🌸Cherry Blossom Palette🎨

🌸Chapter 15: The Mannerisms of "Hanacchi" Sunomiya🎨

Written by EmtenDew

Edited by P. serrulata

Author's note:

ED: Got a shorter chapter this time. But it should entertain, and it will help us get back on schedule. My editor's philosophy is to make a chapter as long as it needs to be to accomplish the "goal" of said chapter. I think it works.

And how do you like the chapter title? A lot of you will recognize the reference. My editor came up with it when I was coming up with nothing. I was a little young when the Haruhi Suzumiya craze began. 2006? 2007? I was 10 or 11 or 12-years-old. This sheltered LDS girl wasn't exposed to much anime or manga until she was in college. PS was graduating high school during the Haruhi heyday.

The newest REAL chapter, 92, sucked. Nanashi did it again for the fifth or sixth time in a row. I'm finally convinced that he thinks we're stupid. I think I'll be taking an indefinite break from the manga until something positive AND substantial happens. Those are my feelings.

Ask us anything, and we'll add a Q&A section in the next chapter. I would be happy if you ask questions.

Please enjoy what I wrote.

Tuesday, July 2, 2018

"See ya both later!"

After reciting a speech reminiscent of some young soldier in an anime inspiring her unit to go off and die for a bunch of assholes that probably wouldn't even appreciate it (though her motivation and goal was vastly different), that's what Sakura Inori had to say to Naoto Hachioji and Hana Sunomiya as she took a powder from the Art Club's room.

The gal was apparently determined to not wind up in remedial classes that summer, and she'd immediately shown her weighty conviction by leaving to buy ingredients for her dad's sukiyaki birthday dinner.

There were worse reasons to split, but she'd just asked Naoto to help her study, and there were less than two weeks left until the end-of-term exams.

It was something of a letdown, or maybe it was merely anticlimactic.

Sunomiya stared at the room's door, having watched Sakura leave; she turned to her senpai, "You have some strange friends, Hachioji-senpai…"

And you're just about the strangest of them all…

But Naoto definitely didn't say such a thing.

Instead, he wondered, "Uh… Sunomiya, would you like to get started… or…?"

The girl had already returned to her charcoal rendering of Sakura's hairbrush, on loan for a few days, and replied, "I think we should get ready for it. You need a plan, and I need to think. We can start after school tomorrow."

"Do you think…?" he wanted to ask if Sakura would even show up, but Sunomiya already had an answer.

"Sakura-senpai will be ready," she sounded sure.

Naoto figured she was correct… at least about needing a plan.

For all he knew about Sakura, he knew nothing about Sakura, it seemed. Nagatoro was baffling, but at least she was consistent (even if it didn't appear so to the untrained eye).

He'd just need to trust Sunomiya… Maybe she saw something in Sakura he was missing, but HE was still trying to figure out Sunomiya…

Naoto sighed, turning to his kohai, "You're right… tomorrow."

"…"

"…"

Sunomiya was concentrating on her artwork, but she was still aware enough to realize her senpai was staring at her, "Did you need something, Hachioji-senpai?"

He startled, not meaning to gawk and self-conscious about being caught, but she'd asked the question with no malice or indictment.

So, Naoto said what he'd been meaning to say before Sakura had barged into the Art Club bearing gifts of juice, and he said it with more intent than he'd meant, "You're wearing makeup."

"…" her eyes widened slightly as they rotated his way, lips parting.

Yipes! Naoto immediately realized he'd awoken something incomprehensible.

Sunomiya, one totally uninitiated in the concept of made-up appearances, held her chin, eyes big with wonder, "Sakura-senpai did it… She said you may or may not notice it, but you probably would, and you did…"

Of course, Sakura did the makeup… and what did it mean one way or the other, if he noticed? Naoto floundered internally.

It wasn't that he didn't know, he just questioned what thoughts and ideas Sakura might have given their impressionable kohai.

"It's just I've never seen you wear any before," he decided to complement Sunomiya. "It looks nice."

She may or may not have heard what he said; it was obvious she was taking a trip to la-la land, "She said she'd been wanting to see how I'd look. If you noticed, she wanted your opinion…"

Oh, boy… How would Naoto deal with this?

Otherwise coming up blank, he repeated, "It looks nice."

It may have been minor praise, but he meant it.

A "normal" girl might've pressed him for more approval, but Sunomiya seemed plenty satisfied, a strange, little smile lighting up her face, "Sakura-senpai came by today, and we had lunch together. Then she asked if I was ready for my 'makeover'…"

"'Ready'?" that got Naoto's attention, but it might have just been an expression.

He'd seen it on TV and in movies, people asking that… and the girls had eaten LUNCH together that day?

"Yes," Sunomiya prattled, becoming eager. "She told me yesterday at the park that I could be doing more with my 'pretty face'…"

Yesterday?! The park?! Pretty face? Not that 'pretty face' was anything but accurate.

"Yeah?" Naoto meant to follow her train of thought.

"Yes!" she nodded, eyes glittering with enthusiasm. "But first we had ice cream! And then she pushed me on a swing! And then we buried our bare feet in the sandy mud~, Hachioji-senpai!"

Oh, shit… Naoto thought, witnessing near-orgasmic levels of Sunomiya rapture beginning to come forth from the freshman. This seems familiar…

Something MAJORLY BIG had happened between the two girls, it appeared…

But…

He held the bridge of his nose, waving her down with his other hand, "Whoa, whoa, whoa… Could you start over? From the beginning?"

Doing so didn't bother her a bit.

It took a while (like, five minutes of talking), given the amount of detail she expounded, to get to what Naoto wanted to hear, but to summarize:

Sunomiya loved art, but some days she felt like doing something else, usually just going home. Living in the west part of town, she also passed the ice cream shop, as many of them did or had, including her cousin Sana, the old president.

