My eyes zeroed in on the man running through the park with grocery bags in both his hands. He weaved past couples rushing quart apologies.

He seemed oddly familiar to me from someplace…

I was distracted then by Nanami calling my name. Turning to her I found myself face-to-snow with a surprise attack.

Laughter mixed from different voices followed soon after. Along with Ein's congratulatory exclamation for the great aim.

Sputtering, I wiped my face quickly before fumbling around for my self-made snowballs. Looking up I saw the enemy behind each other's respective shield.

I would have unleashed my rapid and brutal onslaught of snowballs is it not for the exclaims of excitement from the front of the park.

We all shared similar confused looks before I shifted closer to figure out what the fuss was all about. Not caring if the others followed, I pushed myself into the group of people bunched together.

Great sense of deja vu at that moment by the way.

Shoving my way to the front I came into contact with somebody's clothes abdomen. Hands grabbed onto my shoulders and pushed me back some.

Feeling annoyed at being manhandled, I looked up ready to scowl my fiercest but was dumbfounded when I recognize the person as the man that was running with the groceries earlier.

"It's you," I said not thinking before speaking.

"Huh?" he arched a fine eyebrow on his polished Japanese face. "Do I know you kid?"

I shook my head, not have anything to say. I'd really just come over to find out what the commotion was all about; not have an entire conversation with the guy.

"He's even great with children!"

Something in his eyes shined and a light bulbed appeared over his head. He smirked down at me then and I fidgeted back a few spaces.

He stopped my escape with a firm hand on my shoulder that I was fully tempted to remove swiftly.

No touching without permission.

I dropped my shoulder and smacked his hand off of me at the same time he held out four rectangular pieces of paper in front of my face.

My sudden motion tilted him of balance some but he quickly righted himself, not wanting to be embarrassed in front of these presumably single and eager women and young adults.

"Hey ki-"

I interrupted him. "-Thank you." I quickly took the papers from his outstretched hand and examined them. With the realization of what these tickets came next on why he'd even given them to me.

He wanted to make himself seem like a charitable and all around awesome guy for handing out tickets to an event others are dying to get into. To an appearance wise kid at that.

How pathetic.

Though my less than complimentary thoughts did not hinder the smile of great happiness and gratitude. "Thank you very much, sir!" I even did a deep bow for him because he'd just made my job much easier.

I had a legal way to get into that event which made my shoulders a little bit lighter.

"Keiko!"

Just then Ein and Nanami burst through the tightly-packed crowd and stumbled into my back. However, I'd already expected them to follow me so I'd put myself into a more sturdy position.

Ein grabbed my shoulders and shook me violently. "Don't just run off like that, idiot!" Nanami coursed in agreement from behind Ein.

Slapping her claws off of me, I gestured to the man standing behind me. "It's unladylike to yell in public like that. and besides," Ein caught what I was implying with my impish smirk. "this gracious man just handed me four tickets to the Winter Wonderland event in two weeks." I made sure to add an excited tone to my voice.

"Thank you very much, sir!" Nanami bowed deeply with stars in her eyes.

Then the crowd of ladies decided we'd had enough of the man's attention and promptly swarmed the man. We were pushed to the back of the crowd in less than three seconds; a great contrast to how long it'd taken to get to the front.

We met Rin, who was fiddling with her fingers nervously off to the side of the playground. When she saw us her shoulders sagged in relief. We met up halfway and Rin went to put her hands on my shoulder, thought twice about it, and put them back down.

She settled for fiddling with her fingers again.

"My mom is probably worried about us now." She looked towards the front of the playground. "We should head back now."

Nanami and Ein gave facial expressions of utter grief as if Rin had told them ice-cream was annihilated across the globe.

I arched a dangerously unkept brow. "We should still have at least thirty more minutes of play time." I didn't think I'd been swept up in the crowd for more than 5 minutes; ten at tops and that's pushing it. I shrugged then and grinned. "At least I got these cool tickets for the Winter Wonderland from that guy."

