I'm baccckkk~! Man it's sure has been a long time, but I'm back to working on this story. So know that that's done and over with, ...Enjoy the new chapter!~

Chapter 6: Downtown shopping pt2

I ate my last spoon full of water ice as we drove down the street towards our finial stop. Looking out the window I saw that most of the people walking around had on their work uniforms, which was to be expected since in was the beginning of the week.

"Well, here we are, that did take a bit longer then I expected, but at least we finally found a parking space." Erika said, as she parked the car.

It took us about a half hour to drive to Rita's water ice, then after Erika got Rika and Hanyu's ice cream and my lemon water ice it took another fifteen minutes just to find a place to park the car. But, I sorta expected it since downtown never has many available parking spaces to begin with, and it always so crowded.

But at least we were only a few blocks away from the gallery, so it won't take too long walking there.

"Mii~ I don't think it took us that long, sir," Rika said licking her vanilla ice cream cone. "It only seemed like that because we had to find a place to park."

"Yeah, Rika's right I guess, but anyways," I turned and smiled at the two little girls in the backseat. "So you two ready for an adventure? Downtown can get pretty crazy sometimes, but that's what makes it fun."

Rika nodded. "Mii~ I'm up for it!"

"Good, how about you, Hanyu?"

"Auau~ I-I'm ready too," Hanyu answered in a somewhat shy tone.

"Alright, it looks like we're all set to go," I said, giving Erika a thumbs up.

She nodded and unlocked the doors. "Okay, then lets hurry along, we've got a whole lot to buy~!" Erika said in a sing-song voice as she got out the car.

The three of us followed her, getting out of the car also. After she locked the doors and put money in the meter, we began our walk toward the mall. While we did I started pointing out different places and landmarks to them.

"Ya see guys, there are a lot of places here in Philly to visit, and since you're technically tourist, showing you around might not be such a bad idea," I said grinning at them. I then pointed to our left towards a huge sky scrapper like building with an ambulance driving into it, along with a lot of people wearing doctors suits. "That tall building right there is Jefferson hospital. Me, Antoine, and Kim were all born there. It also has a bank inside it too."

"Oh really, I had no idea you were all born in the same hospital, sir," Rika said, taking another lick of her ice cream cone. Then she looked over at Erika. "So, what hospital were you born in, Erika-San?"

"Oh, well, I was born in childrens hospital. It's all the way in south Philly, I'll show you guys sometime if your interested." The tall Hispanic girl answered with a smile.

"Auauau~ Kevin-San, um, what that place over there?" Hanyu asked, pointing towards the small store on the corner across from us. It had a sign with an Italian man in a chefs hat holding up a slice of pizza, about eat it, and above the man. It had the name Joe's in big, bold letters.

The aroma of hot pizza could be smelled from blocks away, and by the look in Hanyu's eyes, it was easy to tell the smell was getting to her also.

"That over there, Hanyu. Is Joe's pizza, they make some of the best pizza in Philadelphia and there pretty popular around here, a lot of good things happened there," I answered with a sad smile.

I remember the smell restaurant well, my whole family used to come here all the time before my parents passed away … a lot of good memories were spent at this place.

There was the time when me and Kim got into a food-fight, tossing huge slices of half eaten pizza at each other. Luckily for us old man Joe, the owner of the restaurant, and his wife Anna were nice enough not to kick us out. But man, that night when we got home, mom and dad told us off big time. Kim and I got put on punishment for like two whole weeks after that. Now that I think about it, I was a pretty stupid kid back then ...so much good pizza I could have eaten waste on a freakin' food-fight!

Oh yeah, and how could I forget the time dad spilled Pepsi on mom's new sundress! Haha~ mom was so pissed at him and she didn't talk to him the whole drive home, even after he apologized. She even said something like "tonight your not getting any." Of coarse, I was too young to understand what that meant at the time.

But, I finally understood once dad gave me 'the talk'.

