We’d gotten our fill of Umi-hotaru, boarded the bus, and continued toward Kisarazu. The Tokyo-to-Umi-hotaru leg had been the underwater tunnel, but past Umi-hotaru we ran above the water and the view was spectacular.
A bit later we got off at the Kisarazu Station West exit and headed for the yukata-rental shop we’d identified in advance. The two of them had decided that a fireworks festival demanded yukata. I half-expected another red-and-blue combo, but this time was different.
“This time Reona’s pink and Riona’s pale blue.”
“Same color every time gets boring.”
“Yeah, you’d get tired without variation, Ryouya-kun.”
The pink and pale blue suited them perfectly. Needless to say. Two beautiful girls can wear any color and pull it off.
Also as before, I’d been roped into wearing one too — this time a black yukata. As the three of us walked from the rental shop toward the festival venue at Kisarazu Port, a shrine came into view.
“Hey — Riona, do you know that shrine?”
“Yatsurugi-Hachiman Shrine. One of Chiba’s power spots.”
“Oh, you know it. What’s it known for?”
“I don’t remember all of it — safe-childbirth blessing, warding off bad luck, exam-success prayer, wish-granting.”
“Let’s stop in. We’ve got plenty of time before the fireworks.”
No objections. We passed under the torii into the precincts and rinsed our hands at the purification fountain. Reona and I were sloppy; Riona, of course, knew the proper procedure and moved precisely.
We dropped five-yen coins in the offering box at the main hall and prayed. Two bows, two claps, one bow, if I remembered right. My prayer wrapped quickly; Reona and Riona were praying for a very long time.
”…Did you guys need that much time?”
“There’s something I really want right now. So I was praying as hard as I could that it’d become me and Riona’s.”
“If we don’t get that, me and Nee-chan are in trouble.”
“You prayed that hard, you’ll be fine. If there’s anything I can help with, just say.”
I couldn’t even guess what they were after, but if anyone could get something, it was them. As I’d thought that, I felt a sudden, sharp chill. The sun was setting but it was still warm outside. Strange.
We left Yatsurugi-Hachiman Shrine and resumed walking toward Kisarazu Port. It was close — about ten minutes from the shrine.
Pulling two yukata-clad beauties along, I was getting the kill-with-your-eyes treatment from every male passerby, but I was so used to it at this point that it didn’t register. Habit is, apparently, terrifying.
In the early days it had been excruciating; now I felt nothing. My senses were getting calibrated by exposure, and given I was traveling with Reona and Riona, that was unavoidable.
“Lots of food stalls — let’s eat something.”
“Yeah, lunch was early today, I’m hungry.”
“Too many choices.”
We started circulating among the stalls. Apparently there were around five hundred — anything you could want, short of something genuinely exotic. We bought takoyaki first, and Reona speared one with a pick and extended it toward me.
“Ryouya-kun, ah.”
“Unlike when I had a fever, I am fine today, I can feed myself.”
“Ryouya-kun, ah.”
“No, really, I’m fine.”
“Ryouya-kun, ah.”
I was being asked to say ah, embarrassed, and refusing — and Reona was looping the same line like an NPC in an RPG until the player picks the right dialog option.
She was clearly not going to stop until I ate. I gave up and ate. Then Riona extended her own takoyaki the same way.
“Ryouya, ah.”
“Could we please drop the ‘ah’ thing—”
“Ryouya, ah.”
Yeah, no — Riona was going to NPC-loop me too. I had been very thoroughly targeted by a very difficult pair of sisters, and I was only now fully processing it.