When she passed near the ice cream shop the afternoon prior, she saw Sakura sitting on a swing across the street, looking a little sad. Sunomiya approached her, knowing full well what kind of week she'd been having, and offered to buy parfaits for the both of them.

Unlike Naoto, she did strongly believe in karma, and on top of giving Sakura a little something nice because she was her senpai and acquaintance and she liked her, it seemed beneficial to the "great cycle of all things" for her to share a little kindness with the gal.

She got the idea from him buying her a juice the week before… and her senpai giving Takata the extra juice when the two boys talked.

Hearing that surprised Naoto.

He'd never told her about giving Takata the drink, but in her words, what else would her senpai do with an extra juice but offer it to another in need of some compassion?

She may have been giving him too much credit…

Sunomiya had said it was "good luck" that the vending machine dispensed two juices, and it had happened just when the universe needed such a small miracle. Whether it was just lucky, a sign, or merely a happy circumstance leading to a good thing between two young men, it was a most fortunate occurrence.

It really was…

"So… what then?" Naoto was finally asking questions again. "You two pushed each other on the swings for a while?"

"No, just me," Sunomiya answered.

"Just you?"

"Sakura-senpai pushed me, but I didn't push her."

"…" he observed.

"She told me it always made her really happy to swing," she mused. "And she said when she was feeling down last week, someone very kind pushed her for a while."

Did Sakura tell Sunomiya?

Sunomiya missed Naoto's cerebral flailing, though it wasn't entirely invisible, saying, "She said it made her whole week, and it helped get her through it."

It was then that Naoto realized… Sunomiya didn't know it was him…

She would've certainly said so if she knew, and if she wasn't supposed to talk about it, she wouldn't have even brought it up.

She just knew that someone had cheered up Sakura.

"I've never really liked swinging, Hachioji-senpai," Sunomiya acknowledged. "It feels like I'm going nowhere, so I just don't like it very much… But Sakura-senpai likes it, so I let her push me. She enjoyed it more than me, so I enjoyed that."

"…" Naoto picked at a morsel of his lunch caught in his teeth with his tongue, studying this episode.

Sunomiya stared back at him innocently, "…"

"Okay," her senpai knew he was about to hear something weird, but he figured he was ready. "Then what happened?"

"Well…" she seemed to be weighing his question with her answer, her eyes distant, holding a knuckle to her lips. "Sakura-senpai suddenly started acting strange when we came across this puddle in the playground sand under a park bench. The irrigation system was leaking, I think. She seemed embarrassed, and she said there was something she really, really wanted to do, but she thought I'd think she was 'nuts' if she did it."

Naoto already knew, but he had to hear it from Sunomiya; he asked, "Then what?"

As if it was the only answer possible on Earth, she boldly declared, "She said she wasn't comfortable with doing it, but I told her it was okay, and I said that I'd do it too!"

The girl raised her fist in "solidarity" concerning Sakura's plight, eyes shining.

I can see that happening… Naoto mulled.

Sunomiya wasn't done talking (in fact, she was nearly shouting in quasi-religious awe of the entirety of the misadventures she'd had with the gal), "I told her whatever it was, we could do it together!"

Here it comes…

His kohai calmed down some, recalling the details, "Sakura-senpai took off her shoes and stockings and stepped into the sandy puddle. She got this… expression on her face, and she sat down on the bench, and she… melted."

It had taken a few seconds for Sunomiya to find the word, but there was no mistaking the mental image of Sakura it conjured.

Naoto remembered what she'd said before he got the idea to indulge her in pushing her on the swing.

My favorite thing when I was a little girl was to dip my toes in the sand… Dig down to the cool, damp stuff underneath… It still makes me feel better when I'm feeling blue…

He shuddered.

Seems it makes her feel more than just a little better…

But putting aside the memory, something a lot more noteworthy was happening right in front of him.

Sumomiya's dials turned up, and she again began to proselytize, her voice resonating in the sparsely furnished clubroom, "I just had to get in on that shit, so I joined her! It was cold like an ice bath!"

Now it's gonna get bizarre…

"It felt weird, but I kind of liked it…" Sunomiya mused, pressing her palms to her cheeks, a little blush creeping up. "In fact, I really liked it~…! It was all slippy and sloppy and squelchy! And granular~!"

Oh, no… Naoto flustered.

Sure enough, the "near-orgasmic levels of Sunomiya euphoria" were about to break the levy.

Enraptured by the recollection of the sensation of the gritty muck between her toes, Sunomiya motioned to pull her blouse open, in ecstasy, as Naoto had seen a few times when she got really worked up, but she didn't this time, thankfully.

Well, at least not yet… There was plenty of day yet to go…

"I wanted more," she breathed, feeling herself up. "I needed more~…!"

Naoto wanted to bolt, Sunomiya wriggling up a storm.

Geez-a-ree! No one should see this!

Turning away, he went over everything in his head.

What the Hell was going on?! Was Sunomiya just being herself? Had she gone this crazy in the middle of the park?! What was Sakura's hand in all this? The gal had been out of whack, and there was no telling what was going on in her head!

Something about all this was bugging him… There had to be more…

Perhaps he was jumping to conclusions, but at the very worst, Sakura was toying with their kohai.

The notion would not leave his head!

He was probably just overreacting, and he knew it, but the idea that ANYONE was taking advantage of Sunomiya…?! Making fun of her, leading her into new weirdnesses…?!

Naoto didn't like that… not one bit. He resolved to speak with the gal the next day.

Please look forward to the next chapter! Thanks for reading!