Sorry about the delay, guys! A bunch of stuff happened the past few weeks, from school, to health, etc. I was going to update this Friday, but once again fate intervened and I couldn't get it up till today. Either way, school ends in full in a few days, so I'll be updating much more frequently!


The Festival

Staring at her reflection in the mirror, Kotone sighed to herself. The yukata for the festival had put her off at first, the red on white pattern being a bit too bright for a young girl her age. Yet, she had grown accustomed to it as the nurse helped her put it on earlier, the bright colors making her look a little less tired than she had prior. But now, she had to deal with her hair. She had already decided to keep it in her signature pig-tails, but she wasn't sure what to do with the rest of it.

Before her she had an array of hair ornaments and kanzashi, all that Hibiki had dropped off cooing something about how 'cute' they would look on her. In all reality, though, she had no idea what to do with them. As if her thoughts had been read, there was a knock on the door, and when she opened it, it was one of the nurses again. The pink haired woman greeted her and asked how she was doing. Kotone couldn't help herself, and ended up asking for help with her hair. It was such a stupid thing to be worried about, she couldn't help but trip over her words as she asked.

The nurse did not seem to mind at all, though, but instead giggled in anticipation. "You know," She began, as she sat Kotone down and looked over all the hair ornaments, "because of my job, I can't go to the festival tonight. But, to make up for my absence, I'll make sure you're the prettiest girl there."

Those words came as a bit of a shock to Kotone. This very well might have been their first time speaking, yet the woman was so eager to help her. She couldn't make out if the nurse was naïve, or just a bit dense. She expected her helping, perhaps even wanting to help, yet those words wouldn't stop ringing through her head. Instead she just muttered a "Thank you." And proceeded to twiddle her fingers as the nurse went to work on her hair.

The half hour seemed more like an eternity, but when the nurse was finally finished Kotone couldn't help but stare in amazement. There were very few ornaments used, but it looked balanced, "And, for the finishing touch…." The nurse lifted a very simple kanazashi off the table, composed of one large red flower with two strands of white and red 'petals' hanging down. "There, perfect." She smiled, and seeing that Kotone was pleased, excused herself from the room.

Within the next few moments she had slipped on her geta sandals and rushed out the door, well, as quickly as she could in the sandals. She hadn't worn anything like them since she was younger and it would take a bit of getting used to. Knocking on Hibiki's door, she heard a muffled, "Almost ready!" and leaned against the wall. Adjusting her hair slightly, she began thinking about the past day. She wondered if she was a bit more pessimistic when she was left alone in her thoughts, but she just waved it away, blaming her prior mood on the lack of human interaction or something. Her excuses were interrupted by Hibiki opening his door, and stepping out into the hallway with Kotone, "You ready?" He cooed, his hatless head cocking to the side like a little kid.

With a sideways glance, Kotone observed Hibiki as they approached the stalls of the festival. The dark bluish-black of his yukata was nearly the same shade of his hair, and made him look much older than he did in the morning, when he was wearing his regular day clothes. Making eye contact, Hibiki winked, "Can't resist my dashing good lo—Ow!" He cut off when Kotone's sandal 'accidently' came down on his foot. "Oh my, I seem to still be getting used to these shoes…" She muttered before nudging her friend's arm.

The two of them wandered around the festival, hoping to at least look at all the stalls before it got too busy. At the moment, there were only a few other people wandering around, from what the locals had told them, most the crowd waits until nightfall to head over for the evening festivities. The area the festival was contained in was pretty big, and Kotone had begun to wonder just how many people would show up.

Approaching a game stall, involving some exceptionally small Goldeen and paper scoops, Kotone opted to just stand back and watch as Hibiki attempted to nab one of the Pokémon without breaking the scoop. Letting her eyes wander around as Hibiki got absorbed in the game, Kotone's eye was caught by a pink mask riding high above the others, mostly worn by children. It was the silly face of a Slowpoke, and it made Kotone wonder what kind of teen or adult would subject themselves to such a fate.

As the face turned more towards her, she saw a glare that rang a bell. As she tried to put her finger on it, the stranger redirected their observing glare directly at her. She was flustered for a moment, locked up and unable to look away, but as soon as she realized it was the angry-boy from earlier, she redirected her attention to Hibiki, who had a Goldeen on the scoop, and was slowly making its way towards his container.

