The entire school was bustling with activity the week before Thanksgiving. It was entirely decorated with homemade turkeys cut and designed by the shape of their own hands, colored and drawn in were the feathers with markers and colored pencils, and hung from the ceilings of every single hallway with their names display on the large body that their palms had molded. Colors of warm orange, yellow, and brown plagued every single classroom. Many students disregarded the dress code and swapped out their usual boring uniforms with outfits that resembled pilgrims that arrived on the new continent and Native Americans that had occupied the piece of land that is now known as the States, or commonly known as North America.
Whether it was culturally appropriate to wear such outfits that had nothing to do with the Japanese people and their culture did not plague Kagami's mind as much as the oncoming feast she was already drooling over.
Even if the Thanksgiving holiday did not originate in Japan, much like other parts of Western culture and holidays, they were fascinated by the concept of family and friends gathering together at a table full of different cuisines with the main ingredient and prized possession in the center, the most delicious turkey that Kagami will ever get to eat. Now, instead of eating alone with her father enjoying the same meal they always have, she will get to enjoy what they call a Friendsgiving with her… well, friends!
Mr. Himejima, their homeroom teacher, handed out a list of items students could bring. With the Friendsgiving only a few days away, it was essential for every student to gather as much as they can, and decorate as much as they could, to make the festivities worthwhile for everybody on campus.
"Wow, I've almost never heard of these dishes before. I bet they taste delicious, though!" Tanjiro said with a smile gazing down at the list that was handed to him.
Kagami peered over his shoulder, noticing the small scribbles of their classmates handwriting, and pondered the strange dishes printed out on the paper. She shook her head in confusion staring at the foreign names. These were not names she was used to reading on the school lunch menus that would hang above their heads in the cafeteria. "Some of these dishes I recognize, like the mashed potatoes and bread rolls, but the rest I'm just as confused as you are."
Tanjiro pondered for a moment. He let a finger drift to his chin before snapping his fingers. "My family owns a bakery. I am sure my siblings are more than willing to help me tackle these strange dishes. They're always eager to try something new!" He exclaimed excitedly scribbling his name down on the pumpkin rolls, sweet rolls, sweet potato pie, and marshmallow casserole.
"But Tanjiro! That is too much! Are you sure you can handle everything in such a short amount of time?" She asked eyes wide in shock.
Tanjiro merely flashed an innocent smile at her. "I appreciate your concern, but I'll be fine. Don't worry."
She merely dropped her gaze and finally relented a small sigh. "Alright, then," She said grabbing the list from him. "I know these dishes are not on the list but I'm really skilled at making homemade sushi rolls and tempura bowls. I don't think Mr. Himejima would mind me mixing a bit of Japanese cuisine into the Friendsgiving feast," She concluded writing a new line of dishes she would be bringing with her name written beside it.
"Hey, Zenitsu, what are you bringing?" Tanjiro curiously asked him turning around to the boy who sat behind Kagami's desk.
It was as if Tanjiro opened Pandora's box… again.
With a fiendish smile, a devilish glint sparkling within those golden irises, Zenitsu placed his hand, looking to take the form of finger guns, against his chin and flashed the two of them a wink. His voice was deliberately taut and low when he announced, "What I am going to do is absolutely secret. It is the ultimate power that I've been building since I've been enrolled in this school. All I will tell you is this: I'm going to make the most wonderful, delicious dish that will have all the ladies in the school falling to their knees to win my favor."
There was silence between the three of them. Kagami, cross armed, and Tanjiro, eyebrow raised, just stared at him critically. "Come again?" Tanjiro squeaked out.
Zenitsu finally dropped his stupid look and huffed, seeing their blank yet disappointed expressions, "Not a single girl has professed their love for me yet! Do you know how heartbreaking it is for a guy like me to go on living without a girl in his arms to make him feel loved, special, and not lonely?"
"We're only in high school, Zenitsu. I don't know why you're so worried about being alone forever when we're only—what—15 years old? You've got your whole life ahead of you to worship the woman of your dreams and, uh, have them worship you in return," Kagami said nearly cringing over her own words. It was almost the same conversation they always have every time he whines about a girl not returning his creepy and too forward affections.
Tanjiro nodded his head. "Kagami is right. True love comes only once in a lifetime. Soon, you'll find the woman who will treat you with every level of respect, love, and honor you deserve. You just need to keep looking with your heart pure and your mind open."
Nothing but genuine honest and purity lingered in those bright red eyes of his.
