So this is a little side story I had cooking for a while, after doing nothing but watching some rom-com anime that had a episode or two during a fireworks festival. So, being inspired, I tried to write a story around that time.

If you followed my SAO stories, this takes during 'Blacksmith and Warrior' after the quest in the underwater temple. If you're where I am now, 'Alicization: Steel and Lycoris', you get a short segment as well. If you're new, I hope you give the other stories a read as well.

Enjoy!

Today's the day of the Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival, an annual fireworks show along the Sumida River in Tokyo. Being a recent immigrant from America (not including being trapped in a game for two of the last three years), my only experience with the festival is the portrayal of the event in anime and video games. You can say this festival is analogous with America's Fourth of July firework celebration, a historical excuse to pop fireworks and have tons of fun.

"It's almost 4 o'clock. They said they'll be ready by now." My friend Kazuto Kirigaya says, but his impatience is not matched by his attitude as he consumes a yellow-white popsicle. He stares at the ceiling, where on the upper floor the girls are changing into a light kimono called a yukata. "It's been, what, an hour? How long does it take five girls to get ready?"

I begin to count my fingers. "Makeup, hair, yukata, opinions, more opinions, Rika's teasing Suguha, Keiko freaking out, Asuna trying to keep everything together… I say that's it. Oh, and let's remember, our girls are the ones upstairs."

Kazuto sighs. "Asuna and Rika haven't changed much, huh, Joshua? Always making us wait on them. You'd think they'll be considerate for once. But as long as we make it to the park by 5, we should be good."

"Yahello!" Hearing the voice of one of the two girls, Kazuto and I direct our attention to the pair coming down the steps. My eyes follow the girl who spoke, the chocolate-eyed 18-year old wearing a red yukata with pink and light red flowers designed on it. A yellow band is wrapped around the waist, and tied in her brown hair is a bundle of flowers. Behind her is another girl with a red and white yukata, her ginger hair straight down. They happily pose back to back to us with smiles. "Well, how do we look?"

Kazuto is the first to speak. "Asuna, Rika...wow." I can only bring my jaw back up to my face and nod in agreement.

Satisfied with our answers, Asuna latches on to Kazuto. "Sorry for being longer than expected, but Rika's hair was being stubborn. I wanted to tie mine up as well, but we could just hear a certain someone complaining."

Kazuto grumbles as he leads Asuna to my front door. "Yeah, yeah. C'mon, we're gonna be late."

Rika huffs as she walks up to me. "He's always telling us what to do. How many times have we come to save his butt, like at the underwater temple the other day! He has no right, hehe." She changes her attitude as she presents herself to me shyly. "Um, you didn't say anything."

I smile as I open the door. "You look great, Rika. As always."

She pouts. "That's a horrible compliment! I thought you would've learned something over the last year. Hmph. You and Kazuto are two different kinds of idiots."

"Say it again," Asuna says from my car while bonking her boyfriend on the head with a purple fan. Rika laughs as we enter the car, girls in the back, boys in the front. "Suguha and Keiko are almost at the park."

"Then let's go!" At Kirito's command, we drive off to Sumida Park, where the festival is to be held.

As we arrive at the park, the group naturally breaks apart. Rika and I eye the many food stands at one end of the park. I watch the girl stuff her arms full of sweets and grilled foods to the point it's more embarrassing than comical. After taking a picture without her noticing, she returns to me and hands me my half of the assortment. "You're sure having lots of fun. When did you become the glutton?"

"What do you mean? Every girl loves a few snacks."

One look at the picture would contest that she loves 'a few snacks'. "Oh sure, this is just so little." Chuckling, I walk alongside her while she looks back with her infamous glare. She doesn't maintain the look for long as she wraps her arm around mine and we continue walking.

"Shut up. Let me be fat sometimes."

"I'll remember that the next time I go grocery shopping." Ever since her birthday back in May, Rika and I have been dating as we promised to do if we survived the game. Now that my parents moved to Kyoto shortly before school started, I have my home entirely to myself, and Rika has taken advantage of it. I see her at school, after school, and sometimes late enough to have her parents questioning but not drop-kicking me when I bring her home. Good thing the semester is over, for the time being, her curfew has been relaxed a bit, but tonight, Asuna, Kirito, and the others will be over afterward since the girls (Asuna) believe everything deserves a party.

I'm not complaining, that's a free meal for me cooked in my house.

"You remember the one back in SAO," Rika asks as she eats a meat skewer called yakitori. "You thought it was stupid because it was just some fireworks show on the 10th Floor."

"How could I forget," I reply in remembrance. "Someone told me that if I didn't take them, she was leaving me. I didn't think she was serious until she 'disappeared' for a full day just to prove her point. In America, they'd called you insane… But you proved me wrong, I hated seeing you gone, not knowing where you were, and that the festival was fun. I do, however, remember you cared about how much you consumed back then."