"I did it!" She heard him call out, lifting up the Goldeen in the clear container for everyone to see. "Great job, youngin'! The Goldeen is yours to keep, now." Hibiki's smile turned more into a pensive look, then he looked straight at Kotone, "Hey, do you want it?" He asked, presenting the Goldeen to her like a used car salesman. The thing looked puny and weak, even if it evolved it wouldn't serve much use, so she shook her head no, and declined as politely as she could.

With a small frown, Hibiki gave the stall-keeper an apologetic glance before returning the Goldeen to the water. "S-so, what do you want to do, now?" He asked, resuming his expectant expression. Considering it was still rather desolate, Kotone figured that they should get food while they still could.

Kotone had immediately regretted her decision. With so much food already available (and more stalls setting up) at such cheap prices, it wasn't long before she had tried more than half of the food present at the festival. The few times Hibiki tried to make a pass at her appetite, she made sure to shoot him down as quickly as possible. If anything, she justified all the food she was eating with the fact that she had been walking non-stop for the past few days.

She was just about to get started on some dango when she noticed there was no comment about how much weight she was going to gain. Looking around, she noticed that Hibiki was gone and the crowd was beginning to set in. Looking at her dango, and then back at her surroundings, she figured she could still munch on it while looking for her missing persons.

Figuring he might have been distracted by a game, she began making her way to the busiest looking game stall, where people were trying to get as many small balls out of a tank of water as possible. Yet she couldn't find her dark haired friend anywhere within the crowd. Attempting to take a bite of her snack as she turned around, someone was pushed into her. The body before her prevented her from extending her hands to catch her dango, that were now laying on the ground, a considerable amount of dirt on them.

Now that her snack was a lost cause, she looked up at the stranger, but was greeted instead by a stupid-looking slowpoke face. She let out a little scream, caught off guard, before the slowpoke 'face' turned away and she was presented with a face that perhaps even scarier. Because of the dark, almost black, appearance of the figure's yukata it blended in with the surroundings, and ended up looking something like a floating head at first. The scornful expression was framed by green hair that contrasted the pink mask with startling vibrancy. Despite the fact that her delicious snack was just knocked out of her hand, she had to bring up her hand to prevent herself from laughing at the angry-boy.

His glare turning more into a stare of horror he looked down on Kotone, "And what are you laughing at?" He asked, his voice grumbling a bit. Kotone had to press her hand harder against her mouth, his voice adding to the comedic affect. Without the mask, earlier, he looked like someone to fear. But with the simple addition of a slowpoke face he became more of a spectacle. Composing herself a bit, Kotone removed her hand from her mouth. "U-uhm it's nothing, I was just… Thinking of… Pffft—" She couldn't help it, and she just broke out laughing, for as the green-haired boy's face twitched in anger, so did his mask.

"Are you condescending me!?" He raised his voice, clearly enraged by Kotone's little laughing fit, "I'll let you know, I could very easily make you regret making fun of me!" His voice was harsher now that he was angrier. "N-no not at all it's just," Kotone gasped for air, "it's the mask! T-the mask!" She declared, letting more laughs escape between words.

The boy adjusted his mask, a defiant look in his eye. He wouldn't admit it, but he rather liked his mask, he thought it was dumb enough to look cool. "And what makes you say that?" He questioned, his voice daring her to try and say something about his mask again.

Letting herself breath, Kotone looked up at him, a stupid grin on her face, making sure to avoid eye contact with the mask. "Well, you see…" She began, letting out a puff of air, "Take a moment to think about yourself, you're rather tall," She raised her hand up high to exemplify her point, "you have quite a scary face, no offence intended, I think some girls are into that." She explained, backpedaling a bit to avoid conflict. "But then, there's just that… Thing," She choked, "on your head…" And as if to drive home the point that he didn't really care, he pulled the mask over his face, staring down onto Kotone.

She didn't know whether to laugh or cry, the whole situation was rather stupid, and she was blatantly shocked. "I didn't do this to entertain you, Kiddo." His voice wafted through the mask as he pointed ahead of him, behind Kotone. Turning around, she saw Hibiki, wading through the crowd of people, a package in his hands. "Oi! Kotone!" He called out, waving to her. She turned around to invite the angry boy to hang out with them, but he was gone, lost in the crowd, she supposed.

