Summer was a time of change. Setting things out to clean, to dry, to change. Changing your clothes, changing your bedding, changing your meals, even changing the decorations in your house so they didn't become stale. Summer was all about rotation and change.

Summer was also time for Tanabata, one of the few festivals Kanji and his family celebrated every year. When the sun was up, it was fun to eat with your friends, and when the moon was up, it was time to light a lantern and set it floating down the river for your ancestor or family. Kanji lit his for his father. He didn't remember who he used to do it for while his father was still alive.

After helping his mothers around the house and dealing with the morning rush of customers, he headed to the outskirts of the shopping district to greet the others, taking in the sights. Colorful tents and stalls were set up everywhere, and so were giant models of the princess and the cowherd. The place was barely busy.

"I bet people are too scared of the murders to come." Yu said, as if he could read their minds. Actually, yeah, maybe he could. "That's why it's not busy."

"Yeah, other years there were way more people, but I ain't complainin'. You can't blame people for being afraid, and that just means more food for us!" Kanji said, running straight over to a stall selling noodles. Yosuke and Yu got sweet mochi, and Raccoon got takoyaki on a stick.

"You think the girls will be here soon?" Yosuke asked as he ate his food.

"Did somebody ask for us?" The three girls wandered over, Yukiko keeping Nanako close to her. Kanji looked at them, unimpressed, while Yu and Yosuke were trying to hide how much they were staring.

Yukiko looked as expected, wearing a light blue kimono patterned with waves and boats sailing out to sea, her teal obi showing a similar pattern of running water and flowing waves. Her kanzashi was made up of two blue pins in her hair.

Chie, on the other hand, looked completely different, somehow. She wore a dark blue kimono with a green obi, the obi tied with a huge bow that fanned out from her back like butterfly wings and patterned with stars. Her kimono carried the patterns of tree branches with paper wishes in all different colors hanging from them, reflecting the holiday season. Her hair was pulled up into a tight bun decorated with a light green comb and bells dangling down on either side of her head. Every time she moved, they made a pleasant ringing sound.

"Dang, is that really you, Satonaka-san? You actually look beautiful for once! You look like a girl!" Yosuke teased.

"Hey! This took forever to do, you know!" She huffed at him. "Yukiko and her mother had to help me with it."

Rise wasn't wearing a kimono but instead another bustled summer dress in a golden color trimmed with white and yellow, big bows on either side of her layered skirt. She wore white gloves and golden earrings and her necklace again, and covering her hair was a large brimmed sunhat with ribbons around the center. Like Nanako, she also carried a small yellow bag.

Nanako had the simplest outfit of them all, a bright pink kimono and white obi with snowflakes and peonies patterned on both, her hair still up in pigtails. She carried a small pink bag with her.

"Sorry we took a while, but it was worth it, right?" Rise smiled.

"You're not wearing a kimono?" Yu asked in surprise.

"Nope! I don't like them! I only wear the hakama for school! I don't know how to wear them and don't care," She linked her arm with his. "But we make a cute Western couple, right?"

"You look cute, Nanako-chan!" Raccoon shouted, seeing nobody else was going to compliment her. She smiled.

"I think Papa is here, I saw him over by the entrance. He must've been waiting for me!" She bowed to them and hurried off.

"Welcome to the Yasoinaba Tanabata Matsuri! Place your name in the box to be voted as this year's Miss Tanabata!" A smiling woman approached the group, addressing Chie and Yukiko but ignoring Rise. "You two look like you have a shot!"

"Ah, why not?" Chie wrote hers down and placed it in the box, and so did the other two.

"I've won most years," Yukiko explained. "It's just a random drawing, but I guess that's my luck. Maybe people are writing my name instead of theirs."

"You know what would be the best part of this festival? Pairing up! Making memories with each other! When are you ever going to have an experience like this again?!" Raccoon bounced up and down. "But how should we do it? There's too many guys…someone will be left out!"

"Yeah, and it should be you," Yosuke said. "It's pretty obvious who everyone goes with."

"No way! I should be included! I'm fuzzy and wonderful!"

While everyone argued, Rise just grabbed Yu's arm and pulled him away, smiling. "Looks like I got you! First things first, our wishes!" She paused in front of the tree set out for that very purpose, already loaded with wishes. Rise took some ink. "What are you wishing for?"