Rika chuckles as she disposes of the skewer stick. "Well, back then, I cared about how you thought about me, okay? I mean, I know it was impossible to gain weight since we weren't literally eating, but still… Now, I don't care. You're stuck with me, hehe!"

I roll my eyes and chew on french fries wrapped around a stick. "Joy."

"Oh, you don't have to sound like that. You got me in a yukata, you held me in your arms as I laid on your shoulder, so if anything, you got something out of it. You know, you haven't changed one bit. Still the rude smartass I met on the fourth floor. If only I could change that part of you."

"If I could change your ways of being a rude, flirty girl. That would have saved me some trouble."

"My rude, flirty way is the reason we are dating, Joshua-kun."

I nearly choke on my fries upon the use of the honorific. I told everyone, especially the girls, to not use honorifics with me. Not that I am against them, but...after Keiko called me 'Senpai' at school (which I am to her) in a high, nervous voice, it ruined the magic of what I watched in anime. Suguha almost revived it, but she's my best friend's sister...and my American values on that subject are against her using such a title to refer to me. Now Rika uses it to annoy me to no end whenever she can. "Ugh." My phone rings at that moment, saving me from further personal embarrassment. "Hello, Keiko."

"Hello, Joshua. Suguha and I found a spot, I'll text you and Rika the exact spot."

I nod. "Great...um, have you and Suguha walked around yet?"

"Um, no… We thought we'd find a place first since you four...would be together walking around. But it's okay, we'll-"

"Joshua and I are on the way," Rika says. "Let Dumb and Dumber have their time together, we don't mind holding our place while you girls go around. Your beloved senpai agrees, right? You are going to let your two cute juniors have fun, hmm?"

I groan, but Rika knows I'm thinking the same thing. "Yeah. Let's go."

"You know, whenever I see Suguha now, I just wanna...juggle those things." Rika and I share a bowl of kakigori (shaved ice) as we sit on the blanket that marks our place, but her comment catches me off guard. What she did to Suguha during the latter's swimming lessons is forever imprinted on my mind, another reason being around Suguha is a personal conflict of interest. "What do you think?"

"About?"

"Suguha's."

"You want the correct answer or the honest answer?"

"Honest one, I know the correct one."

Still unsure if it is okay to answer honestly, I look away to the sky. "They're...ample for what everyone else has."

Rika nods. "See! Gosh, I wish mine were like that." Rika gives her breasts a slight bounce with her free hand. Since she's sitting against my chest and between my legs, I can partially see it while trying not to look. "What do you think?"

What is the smart way to answer that question? Correctly or honestly? If she took the earlier response with my honesty, she should be able to handle some more of it (not the physical one I'm trying hard to hold that back). "Rika, yours is fine. Besides, that's like me asking you if you'd want a guy with muscles… Don't make that face."
Rika smiles and rests her head in the groove between my neck and right shoulder. "It wouldn't hurt, but I guess I fell in love with a gamer, not a musclehead. But thanks for answering with some honesty."

"Some? Rika, I've seen you plenty of times to make a physical judgment of you. I can't complain."

"I know, just teasing you. Oh, look, everyone is coming back. It must be close to time." Sure enough, Asuna, Keiko, and the Kirigaya siblings approach and take their spots around the blanket. Moments later, the sky becomes filled with explosions as the show begins. Flashes of blue, yellow, red, and every color in between light the night sky for an indeterminate amount of time. And the entire time, I kept Rika in my arms.

"What has your mind so entrapped you aren't listening to a word I say?" Pain shoots from my right shoulder, causing me to pay attention to the girl who punched me. She folds her arms across her chest, unintentionally holding up her already ample breasts. However, her icy-fire glare is enough to draw my attention. "What was the last thing you heard me say, Jaymes?"

"Hmm, you asked me why I was shooting Sacred Arts in the air, so I told you about how we do the same in my world, though on a much grander scale. Next thing I know, you punched me...Oh, that's when I tuned out."

The girl sighs and turns away from me. "You annoy me so much."

I smile and face the sky again. "You remind me of a girl back in my world. Both of you are temperamental, although I think you lean heavier on the temper side of things. Must be why I'm oddly comfortable being around you despite how you treat me."

"...You deserve it at times."

"That I do… Medina, allow me to make you the same promise I made to her." I let my fingers glow with various Sacred Arts and shoot them in the air. "No matter what happens in the upcoming days, weeks, or months, I'll do everything in my power to stay by your side. Even if you decide to hate me, I made an oath to you when we first met, and even long before then to your ancestor. I will honor that oath to you, no matter what."

Allow me to be better to you than I was with the girl I loved so much.

Upon my mental command, the streaks of Sacred Arts burst, illuminating the air around me and Medina. She holds her curiosity as the lights fade, then she turns to me, half a frown on her face. "Fine. Stop being bothersome and keep going."