I sighed slightly, looking into the pizza restaurant window. There was one family that sorta reminded me of mine, the little boy who had to be around the age of nine was talking with his younger siblings, laughing and joking around. So many fun times, I'd be lying if I didn't say I missed those days. But those carefree days ended when my parents died.

"Yo, Kevin …Kevin!"

"Huh?" I looked up and saw the girls starring at me with a worried expression on theirs faces, Erika had been calling me this whole time, but I was too caught up in my memories to notice.

"You okay, Kev? Your looking sorta down," Erika said softly.

"I'm fine, really, it's nothing."

"Mii~ Are you sure, Kevin-San?" Rika asked, "I've never seen you look this sad before."

I looked at the young miko, giving her a sad smile. "It's nothing, i-it's just ...I had a lot of good times here with my family."

"Are you thinking about your parents? You know I'm here if you ever want to talk about it," Erika said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I can't say I know how you feel, because my parents are still here, but you can still talk to me anytime you need to."

I nodded and smiled at Erika, I really did love her, she was like the sister I never had. "Thanks, Erika. But I'm fine ...lets just get goin', shall we." I started walking ahead of them, crossing the street when the light finally turned green.

The others quickly followed, walking next to me as we made our way through the crowded city streets. It had been silent between us for a good four minutes now.

"Um, Kevin-San." Hanyu said suddenly, breaking the silents. I looked down at her, showing that I was listening, and she continued. "What ...exactly happened to your parents?"

I sighed, I'd completely forgotten that I never told Hanyu about that, so I guess she was going to ask eventually. "Well, they died, in a car crash a few years ago."

"Oh ...I'm sorry for asking, it's just that-!"

"Hanyu, it's okay, I'm not hurt or anything like that by you asking about my parents," I said interrupting her. "Besides it would be pretty mean to leave you in the dark about it after I already told Rika."

"Auauau~ ...but I-," Hanyu stopped and didn't say anything else, she still had a sad look on her face as if she was guilty or something, even though she had nothing to feel guilty for. After a moment, I grinned when I got a good idea of how to cheer her up. I truly am a genius!

"Ya know, Hanyu ...the gallery has a lot of candy stores and bakery's. Actually, one of my favorite places happen to sell ….cream puffs."

Hanyu stopped in her tracks and looked up at me. "Auauau~ c-c-cream puffs?"

I nodded as grin on my face turned into an all-out smile. "Yep, you heard me right, cream puffs. Freshly made too, and don't even get me started on their chocolate bars, cup cakes, chocolate chip cookies, apple pies, lollipops ...oh yeah, and my personal favorite, caramel squares!"

By the time I was done talking, Hanyu stood there with stars in her eyes and drool coming out of her mouth. Man, this girl had a major sweet tooth!

"Auauau~ they have all of that?" She asked in a dreamy tone.

"Yep, and so much more."

"Wait, your talkin' about Madam Margret's bakery, right?" Erika asked, coming in between us.

"Yeah, we haven't been there in a while though," I replied. "Maybe we should take the girls there after we're done, does that sound good to ya?"

"Hmm~ well I do have a craving for some caramel apples, so ...yeah I'm in!" Erika exclaimed, taking the drools goddess and the blue hair miko's hand, walking down the sidewalk. "Let's go you two, the sooner we finish shopping, the faster I can sank my teeth into some delicious sweets!"

I sighed as I looked around, everyone was starring at us, well more so Erika then me but it was still sorta embarrassing. I ran to catch up to the other. When we got to the broad street, I could already see the Burlington coat factory across from us, now all we had to do was walk through and take the back entrance and we'd be on the gallery's second floor.

As we waited for the light to change I tapped both of the little girls on the shoulder, when they looked up at me, I smiled and looked to my left pointing up towards city hall, which a no more then a few blocks away. "You two see that tall white building right there with the black statue on it."

"Yes," the two girls answered.

"That's city hall and the statue of the man on top of it is William Penn."

"Mii~ ...Who's William Penn?" Rika asked curiously.

My eye twitched as I felt the urge to face-palm myself. I should have know she wasn't going to know how William Penn was. "Well Rika, William Penn in the founder Pennsylvania, he's also the first great hero of American liberty. I ...don't really know much else other then that."