Yu shrugged. "A girlfriend." He carefully tied his to the tree.

"Sly! That has a good chance of coming true, you know!" She playfully nudged him before quickly writing hers; better handwriting. They then walked around together, Rise staring at all the stalls. She frowned at one that had a drawing of her as a ballerina. "Hm. Even here I can't escape that image."

Yosuke and Chie stared at each other before she grinned. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving! Let's get something to eat!"

"I only had mochi. What are you going to get?" He followed her over to the food stalls and watched her look over everything in awe.

"I don't know, it all looks so good! Should I get barbecued meat, or something on a stick like takoyaki? I just want something meaty!" She closed her eyes and chose the barbeque stand, grinning at the big greasy bowl she got. "Wow, it's huge!"

"And are you going to share any of that?" Yosuke put his hands on his hips.

Chie almost shook her head, but picked out a piece and handed it to him. "Only for the spirit of the season!"

They leaned up against the stall and ate together, trying their best to not dirty their fingers. Chie wondered if they made a strange sight, him in a Western suit and her completely dressed up in a kimono. Her bells rang softly in her ears. The meat was coated in sauce and grease that covered their mouths despite their best attempts, making rings of brown around their mouths.

"What else do they have?" Yosuke asked, looking around.

"A few games and the contest mainly. Dancing too, later on at night. Let's go find something!" She pulled him along until they found an orange stall with horseshoes stacked up neatly. They both took three and were led out back where a metal pole was placed a distance away.

"Try your luck! First to two wins!" The owner shouted.

The metal was cold in Chie's hands as she tossed the first two, both missing entirely. Her third hit it with a clang. Yosuke missed all three.

"Awww man, I was hoping I'd win!" Chie pouted.

"Is there any place here to pee?" Yosuke asked and she shot him an offended look.

"Are you serious?! Just hold it!" She pushed him.

Naturally, that left Yukiko and Kanji, while Raccoon ran off to see what Nanako was doing. They decided to dance, being attracted to the center of the festival after making their wishes. The dance was fast and the dancers beat their feet on the ground with the heavy drums being pounded. Yukiko and Kanji got swept away, twirling in the middle and shaking their arms before the dancers pulled them back into the crowd.

Yukiko was given a wand with colorful ribbons streaming off of it and she waved it above her head, slowly rotating herself and bowing at the end.

"I hope everyone's having a fun night! Before we do our closing ceremony, let's celebrate our Miss Tanabata!" A man in a kimono announced, and everyone clapped politely and gathered around. "This year, it's the lovely….Satonaka-chan!"

"Me?!" Chie asked in disbelief as everyone clapped around her.

She was gently wrapped into a brocade and silk uchikake that trailed on the ground in a rich black, covered in the images of flying cranes and bamboo and flowing water. Into her hands they placed a red lantern, telling her she was the one to begin the ceremony. She blushed heavily.

"See what happens when you look like a girl?!" Yosuke teased. She stomped his foot.

"You're not jealous?" Chie asked Yukiko.

"No way! I'm so happy you won! You deserve it too!" She held her hands.

"I wish someone could take my photo…so I'll remember this forever…"

"The best memories are the ones that never fade," Kanji offered. He thought Chie mainly just looked uncomfortable, weighed down by her layers.

She led everyone to the lake once they got their lanterns and stood in front of the crowd, holding a match.

"I'm so happy we had another successful Tanabata this year. May your wishes come true, and…hope we have another great one next year!" She spoke nervously before lighting up her lantern and setting it afloat in the river. Everyone else followed suit, some whispering the names of who they were lighting them for. Kanji watched his float away, knowing his father was watching. He didn't want to pry, but still wondered who everyone else was thinking of. Chie shivered and tried to pull her uchikake closer. The sun completely dipped away from the horizon.

"Who'd you light yours for?" He finally caved and asked Yosuke and Chie, seeing how distressed they looked.

"My brother. I've always done it for him…" She looked over at Yosuke. "Yes, I had an older brother. We were super close, but scarlet fever took him four years ago."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know…" Yosuke shifted uncomfortably. "Uh, disease is a real menace."

"You're tellin' me," Kanji grunted.