I was not prepared for Rin to exclaim in my face like a banshee. "'That guy'?! Keiko-san, 'that guy' is Tatsuya Domogi. He's one of the uprising performers! He's the crowd's favorite next to-"

"Rin! Kei look!"

Honestly, I expected something more impressive to be the reason Nanami so eagerly wanted my attention. Instead, I turned to see a group of kids making a snowman.

"It's a snowman…?" I looked to Nanami in question. Why would she show me this? Was I supposed to applaud the children a job decent done?

Before I could be too far gone in my confusion Ein intervened. Which I was thankful for because Nanami was starting to look more uncomfortable as the seconds passed and I remained stupidly silent.

"Oh, Nanami-chan do you want to build a snowman?" Ein asked Nanami. Nanami broke out into a huge excited grin.

"Or ride our bikes around the halls."

I blinked to see my group giving me strange looks. In a reddening face not from the freezing temperature I turned quickly to my once forgotten battle station. "One snowman, then we go back to Rin-chan's house."

Once reaching a nice pile of snow I went to molding it. Nanami joined me fairly quickly and a minute in a sudden realization hit me.

I tensed and looked at Nanami and it appeared she'd come to the same conclusion as I had.

Neither one of us knew how to make a snowman.

"Ein/Rin-chan." Nanami and my own voice mixed in unison. Our hopelessly lost looks matched also.

Ein grinned and Rin smiled in amusement. Rin took the ball of snow from my hands and Ein did the same for Nanami. Rin began to fix my crappy excuse of a circle with a patient smile.

"So first you do this."


"So do you want to tell Dad or should I?" I asked placing the tickets onto the table in front of us.

Nanami tilted her head to the side. "Shouldn't you tell Dad? That nice man gave it to you."

I gave the tickets a spin. "Not it, but them. There's more than one ticket, Na." I corrected her automatically. "I think we should both tell him," I suggested since I wanted it to be a family gift. I smiled at her in a sly manner. "Besides, instead of getting him two gifts we can settle for one and spend the money on us. " I said. "A spa day sounds nice."

Nanami lit up at the mention of a spa. "Really?!"

I nodded. "Yes, just think about it." I leaned in closer to her. "We deserve a day of complete relaxation and pampering."

She shook her head in agreement sagely. "I do agree, dear sister."

I spread my arms out then. "Exactly!" I got up and ruffled her hair. "Just think about it. Our first ever spa day and with these…" I reached under the sink and pulled out a box. Turning back to Nanami I opened the box with a flourish.

Spa coupons galore.

I watched in glee as stars appeared in her eyes and she bounced up in excitement. My glee quickly turned into horror as her sticky fingers got close to my precious coupons.

I yanked the box away and shut. "Hey! No!" I exclaimed in panic. I held her back at arm's length by her head. "Nothing can happen to these coupons." I stared her dead in the eyes. "If something does there will be no spa day because we are borderline broke." Making a grand gesture to her sticky fingers from the chocolate we were eating earlier, I say. "Sticky fingers bad. Got it?" I questioned.

"Got it!" Nanami saluted me.

I put the coupons back underneath the sink for safekeeping. Turning to Nanami I dusted off my hands. "Okay, I need to run some errands with Yuko-san today and you have to come with me."

Nanami groaned from behind me. "Can't I just stay here." I heard a thud then. "Where it's warm."

Walking to the door I started to apply my warm layers of clothing. "No groaning. She really wants to see you." I rolled my eyes. "In her words and I quote, "Bring that baby over so I can see how she's grown." Chuckling, I buttoned up my outer coat.

Turning I found Nanami to be leaned over the table close to the heated pot omitting heat in waves. I sighed and gathered her layers from behind the door. Walking over, I sat behind her and heaved her to a straight posture.

"Come on. I wanna stay in with you and eat chocolate till I get fat but I promised I'd go today with her." Moving her limp arms into the sleeves I continued with a heavy sigh. "And since you're a child you can not be left home alone."

"But Dad leaves us alone a lot of times," Nanami argued.

I leaned forward and raised my eyebrow.

Nanami deflated after a few seconds and groaned again.

With that, I smiled and straightened back out. "Exactly."