"I can't believe you actually mean that," Zenitsu scowled much to Kagami's disapproval. He waved away his friend's words, adding, "I know my secret recipe will have girls crying wondering who is the handsome prince who could prepare such a delicious meal. They will be begging for more and I, Zenitsu Agatsuma, will give it to them!"
He hadn't noticed it but he had leaped up on his desk raising his pencil towards the ceiling like an almighty warrior readying himself to slay a powerful beast during his speech. Everyone had turned around and stared at him with wide eyes and raised eyebrows.
"Zenitsu, please get down from your desk," Mr. Himejima sighed rubbing his japamala in between his hands. He quickly followed his instructions, not wanting to anger the muscular, friendly giant that is their homeroom teacher.
"Well, I admire your confidence," Tanjiro chuckled to Kagami's disbelief.
Kagami crossed her arms harder, trying to hide the blush on her face, when she scoffed, "Speaking of confidence, where's Inosuke anyway? He's been absent almost the entire day." She didn't let the concern of his absence rise on her face but felt the warmth of her cheeks gave her away anyway.
"Inosuke? Mr. Shinazugawa caught him wearing that stupid boar mask again and chased him through the corridors all over the school the entire morning," Zenitsu answered with the shrug of his shoulders.
Both Kagami and Tanjiro groaned, "Not again," in unison.
"Where is he now?" He asked.
"In the suspension room, I bet," She then huffed.
Zenitsu, all of a sudden, turned bright red at the question and the answer that he now couldn't hold back. "Mr. Shinazugawa said the suspension room wasn't a tough enough punishment for him," He started to laugh in glee. "The scary brute took him to Miss Sato's classroom instead to-to—wait for it—model for the photography class's upcoming project! And—get this—it's a nude project!"
"No way!" Tanjiro gasped in disbelief.
Kagami felt her blood boil and rise underneath her skin. "So you're saying all the girls in the photography class are looking at Inosuke naked right now?!" She shrieked pointing a sharp finger in the direction of the classroom. Both boys jumped at her sudden outburst and even looked concerned when she added, almost frazzled, "T-Taking pictures and staring at his m-muscular body! And not to mention being a few feet from his unnaturally beautiful face that looks much like a woman! Unfair!" She stomped her foot and balled her fists at her side.
Silence followed her.
She looked around and realized the entire class was staring at her. Immediately, she turned bright red and hid her face in her hands, gasping, "I-I mean, I don't care! Who cares if they see him like that! He's nothing to me!"
The thought was already in her head. She can't get the idea of girls gawking at Inosuke completely naked and taking pictures for them to, what, keep?! Not on her watch!
Without saying anything, she quickly made her way out of the classroom and down the hallway toward the photography class.
"Kagami!" She heard Tanjiro call after her but she paid no attention to him.
She marched her way down the corridor with her heart set on the beating Inosuke and every girl that drooled mindlessly over him. She heard Tanjiro and Zenitsu tentatively fall in step behind her, either to stop her from what she might do to everyone in the class or from their curiosity to see what Inosuke's "nude" photography punishment entailed. Their curiosity, and her jealously, was at the breaking point when they stood outside Miss Sato's closed classroom door.
Kagami, lips curling, grabbed the doorknob and burst it open. What she, Tanjiro, and Zenitsu saw them made their mouths fall open in shock.
Inosuke… was not nude modeling at all. Not a speck of his skin was shown to the bright lights hanging overhead. Instead, the most bored and angry mixed expression was plastered clearly on his face as he was downed in a pilgrim's costume holding a rake in his left hand. Miss Sato and her students eagerly took multiple pictures of him from front to back to his side, their polaroid's falling carelessly and forgotten to the ground like snow as blink after blink of the flash continuously blinded him.
"This is perfect! What a beautiful way to encapsulate the pilgrim's grim feature of their plot to take over the new land," Miss Sato praised a student's polaroid before clapping her hands once. "Now, before the age of pilgrims and colonizers ruthlessly invading North America and butchering almost every native person, and driving them from their homes, that lived on said-land, let's take pictures of the unfortunate victims of the greed of the European folk, the Native Americans," She said with a smile but a cold undertone in her voice.
At the sound of their next assignment, the photography students immediately moved around the room and refill the film in the cameras. Inosuke looked even angrier and annoyed when he was whisked away to the corner where the dressing room was stationed, a Native American costume awaiting for him hanging on the door.
Kagami laid her annoyed expression on Zenitsu. "This isn't nude modeling."
Zenitsu immediately grew flustered at the lie he was told—or heard.
"I'm just glad Inosuke wasn't forced to strip bare in front of everyone. He would've felt so uncomfortable and so embarrassed. I almost felt bad for him," Tanjiro chuckled nervously already turning to leave the classroom.
