Chapter one, 2018, Hatsumode, segment four

Not funny you two!

Ryu grimaced. At least he knew what shrine they were supposed to visit.

He spent the better part of a half hour searching for his sister and Urufu after he was done in the men’s restroom. Twenty minutes it took before he was struck by understanding and made for the next train.

Not funny at all!

He kept swearing silently and downed the last of his coke before discarding the bottle in a recycling can.

The train arrived with a thunder and he entered. A little less than ten minutes later he left and stretched put his legs to make up for some of the time he had lost. Walking at a brisk pace was something he was better at than his sister. Her short legs simply didn’t allow her to keep up any tempo at all.

Sometimes Ryu wondered how Urufu could stand her snail’s pace when the two of them were together. That made Ryu recall the part about the two of them together, and his thoughts soured again. It wasn’t as if he disliked Urufu, not really. In fact Ryu considered him one of his best friends, but him and sis together. Well, it just wasn’t right.

Ryu also knew he needed to be more subtle about his disruptions in the future. That Yukio and Kyoko would follow up on their threat he didn’t doubt in the least. That would be bad, but not fatal. Kuri dropping him like a hot potato, however, would be. There was also, Ryu understood, the risk of Noriko, with the help of their mother, cutting all ties with him as well. He couldn’t chance breaking up their family, because family was all the home he knew.

He swung back and forth to the rhythm of the train, and as they closed in on their destination the number of kimono gradually increased just to suddenly vacate the train all at once; Ryu one of of them but sans the kimono. Their family might be old money, but he wasn’t enough of an Edo era remnant to wear a kimono of his own.

He followed the sea of people all walking in one direction, and when the crowd split up Ryu just followed the greatest concentration of traditional Japanese clothing. He overtook most of them and caught up with the ones ahead.

The street he walked slowly sloped uphill, and he soon got warm and a little sweaty, which wasn’t anything a vending machine couldn’t help. A can of coke later he felt ready to defeat the slope at a good pace.

Ahead of him the shrine area loomed, and a last push up the brutal stairs had him in a crowded place flanked by stalls, and somewhere here the others were bound to be. If only his phone could connect to the network he’d find them in no time at all. As it was he had to search for them the old fashioned way.

Searching for friends was thirsty work, but some amazake and a cup of hot tea solved that problem. Worse was that he had no luck finding his friends. He walked from stall to stall, and once he even waited by the shrine to see if anyone he knew would show up to offer their prayers.

In the end he gave up looking for the dead giveaway tall blond in the crowd. Had Kuri been here he’d have seen her by this time. Or rather, when his phone finally connected to the network he promptly called her.

“Christina,” she answered with the muted sound of a driving car in the background.

“Where are you?” Ryu wondered.

“Driving.”

You don’t say. He shook his head. “I’m at the shrine now.”

“Could you please tell the others we’re a little late.”

We? Ryu looked around. He couldn’t. “I seem to have misplaced them,” he tried.

“Misplaced?” There was something off with Kuri’s voice. Ryu could have sworn he heard muffled laughter.

“They aren’t near enough for me to tell them,” he said instead of explaining what had happened.

This time he was certain he heard a guffaw.

“We’ll be there in fifteen minutes or so. Would you wait for me?”

Would he wait for her? She was his girlfriend. Of course he would. He nodded until he realised she could hardly hear him nodding in the phone. “Sure.”

“You’re a sweetie,” Kuri said and closed the call.

Ryu stared at the phone. She still hadn’t explained the part about ‘we’, but he guessed he’d know soon enough.

A cold wind reminded him that fifteen minutes standing still would be fifteen very uncomfortable minutes, so he shuffled in the direction of the nearest stall serving amazake. On his way he managed to buy something warm to eat as well. It went down his stomach in no time at all, and Ryu swore a little as he glanced at the long queue where he had just bought his food.

He had just managed to buy and drink his amazake when he finally recognised Urufu and Tomasu chatting with each other a bit away. With hurried steps Ryu closed in on them, and when he caught up he saw his sister sharing a conversation with Jeniferu. Yet another stall away Yukio showed Kyoko something; a prospective gift most likely if Ryu guessed right.

“Sis!”

There was no reaction.

“Noriko!”

This time there was one. “Ryu, you took your time.”

Urufu turned his back to him, and so did Tomasu. Ryu swore both were grinning.

I got caught up,” Ryu said in an attempt to salvage a little of his pride.

“Caught up?”

“Well,” thinking of what had happened combined with the biting cold and the warm amazake he had just drunk suggested a pressing need. It wasn’t just a mug of amazake Ryu realised. “Guys, please wait for me!”

There was a queue, but it wasn’t horribly wrong, and Ryu soon came back, a lighter and relieved man.

Not funny you guys! Not funny at all!