"Mine is…Konishi-senpai."

And that's where the conversation stopped.

Kanji didn't have school, but there was still always a lot of work to do. Swapping out for summer fabrics and prints, cleaning out the shop and bedrooms. Most of that fell to him, being the man, and thus his summer was spent in relative boredom and monotony. The ground shook and rumbled for a few days in a row, which nobody minded. Even walking home from Tanabata there was an earthquake, but again, no cause for alarm. That was the most exciting thing that had happened. Then, he read in the paper that a volcano had exploded far away, covering nearby cities in ash. Even in Inaba the sky was a bit grey from the smoke blown over in that direction even though they were nowhere near the volcano.

Afterwards, Yukiko visited at random, holding a bowl of miso.

"Did you make that?" He asked, pushing it away when she nodded. "You got the boys sick!"

"That was just bad meat! I didn't get sick!" She scooped a spoonful. "I'm trying to improve. People like it when you cook for them, right?"

He didn't say anything for a while. "What do ya think about that volcano? Did ya…feel anything from it?"

"I think it's too far away," Yukiko answered without hesitation. "If I'm going to feel anything, I think it needs to be closer. Do you feel anything from every storm on Earth?"

He didn't think he felt anything even from storms in town, though that year there had only been two in total since he awakened to these powers. He mostly wandered around and did what was asked of him.

Eventually, she left, taking the soup with her.

Once tests were finished for the others, they all met up at the food area, everyone looking glum.

"Guess you all failed?"

"My Japanese is 'awful'. Like I care! I can speak it just fine and know my name! Japanese is useless over there. I'm already fluent in four languages anyway!" Rise collapsed on the bench.

"Really?" Chie asked in interest. Rise nodded.

"English, French, Italian, and German. The latter was required specifically for my position as I sing lots of German operas, primarily Mozart."

"Wow, I just know Chinese," Kanji couldn't help whistling from being impressed.

"I wish I knew so much! The whole time I just stared out the window and had to guess!" Chie huffed.

"Same. I studied, but everything came back to me in a jumbled mess." Yosuke grumbled.

"I think I did well!" Yu smiled.

"I'm glad I never have to worry about such things," Yukiko sighed.

"The case looming over everything probably didn't help either." Yosuke folded his arms in front of his chest. "We just have to sit around on our thumbs. It's annoying."

Rise pouted. "I had one question on my test I was super confused by! 'What is the most common import of America?' I just picked 'banana' because it sounded the most exotic!"

"Isn't it metal? Or coal?" Yu questioned.

"No, import is stuff that gets into the country, you're thinking of export. I'd say it's probably like, foreign art or something." Yosuke said.

"So I could still be right!" Rise giggled.

"Speaking of which…how is Raccoon-kun doing?" Chie asked.

Yosuke pointed over in a random direction and showed off Raccoon as his tanuki self, letting kids climb all over him. "He lives with me and in return he works here as the mascot, which seems like a fair trade."

"We should go bother him," Rise giggled.

"Let's do something this summer! We're done with everything and even if you guys are lame, you shouldn't just let your bikes sit around all day!"

Yosuke changed the conversation topic a mile a minute, making Kanji blink. How did his thoughts and mouth work together so fast? His certainly didn't.

"Where should we go?" Yukiko asked.

"What about the beach? We can all get there by bike and it's the perfect season to!"

"Will you actually have swimsuits this time?" Yu teased, directed at the girls.

"Will you?" Chie shot back. "As for bikes….one of my relatives actually collects them, I can see if they have one I can have,"

"I've never ridden a bike before, but I'm sure I can learn!" Rise smiled. "Hopefully the chains won't ruin my skirts!"

Yukiko's eyes widened like she suddenly realized something before she looked down in embarrassment.

"What's wrong?" Chie asked.

"I don't have a bike….and if I rode one, it'd tear up my kimono…." She played with the sleeves of her grey kimono.

"I have a bike with two seats! We can share!" Yu announced.

"But what about Raccoon-san?"

"He can transform himself into a bag. He's much stronger with those powers so it wouldn't be out of the question!" Yosuke said. "And we can just hang the bag on our handlebars,"

"Oooooh, I'm so excited! I only ever went to the beach for advertisement pictures! It'll be fun to actually swim and hang out!" Rise adjusted her big white skirted behind, keeping her posture straight.