"Well, That's what happens when you don't pay attention in class, Kev~," Erika said smugly, smirking. "Maybe you should sleep more at home and not as much in the classroom."

"Shut up, Erika! Nobody asked you!"

Erika just laughed and crossed the street when the light turned green. I followed the three girls and muttered under my breath. Then We walked into Burlington coat factory.

As we made our way through the store, Erika stopped for a quick moment, looking at some of the purses and handbags they had on sell.

"Yo, Kev! Take a look at these," she said, as she took two purses off the shelf. One was a plain, light blue color and the other was a dark purple one with a flower design on it. "Don't you think these would look great with Rika and Hanyu's outfits? It really matches their hair."

I nodded, the bags did match both of their hair colors. "Yeah, I'll admit they look nice, but let's focus on getting them the important stuff first, then we'll worry about accessorizes." I said looking at the two bags.

Erika sighed, shrugging and put the bags back with the others. "Fine, but we should really get this when we come back."

"Okay, okay, let's just hurry up before people buy everything that's on sell, it would be a real pain in the ass if that happened," I replied. She nodded and continued walking ahead.

Rika and Hanyu were looking at some of the outfits on the hangers as we walked passed them. There were a lot of people in the store, but not as many as I'd expected, usually people came in hordes when ever a half off sell happened. Hell, you should see how packed it is on black Friday!

It didn't take us long before we exited out of the back entrance of the huge store, I looked over at the dark skinned security guard and gave him a nod. He nodded back and continued his job watching out for shoplifters or anyone suspicious.

I turned to the two girls, smiling. "Rika, Hanyu. Welcome to the Philadelphia gallery!" I said, giving a dramatic bow. Which caused a few people to look at me, but I didn't really care.

"Mii~ this place is so big!" Rika said in awe as she looked around.

Hanyu nodded her head in agreement. "Auau~ it's way bigger then the shopping center in Okinomiya!"

"Oh yeah, come here for a seac," I walked over to to the rail and looked on the first floor. Then I pointed towards one of my favorite places to shop. "You see that store right there with the big sign on it?"

they both leaned over, and nodded. "Yeah."

"That's Gamestop, they sell video games and other things like that, both new and old, they even have game tournaments from time to time and whoever come out on top gets a whole lot of cash."

"Wow, so they sell video games there? The same games we were playing yesterday?" Hanyu asked with excitement in her voice.

"Hehe~ yep, all kinds from first person shooters, all the way to adventure," I answered smirking.

"Mii~ we should go there when we have time, sir," Rika said. "Ever since yesterday, Hanyu's been really interested in the whole video game thing."

"Oh really now, okay we'll stop by there once we're done buying what you guys need, but first things first," I grabbed both their hands and started walking towards Old Navy. They did have some of the best clothes after all, and the best sells. "We're buying you both some new clothes!"

Erika walked next to us and said. "Ya know, now that I think about it, I haven't been to Old Navy in a while."

"Me neither, I've never really had a reason to come shopping until now."

We walked into the clothing store and took the stairs up to the second floor where the kids department was, the boys clothes were on the left side of the room and the girls clothes were on the right, and as I expected, Erika was the first one of us to start picking out outfits.

"Hey, Erika!" I called out to her.

"Yeah!"

"I'm expecting you to work your magic, okay?"

"Hehe~ No problem, just give me a half hour and we'll be done before you know it," she said as she took some clothes off the hangers. "Oh these sundresses look nice, they also need shorts and jeans, and maybe some bathing suits too since the summer times coming up ….Rika, Hanyu! Come over here for a minute!"

"Okay!"

While Erika did what she does best, making the girls try on different outfits to see what looked right for them. I sat down on one of the benches and sighed. I never did like clothe shopping much, I'd most of the time be at the arcade.

But, maybe this time wouldn't not be so bad.

Wow, it feels so go to finally write this story again, though this has to be one of the shortest chapters I've ever written, but the next chapter will be even longer that's a promise. ~Peace out~