"Dad, I'll be going on my own for a bit."
I had left my family on the festival grounds to enter a clearing in a forest away from it all. Fireworks had begun to spark up and light the night sky. I had watched as they burst and crinkled down from the log that I found laying around.
I did this during every festival. I always leave my family behind as I get into this clearing. I had found it soothing to get away from it all and watch the fireworks alone.
Rustling in the bushes suddenly broke my reverie. I turned to the side and saw a girl my age. She had brown hair that was tied to a bun, and a grin had never left her face even as I saw branches sticking out of clothes.
"Hey, didn't expect to find someone in my secret spot."
"Whatcha mean your secret spot. I found it first."
I had found this clearing three years ago, during the summer festival.
"Bah," the girl blew a raspberry. "Who cares who found it first. All you should know is that it's my secret spot."
"Prove it."
The girl grinned and sat down next to me. Then, she pointed at something between us, and I had to strain my eyes to see it. "See, that's my name."
The log did have a name written in hiragana scrawled on it, but it was much too messy and covered in moss to get an accurate reading. I did see the syllable for "Yu" though.
"Yu?" I asked, incredulous. "Your name is Yu?"
"Nu-uh," the girl said. "If you're gonna read my name you gotta read it propa'."
"I did, and it says 'Yu'. Who names their kid Yu?"
"Mou~" the girl pouted, "It's Yui, Yu-ii~"
"Oh," then a devious plot formed in my head. "But it says "Yu" here. So therefore it isn't yours."
"Creepy," Yui said. "Your eyes just went all flat as you said 'therefore'. Stop acting like an adult."
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Will you pipe down?"
Suddenly, another girl entered the scene. I looked over to Yui to see if she brought a friend, but she looked as clueless as I was. Still, she stuck out her hand up to wave a greeting. "Hiya! I'm Yui, this is my secret spot."
"It isn't yours."
The brown-haired girl blew another raspberry at me.
I sighed. At this, the new girl who came raised a delicate eyebrow. "I don't know who you two are, but you're in my secret spot."
"Great, now there's two of you," I muttered. Then, I pointed at the girl, who looked affronted at me for some reason. "Prove it."
The girl merely flicked her long black hair back with a harrumph. She marched towards us, pointing at the middle of where we sat. There, under the syllable "Yu," was the kanji for snow, "Yuki."
"As you can see, my name is written on it, Therefore, by the laws of this land, you are trespassing upon my domain. I should have you arrested, "The girl said haughtily.
"How am I supposed to know your name is actually Yuki?" I asked. "You could be lying to us all and just showing this after you've spotted it."
"Are you assuming that I would be so crass as to lie to people," Yuki said, her cheeks almost bursting from anger. "It is simply beneath me."
"Mou~" Yui spoke up. "You're speaking like adults, stop it!"
"I'm merely speaking the way that I am raised to speak."
"Nah, you're definitely trying to show us up." I pointed out. "Stop speaking like that."
"You too, you know." Yui punched me in the shoulder. Hey, that actually hurt.
Suddenly, Yuki got between us and glared at me. "Well, we have each shown our claim to this piece of land. It seems that only you remain claimless."
"Claimless isn't a word you know." I blew a raspberry. "Stop using words you don't know."
Her blue eyes just bore down on me even more. "Alright, alright! I get it." I muttered.
A small smirk formed around my face, though. These people think that their names are enough to prove their rights to the land, huh? Then I was about to show them the ultimate claim.
At this, Yuki's gaze narrowed. "What are you up to?"
"The ultimate proof." I began to cackle. Both Yui and Yuki just stared blankly at me. Shaking my head, I stood up and walked a few meters down the right. I began rummaging the bushes. Where was it... there!
A stone lantern popped from the foliage. I turned back at them, slightly unsurprised as they left the log to stand by my side. "See that?" I pointed at the stone lantern. "That has my name on it. And an actual man-made object with it to boot."
Indeed, I found out that my name was written on it. Quite the fortunate find if I say so myself.
"Hachi-ma-n?" Yui sounded out the kanji, unsure. She looked at Yuki, who nodded slightly in acknowledgment at her reading. Yui squealed in success. "Hachiman!"
"Yup, that's my name," I said. "I am the great Hachiman!" I puffed up my chest, ready to graciously accept their defeat.
"This clearly isn't your name."
Unfortunately, some people weren't convinced.
"You'd expect us to believe that your name is Hachiman?"
"Yeah!"
"Well, your name clearly isn't Yuki either!"
"What?" Yuki raised an eyebrow. "Pray to tell me why did you assume that my name is "Yuki""
"The kanji for snow is pronounced "Yuki," right?" I said.
"My name isn't Yuki," she began angrily. "It's Yukin-"
"Hey guys, check this out!" A voice suddenly rang across the clearing, interrupting Yuki from speaking her name. "Isn't this great!"
We looked at each other in the eye, and a silent truce was created. We'll continue this later. We hid in the foliage behind the lantern and watched as three high schoolers came to the clearing.
"Check this out," the first voice spoke. He had a bowl cut on and was generally shorter than his other two companions.
"Yeah, yeah," a girl around his age spoke. She had wild pink hair and had lots of accessories that sparkled around as she walked through the clearing.
"Ain't this perfect?" The last one said. He was significantly taller than the last one and had windswept hair that seemed like he had been surfing just a few hours ago. "This is perfect for the secret base project that we wanted to make."
"Yeah!" the first one agreed. "Ain't it great, Yu?"
"Haaah," the girl sighed. "Are you still on about that, Ryu?"
The bowl-haired male pouted. "Don't be like that, Yuki."
Hearing this, I look at my companions, only to find them suspiciously looking away. I let out a breath of air. It seemed that all three of us were lying, huh. Still, it was my territory that was being invaded. And the enemy of my enemy was my friend.
I tapped both of their shoulders and told them of the plan I had made.
Soon enough, we enacted it.
We banged rocks together, howled at the moonlight, and threw sticks from atop branches at the high schoolers. They seemed to be terrified and left immediately.
We came back to the clearing.
"That was something, huh," I started.
"Yeah," Yui said.
"I'm surprised the plan even worked." Yuki agreed.
"Well, it was my plan after all."
Both of them stared me down again. "Hmmph, well, it did work," Yuki said.
A pleasant silence enveloped us. The fireworks had stopped bursting in the air, so all that was left were cricket noises and us breathing as we sat down on the log that really didn't have our names on it.
Then, I addressed the elephant in the room.
"Well, I'm going now."
"Yeah, me too. Mom's probably worried sick."
"My parents would find it disagreeable for me to return late."
"So… same time, same place next year?" I proposed. "We're sort of conquerors of this land, so… Why don't we share it?"
"Like Alexander with his Generals?" Yuki replied.
"I don't know who Alexander is, but I think this is a-accept-able." Yui stuttered. I grinned back at them, and that day, I think we left the clearing with warmth in our chests.
Too bad we never did come back.
Well, I did. Every festival day.
Just watching the fireworks.
Waiting.
Welp. I did it. A service club meets as young children AU.
Please don't hurt me.
