Disclaimer: It's obvious I don't have Tales of Xillia, because it was properties of Bandai Namco.
Well, at first since I wanted to end the Summer Arc and moved on to Autumn, this chapter isn't here. But, when I thought about the future chapter, I guess it wouldn't hurt to prolong our Summer a little bit. It was done long before I published this, but you know, lately my ISP blocked for a goddamn no reason! I didn't know what to think about it since well, it was booooooring as hell to just sit tight.
Let's stop the rambling here and get on to the story then! Sorry for the short chapter since this was an impromptu add-on. Rina Aria presents you 'Memories From Back Then' chapter 10 - Yukata and Festival. Since I don't know what to say in this section, let's get on to the story! Of course I still appreciate it if you do the ritual of Read and Review~ Have a nice Summer!
"I beg for your forgiveness my liege!"
"No way, not a chance, not in my whole life."
Milla was sitting on the chair of local restaurant in a way that reminded someone of a queen while Jun who had his head bandaged bowed his head deeply as if it had taken a root in the earth. It was a pitiful sight for anyone who saw it since Milla clearly abused Jun to do her bidding since the latter was honestly regretted his unintentional action. To make it worse, Milla didn't even look at Jun and merely ate her food as if Jun was nothing but insect for her.
Leia who sat beside Milla tried to hold her laughter inside since Jun was pretty much looked like a poor servant who begged for forgiveness in front of his (evil) mistress. Mai who still wondered what had happened when she was away looked at Milla and Jun periodically.
Jude decided that it was save enough for him to step in so he started backing up Jun by saying, "Come on Milla, it was just an accident right? I'm sure this pitiful guy was feeling sorry for it."
Milla looked up from her food to see Jude and raised one of her eyebrows slightly. She took a deep breath and then thought about what Jude told her. After she reached some sort of answer she replied with, "Whether it is intentional or not, what happened was what I know. I never wanted anyone to do it even if it was unintentional so I'm still headstrong about my decision to not forgive."
Jude looked at Milla who had the look that she was serious about it. He placed his spoon and looked at his pitiful friend who begged him to calm the mad queen. He sighed since it couldn't be helped and so he asked, "Is there any other way for you to at least not openly expressing your discomfort around this stupid sports idiot until you could forgive him?"
"Why I should do that?"
"For the sake of… friend, maybe? Of course it was my favor not Jun's."
Jude and Milla then looked at each other with intense gaze that made the temperature around them dropped drastically one would wonder was it winter instead of summer. Leia and Mai who watched created an internal bet for who would win in the staring contest.
Jun blinked innocently as he didn't understand what the pair was fighting about despite being the topic of debate by the two. He looked at Milla's icy cold eyes and then looked at Jude's eyes which were as cold as the girl. If anyone didn't know better, there was the sound of crackling electricity between them despite their attempt to remain indifferent.
Milla finally scowled as Jude merely smiled. Mai reluctantly took her wallet and gave Leia her money as Leia cheered mentally. Milla then turned to Jun's direction and the latter quickly stood still when Milla said, "I'll be kind for just this day. I will think about what I should do to you next time."
Jude chuckled and looked at Jun who was teary-eyed at the temporary forgiveness that Milla gave him. Jun then sat beside Jude and finally ate something else except sand, sand, and well... more sand. If anyone were to know about what Milla had done to the poor man, Milla might get the title of "The Sadistic Execution Expert Queen" in instant.
True to her words, Milla was visibly friendly to Jun and even played with him lightly after they ate their supper in one of the café near the beach. Jude wondered whether Milla was just good at acting or had actually forgiven Jun in reality. If it was the former, Jude would really wonder why Milla didn't join the drama club instead since her acting is so good it was scary.
"Hey, did you know that tonight there is a festival near the eastern part of the town?" Leia said as she passed the actually light ball that was meant for beach volley. No, she no longer passing watermelon around for execution.
"Ah I heard about it as well when I was shopping. Here Milla!" Mai replied as she passed the ball from Leia to Milla with a light almost graceful movement.
Milla who took the pass looked at Leia and Mai as she passed the ball and replied with, "If we go there could we make it using the last bus?" as she passed the ball to Jude.
"As long as we go back around 10, we could go back before midnight. Did anyone have curfew before that?" Jude replied with a calm tone as he passed the ball to Jun.
"Did you not knew that we brought phone with us Jude? We could always said that we would be late to our parents," Leia replied as she mentally rolled her eyes.
"Just asking," Jude replied with a tired sigh. Leia could be sarcastic if she wanted to.
"But well, none of the girl brought Yukata or change of clothes after all. It would be hard…" Jun replied before passing the ball back to Mai ignoring the initial small bickering.
"Why is that?" Mai asked innocently as she passed the ball to Leia who was looking at Jun with suspecting eyes. Jude also noticed that Milla had shot Jun a dirty look as well.
It looked like Jun didn't notice that dark look his past executor gave him and calmly said, "Of course it was that you know, that. It is festival after all so it would look nice if they wear a Yukata instead of normal clothes. It would be a good feast-" but before he managed to finish, Jun was thrown away from the place he stood on, though maybe the precise word is 'kicked' instead of 'thrown'.
Milla who had moved forward with her legs in the position of side-kick was the one who had kicked Jun a good distance away from the place he stood. After she let out a 'huff' when Jun landed on the sandy ground with his face down, she said, "Ah, sorry my leg slipped."
"Jude, how far he flew?!" Leia asked quickly as she took the ball on her hand and looked to Jun who hadn't recovered from the fall.