"He always flaunts himself wherever he goes and whenever he can. Even at school. I'm sure he wouldn't have been bothered any other way," Zenitsu huffed.
All three of them were ready to go back to homeroom when towering figures stopped them directly in their path. They stood well over their heads, their shadows blocking the light of the corridor from reaching their eyes forcing them to take them in the darkness, and intimidatingly stood there. Fear and terror coursed through their veins when they hesitantly gazed upwards to see the crying yet disappointed face of Mr. Himejima and the extremely annoyed expression permanently etched on Mr. Shinazugawa's.
What happened next was nothing short of embarrassing.
Kagami, Tanjiro, and Zenitsu found themselves dressed as pilgrims standing beside the fake-bloody body of the Native American that was Inosuke. They all held bored and disappointed looks of being forced to join Inosuke in his punishment, along with 7 packets of math homework Mr. Shinazugawa assigned them.
"You too?" Inosuke mumbled with a huff.
"Yup," They answered in unison.
Though, Zenitsu's eyes brightened when girls started to surround him taking pictures of him and his rake. "I don't know about you guys, but the camera—and the ladies—sure seem to love me!" He squealed posing in various positions with every flash.
Tanjiro took in their costumes, the excited students eagerly taking pictures, and muttered with a disappointed sigh, "I really don't think it's appropriate to dress like this. Real people suffered and died from the brutal colonization. It just feels like we're making fun of them."
"Shut up, you goody goody fore-head!" Zenitsu suddenly screamed in Tanjiro's surprised face, his own beet red in anger. "This is the only chance I can get a girl to willingly be around me and take my picture! Who knows, maybe I'll turn into a super model from this! Don't ruin this for MEEE!"
Kagami brought her fist down on his head to shut him up.
They spent the entire day humoring the photography class. By the time it was over, the sun was setting and the school day was over. Everyone had walked out of the building chatting excitedly about the Friendsgiving that will take place in a few days' time.
"Hey, Inosuke, what are you going to bring for the Friendsgiving?" Tanjiro had asked him on the walk home.
Inosuke, slugging his lunchbox over his shoulder and one fist shoved in his pant pocket, looked at him as if he was crazy. "What the hell is a Friendsgiving?"
A lightning bolt struck the insides of their heads.
"What do you mean you don't know what a Friendsgiving is? It's like Thanksgiving but a play on words with friends. Get it now? You bumpkin idiot," Zenitsu huffed with a slight eye roll.
Inosuke looked intrigued. "Is it something I can eat?!" He shouted.
"Well, in a way, yes," Tanjiro answered with a smile.
Inosuke flashed a wide, mischievous smile and rubbed his hands together. "I'm going to devour Friendsgiving and no one can stop me!"
"That's not how it works! It's not a food eating competition. It's about eating with the people you care about," Zenitsu huffed at his nonsensical declaration.
Inosuke gave him a bored look. "I don't get it."
At Zenitsu's exasperated expression, Kagami bumped her fist lightly against Inosuke's fore-head. "Friendsgiving isn't just about eating and stuffing your gullet with different kinds of food. It's about spending time with family, friends, and everyone you care about. Sharing a meal with those you hold dear in your heart is the most precious prize of all. More so for those who really care about you in return…"
She kept her hard stare on him, never breaking eye contact, but felt her flaming cheekbones threaten to give her away. Though, his own cheeks turned red in return. He was the one who broke away the stare first and turned to the ground.
When Friendsgiving finally arrived, the wondrous smell of so many delicacies hit her nose and made her mouth savor. The entire back courtyard was decorated with pumpkins, plastic and blow-up turkeys, colorful red, yellow, and orange leaves floating delicately through the wind and softly skittering across the cement sidewalk, a cool wind softly blowing through air, and hundreds of tables decorated in warm orange and yellow paper cloths with dozens upon dozens of dishes and cuisines brought by family, friends, and students alike. Everyone sat around, happily chattering, hugging, and singing, waiting for the festivities to begin.
"Hey, Kagami!"
She turned her head and saw Tanjiro waving her over where Inosuke, Zenitsu, Nezuko, Aoi, and Kanao found seats among the hundreds that have already been taken and saved by others. Hurrying over, she passed by the teachers making last adjustments and taken the seat between Inosuke and Kanao.
"I'm glad I made it!" She sighed.
"Me too! It was getting crowded already!" Tanjiro chuckled.
Her eyes widened in amazement seeing the dishes spread out among their table. It was the pumpkin rolls, sweet rolls, sweet potato pie, and marshmallow casserole! "Wow, Tanjiro! These look amazing!"