The beach would be a lot of fun, Kanji couldn't deny. He only went once or twice as a little boy with his mothers and father and thus remembers little. He found a smooth white seashell that fit perfectly into his palm and he just stared at it the whole day in awe, desperately trying to paint it when they returned home so he wouldn't forget it.

"Wait, so I'll get to see the famous Risette in a swimsuit?! It's a dream come true! Will you wear a cute sailor one?" Yosuke swooned.

"Can you maybe not talk about her like she's not here? You're being creepy again." Chie grumbled.

"I promise I'll have something to swim in!" Yukiko smiled.

"So will I! Well, I guess it's not really clothing, I'm just going to wear my loincloth, but that counts, right? It has barely any covering in the front or back, so I'll get to-"

"Dude! Nobody wants to hear about that!" Yosuke cut him off. "That's gross!"

"Says the person who swam completely naked at our camping trip!" Chie reminded him.

"That's different!"

"You swam naked? You have guts," Kanji nodded in approval.

"And I promise our swimsuits will actually be cute and not look like bags, Senpai! They've changed a lot over the years," Rise giggled.

"So it's settled. Beach time!" Yu announced and the others cheered. Kanji himself couldn't wait. A chance to get out of the house and be with his friends, unwinding out in nature. Nothing could possibly ruin his summer now. It had a rocky start, but things were finally starting to look up.

The flowers were starting to bloom.

It was raining that night, and even though everyone felt silly by the idea, they all still wanted to check the tabloids nonetheless. It was better safe than sorry.

Kanji waited until his mothers left the room again, searching the room divider for anything unusual. Everything seemed normal.

What if they needed the town magazine this time around? Ma tended to discard that whenever she got it delivered. What could he do then?

I saw someone.

Chie's voice froze his heart.

I can't really explain it, but he looked super clear on the painting I used. Not blurry at all. I don't recognize him though…

You think he could be the killer? Yosuke asked.

Seeing it happen for myself, that world is a representation of the negative thoughts in one's subconscious. It manifests here! Nobody is actually taking pictures of them or anything. Raccoon chimed in.

Yeah, but that doesn't answer any of our questions! Kanji yelled at them. I can't even see him! He didn't appear on what I use!

Weird, what do you use, Sir Kanji? You don't even have any photographs of a birthday or Shichi-Go-San? Yukiko asked.

No. We're not those sorts of people. It drove him mad, knowing Yu and Rise were both listening in and were just silent. He didn't like feeling like his thoughts were just open for prying.

Either way, they had seen someone else. The case was far from over.

-Tanabata was another one of the ancient court festivals celebrated for the seasons, much like Children's Day. Historic celebrations were quite similar to modern ones, with one notable exception. The Obon festival, now celebrated in August, was often celebrated together with Tanabata, with the lanterns capping the festival off at night. When calendar dates became more strict, the two festivals were celebrated on different days a month apart.

-Uchikake were extremely formal robes worn over kimono for only the most formal of occasions. They were most often used during weddings, with a pure white or red over the white kimono, alternatively, they were used for prestigious festivals. They were made of very rich materials too, most often silk and brocade.

-The volcano is referring to the explosion of Mount Bandai, a volcano close to Tokyo that infamously exploded the morning of July 15th after several days of earthquakes. Whole villages were buried in the resulting pyroclastic flow, with thousands left homeless or injured. A photograph of the ruined mountain was the first news photograph to be posted in a major newspaper, and it was the first major disaster the newly formed Japanese Red Cross responded to.

-Rise's referring to her role as a soubrette, a role in operas given to younger girls who had light and high voices. These roles were usually good-looking, youthful girls who were flirtatious, saucy, and street-wise. German was also a requirement due to the large amount of spoken lines in the language the soubrette had. Once she matured and developed a deeper voice, soubrettes became sopranos or sometimes mezzo-sopranos.

I am so so so sooooo sorry this took so long to come out! I was behind in my writing so I skipped a week to catch up, then we had a nasty derecho that made us lose Internet for a week. I sincerely didn't mean to make you all wait for so long. Hopefully now chapters will be back to their regular weekly schedule!