Having promptly grabbed Kotone's hand, Hibiki began leading her away from the crowd, claiming that he had a surprise for her. Kotone felt like asking where the hell he exactly was, but she figured it was futile, he must have thought whatever he did was a 'super good idea' or something along those lines, thus, it wouldn't matter. Well, to him at least.

Now that they were out of the main crowd, Hibiki had let out his Marill to walk alongside them. As usual she followed her owner with a confident stride and without falter. It was actually getting on Kotone's nerves, just a little bit.

She wasn't quite sure when she had gotten him to release his grasp on her hand, but she managed it and followed behind him, instead of hand-in-hand. "Can't you at least tell me where we're going?" She asked, her voice growing weary from how late it had become. Hibiki muttered something about ending a festival the 'right' way, and continued on his way.

As the noise from the festival began to fade into the distance, Kotone thought she knew where they were going, and if she guessed right, it would be the Slowpoke well. That's when she began eying the little brown bag in his hand, wondering what he could have planned. It wasn't long until she found out, the pathway to the well before them now.

With a quick jog, they were down to the entrance of the well, and Hibiki held out the brown bag in front of him, "Behind bag number one…" He announced in a booming TV-personality voice, "Taaa-DA!" He pulled out a package of sparklers, and Kotone's face light up. "No way!" She cawed, leaning forward to get a better look at the packaging. Her mother had never let her play with them before, and she thought she would die without knowing what it was like to play with a sparkler.

Hibiki pulled one out of the package, handing it to her. He pulled out another, showing it to his Marill, before reaching into the folds of his yukata, where he had hidden a lighter. "I would have used a fire type," he proclaimed sheepishly, "but I don't quite have one in my repertoire, yet." He rested the package on the lip of the well, and then brought the lighter to his sparkler. Kotone's mouth formed an 'o' as it was light, she had never seen one up close. She held hers up childishly, and sensing her impatience, Hibiki brought his sparkler to hers, and hers burst up with sparks as well.

Despite being nearly an adult now, she was a bit scared when the sparkler first started burning, thinking that her hair might catch on fire. But as it died down a little bit, she got a bit more confident and began walking around the well with it, spinning it around and forming little circles. Feeling something poke into her hip, she looked down just in time to see the package of sparklers fall down into the well. She looked up to meet Hibiki's horrified, overdramatic reaction to the ordeal, which involved a bit of flailing, then the realization that there wasn't much he could do at this point.

Kotone hesitated for a moment, she felt bad that she lost the package, mostly because Hibiki spent money on it, but what could she do… "I know," She glanced over to her friend, a triumphant look in her eyes, "I'll go down and get it!" She announced, proud of her decision. "But Kotone, it could be dangerous! Especially since you're a girl!" Hibiki retaliated, "I'm coming with y—Hey! Wait up!" Kotone was already starting her descent down the well as he ran over, retrieving his Marill as he did so.

With a thump, they both stepped down from the latter, entering the cavern within the well. "You go check over there and I'll see if it fell down the ridge over here." Kotone announced upon not finding the package immediately near the base. Her friend nodded, knowing that was better than anything he could come up with.

"Now now… Let's see." She mumbled, peeking over the ridge, "This is a bit high up… If it did fall down—" As if she jinxed herself, her geta caught on a stone, causing her to topple over the side. She hit the ground on her side, a slight pain running up her arm, and her white yukata getting awfully dirty. Luckily, it wasn't too high, and she managed to get away with nothing more than a bruise or two. She stood up, brushing off as much dirt as she could, when something caught her eye. Walking over to it, she realized it was the package, "Awesome! Now I just gotta make my way back to Hibiki before he starts to worry."

Rounding a corner in the direction she thought was correct, she saw a pink object moving around in the darkness. Upon walking closer, she could make out that it was a mask, and the green tufts of hair poking from under it. The angry boy had brought the mask off from directly on his face since last Kotone saw him, and his hateful expression was replaced with a look of determination and thought.

Since she was passing by him anyways, Kotone called out to him, "Hey, what are you doing here?" His whole body went rigid, and then relaxed almost as quickly. He turned his head, his eyes boring into Kotone, "…Research."