Tanjiro nodded, grinning as he petted the cooing Nezuko's head. She smiled adoringly at him with that piece of baguette still stuffed in her mouth. "You can thank Nezuko here. I wouldn't have been able to accomplish any of the dishes I said I would take on without her. She was the one who perfected the recipes all by herself. All I could do was help mix the ingredients together and taste test before we baked them. Nezuko is the true genius here."
"But she wouldn't have been able to do it without her big brother's help, though," Kagami smiled watching Nezuko pet his head in return.
Then, her eyes turned to the distraught Zenitsu sitting nearby. "What happened?" She asked.
Tanjiro held a sympathetic look. "Zenitsu's, er, super delicious dish was... not as successful as he hoped it would be," He phrased carefully watching the boy that looked to have almost explode in tears.
Zenitsu wiped his cheeks clean and quietly cried, "It's a complete mess! I didn't think baking was too hard, seeing how Tanjiro and Nezuko-chan make it look so easy, but by the time I brought it out of the oven it was... a disaster." In a dramatic reveal, he pulled the silver covering off of his plate. A ghastly mess that Kagami didn't even know to describe sat underneath it. Her eyebrows twitched in disgust and her heart faltered in her chest. The smell itself was enough to drive Kanao and Aoi to a different table away from them, if the sight didn't already change their minds to sit with them.
In the beginning, she knew the dish wouldn't be tasty at all but... she couldn't help but feel awful for him.
CLINK CLINK
Everyone's eyes turned up at the delicate clinks of a glass cup. Principal Amane Ubuyashiki stood at the center of the teacher's table, the staff sitting on either side of her, and held a kind smile on her face. "I would like to thank everyone for making it to our Thanksgiving, and Friendsgiving, feast. I would like to personally thank our staff for decorating the entire courtyard for this event; Mr. Rengoku, Miss Tenshi, Mr. Shinazugawa, Mr. Himejima, Miss Sato, Mr. Tomioka, Mr. Urokodaki, Miss Kocho, Mr. Iguro, Miss Hinatsuru, Miss Makio, Miss Suma, and Mr. Kyogai. They dedicated their time making this event possible. Please give them a warm applause."
Kagami smiled and clapped along with everyone, adding to the thunderous applause, at the bashful teachers who gracefully accepted their thanks.
"Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving, is not just about the food prepared, or the meal that is ahead," She continued, "It's about the act of sharing and being with those who love you and those you love. It's unfortunate many do not have those to share this precious time with. Some do not have the privilege of being with their loved one. Please do not take advantage of them. Spend every time you could with them and let them know how much you mean to them. Every little bit counts. That is all I have to share. Happy Thanksgiving, and Friendsgiving, everyone!"
"YAY!" Everyone cheered lifting up their glasses of pumpkin juice and opening platters of the buffet laid before them.
In no time were plates overflowing with various kinds of food being stuffed in everyone's mouths. Kagami smiled at her full plate and downed the delicious food prepared. Laughter, chuckles, and the sounds of complete content filled the air. There was no tension nor hostility. Only happiness, peace, and love for everyone. In the spirit of friendship, Kagami, Tanjiro, and Nezuko took a bite of Zenitsu's ghastly mess. It tasted horrid, but they held smiles on their faces and gave Zenitsu in an enthusiastic thumbs up. The bright smile on his tearful face at their feign likeness to his dish lifted her heart immensely. It made the terrible stomachache she knew she would have later worth it.
In the middle of her meal, Kagami felt something tug at her elbow.
She turned beside her and saw Inosuke had quickly turned his head from her. "Did you need something, Inosuke?" She asked curiously.
Inosuke, almost embarrassed, shyly shoved a plate in her hands and immediately turned back to his meal. It seemed he was trying to hide the redness on his face by shoving piles of food in his mouth with both hands.
Confused, Kagami glanced down at the plate and blushed heavily at the slice of chocolate pie.
It was his slice and he... gave it to her?
A small smile spread on her lips and she leaned forward. Much to his surprise, she placed a delicate kiss on his cheek. He stiffened and halted in his meal for a moment. The redness in his face deepened and it seemed he couldn't turn his way toward her in fear of showing anything other than confidence. She only smiled deeper. Tanjiro smiled at the display and gave them a thumbs up. Nezuko cooed against her baguette with Zenitsu dreamily looking on at her.
The sound of colorful fireworks popping against the warm pink and purple sky streaked with the colors of the setting sun caused an uproar of loud screams and cheers. It was a beautiful Friendsgiving with everyone they all cared about and Kagami wouldn't trade that moment for the world.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!