Jude quickly took out a measuring tape and after he asked Mai to take the other end, he pulled it to Jun without bothering to help the guy and then said, "65.2 meters… well, that was quite far."
"Tch, and here I thought I could beat my record of 66 meters..." Milla muttered as she dusted herself off.
"Don't worry Mila there is still next time," Jude encouraged as he threw the measuring tape away from his hands. A good criminal must discard of any evidence from the crime scene.
"Yeah, just as Jude had said! Jun managed to survive after you kick him, before we smashed a watermelon to his head, and I throw a parasol to him! There is still a lot of next time!" Leia added cheerfully. Cheerfully scary though since her eyes weren't laughing at all.
"Is that what we are supposed to care about?" Mai softly muttered as she looked at Jun who got his ass given to him with ribbon wrapped.
"Don't worry too much Mai. Anyway I agree that we should look at the festival. How about you Leia?" Milla replied before she asked Leia who was poking Jun's body (corpse) with the tip of her sandals.
"I'm okay with going, how about the rest of you?" Leia replied before asking Jude and Mai, avoiding her eyesight from Jun purposefully.
"I'm going since you girls needed some man around for the sake of your parents. No ill intent intended since I know that anyone who messed with you is dead meat," Jude replied nonchalantly as he looked at Jun. He had taken a step away from Jun once more as if he never in his side of matter.
"If everyone agreed then I agree to go as well," Mai replied hesitantly.
"If Mai-chan is coming, then I'm coming as well!" Jun who hastily revived himself from dead said with spirited tone.
"It looked like it was decided that we will go there. Do you want to look for a change or use your normal clothes?" Jude said as he peered at the girl swimsuit.
Leia looked like she was pondering about it while Mai merely laughed nervously. Milla who was the one that voiced the idea to go merely looked to the side as if not knowing the answer. Jude simply sighed at the sight and scratched the back of his neck.
It was then that another voice interrupted the group saying, "Then, I will be there with you as the guardian of all of you."
Jude, Milla, Leia, Mai, and Jun turned around to find their infirmary teacher, Alvin, smiled brightly with his right hand raised. Jun who noticed the teacher first said, "Coach, you are still alive huh?"
Alvin dropped comically before protesting, "I'm still alive here! And you didn't use that tone to your teacher!"
"Infirmary teacher," Mai corrected as she looked at Leia.
Leia grinned widely and looked to Jude before saying, "An infirmary teacher that got hurt."
Jude noticed Leia's signal and looked at the teacher straightly before he added more salts on the wound, "An infirmary teacher that got hurt and hospitalized but after being discharged didn't take more care about his own health."
Milla who heard the continuing sentence simplify it by saying, "In short, a sorry-excuse for a teacher."
Alvin laughed heartily and slapped Jude's shoulders lightly as he said, "Well, well, that was harsh comment coming from my own students."
"We are just saying what we think about you stupid coach," Jun said as he stood up from the place he had landed.
"I don't want to be called stupid by you, stupid ball head," Alvin replied with a sigh as he placed his right palm over his forehead. He didn't think he had fallen so low to be called stupid by an idiot like Jun.
Jun was about to protest when Milla raised her right hand signaling the guy to shut up. When she knew that Jun wouldn't interrupt her, she placed a hand on her hips before asking, "Alvin-sensei, why we should accept you as our guardian in the festival? We could go there by ourselves."
"As expected of the Freshmen Miss Perfect, you caught on really fast. Well, I heard you talked about change of clothes and Jun was hit by divine punishment or something. So since it looked like it would be nice to lend you some helping hand, I could be your temporary guardian and let you borrow the Yukata from my boss. Since I'm still working with that evil boss I could bring the Yukata back tomorrow or something when you are done," Alvin explained with great detail as he smiled brightly to his students so they could believe in him.
"Did we need to pay for this?" Jude asked as he looked at Alvin with blank expression. He didn't realize that the teacher had eavesdropping on them for the whole time and he found it suspicious.
"Hey, hey, what did you take your teacher for?" Alvin asked dejectedly as he putted up an honestly hurt look.
"An infirmary teacher that got hurt and hospitalized but after being discharged-" Mai was about to repeat the long label that they had put on Alvin with straight face when Alvin shouted a loud 'Stop! Don't say anything more than that!' in the middle of it, as if knowing where it would put him up in the end.
"That aside, I guess I would take your offer on guardianship, Alvin-sensei," Milla finally said as she lightly waved her teacher dramatic way on expressing his denial on the long label.
"If Milla said she would take the offer then I will agree as well," Jude followed almost immediately as he turned his attention to Milla. He internally wondered didn't Milla feel that it was strange for their teacher to suddenly pop up in between their conversation.
Milla caught Jude's question and nodded since she found it odd as well but not voice it out. She was surprised but pleased that Jude also noticed it. She returned the question back with an answer that it would be better for them to just follow for now. After all, he is still their teacher and also Jun's coach, so they couldn't just go there and interrogate him.
Jude replied with a careful nod to Milla as he eyed his teacher a tad bit warily. So it wasn't just him who felt that. He decided to believe Milla for now as he eyed his friends who were oblivious about their discussion and had been long since agreed to take up the offer.
But Jude decided to take the positive approach about the matter. From what he knew, it was the first time Milla came to the beach so it wouldn't be that weird to hear that it was the first time she went to a Festival. Unlike himself, he looked forward on going to Festival with his friends this year.