She started to put on her coat without my help.


I watched with veiled amusement as Yuko grabbed Nanami's cheeks and smashed them together. Then pulled them apart and moved in circles.

She repeated this process while cooing for a good five minutes now before I decided to say something.

"Yuko-san it's getting close to dinner time. I'm afraid we won't have your groceries by then." I commented to divert her attention and hopefully focus her back on the main point of me even being here.

She waved me off with another coo. "Oh, I did grocery shopping yesterday." Cue my look of confusion. "I had meant to call your father but I think it might have slipped my mind."

My eyebrow twitched. Might have slipped, huh.

"I had hoped you could accompany me to the shrine to pray for my daughter." She lowered her voice as if to tell me a big secret. "You see, she thinks her man is going to pop the question and I just wanted to help her along."

Putting on a fake smile I nodded my head. "Of course Yuko-san. I'm sure she'd very greatly appreciate that."

Nanami grinned at me gratefully.

"Well let's not linger. I still need to be home by dinner you know."

I held back my very own groan with practiced restraint built up over years of dealing with people. Though with Yuko-san I couldn't really be too bothered by it, she is one of the very first people I help in order to make money.

It especially helps that she gives me chocolate. Henceforth the chocolate from earlier because Lord knows I can't afford to buy chocolate or let alone any sweets for that matter.

Nanami and I stood in front of her yard while she locked up the door. Nanami leaned into to whisper into my ear while Yuko's back was turned. "Do I have to come along?"

I nodded my head. "Yes, unless you see Dad and follow him around," I spoke out the side of my mouth.

I elbowed Nanami to be silent when Yuko turned around and she glared at me. Obviously, I ignored her glare and soon we fell into step with Yuko as she passed us.

"Yuko-san, how long have you been going to this particular shrine?" I asked to make pleasant conversation.

"Oh, well…" She paused as if to count the years in her head. "I'd say a good ten years now."

'I'll be eleven years old in February!" Nanami exclaimed grinning. Yuko beamed down at her then.

"That's wonderful darling."

Yuko then proceeded to gush over Nanami some more and I knew that halted our conversation.


"Futaro Yamada is said to be releasing a new book this year. Oh, Keiko darling, will you accompany me to get the book?"

I squeezed my fingers together but was careful not to apply too much pressure in fear of Yuko noticing. "I'll have to see what I'm doing on that day, Yuko-san."

She pinched my cheeks then. "Such a hard working young lady."

I grunted when Yuko's weight leaned more to my side than Nanami's as we helped her up the stairs to this backwater shrine. The pavement was cracked worse than on my neighborhood road and the grass was growing up through the cracks in multiple spots.

"Oh dear, It seems these stairs just seem to get longer since I last been."

"When was the last time you came Yuko-san?" Nanami asked with wobbling legs.

We stopped for a break then.

"Last Saturday."

Silence.

"Well...that's nice ."

She patted my braided hair and let out an exhausted breath. "You know, you remind me of my friend from America." Smiling down at me she pinched my cheek.

Nanami smirked at me in amusement at my pain.

Let's see if I'll ever help you again. Just keep laughing. I hope my eyes delivered my message clearly.

I gently removed her hand from a top of my head. I gestured for us to continue because I've heard about her famous American friend one too many times.

Unfortunately, the shrine we arrived upon would give me nightmares for the years to come because it was the shrine.


Me: Hey…..I love you; you're amazing. *Grins*

On another note, I really wanted to make this chapter longer but it seems more practical to end it here and divide it into a three chapter or so arc.

In case you didn't know and this is just a reminder and to keep track of the story. Here are the character's ages ranging from oldest to youngest.

Hayako- 49 years old

Kaito Momozono- 31 years old

Keiko Momozono - 12 years old

Ein Hayako - 12 years old

Nanami Momozono - 10 years old

We are still SIX years away from the original beginning of Kamisama Hajimeshita/Kiss! There the ripples Keiko has made in Nanami's life will show more in her teenage years than in her childhood.

I'm so excited about writing some events in the future that I want to speed through these moments! (! 0 o 0 ) !