It was early morning, only half past six, when Takina was already out and about. She was going to the morning market to buy the sekihan Chisato had requested.
The market’s location, Kirakira Tachibana Shopping Street, was a little far both from LycoReco and Takina’s home. Café LycoReco was to the south from the old radio tower, while Kirakira Tachibana Shopping Street was to the east of it. The walk may not have been quite three kilometers, but it was certainly more than two. It was early summer, though, which still felt quite a lot like spring, and the sky was clear. It was pleasant to walk in that weather, so Takina didn’t mind going the extra distance. She did choose the shortest route. This took her through back streets she didn’t normally pass through, which was actually quite nice. Not that there were any particular attractions on the way. Just some old, small businesses here and there, with shop fronts that made you wonder whether they were still open or had shut down for good.
In the quiet of the morning, Takina’s loafers rhythmically tapped against the ground. Her long black hair and her Lycoris skirt swayed as she walked. And, of course, she ended up going the wrong way.
When a street she was expecting to be straight turned out to be a winding one, Takina realized she must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. There were many old streets in this part of town, which made it a bit difficult to navigate.
Takina checked her position on her smartphone map app and realized she hadn’t gone that far off the intended route. She decided to just keep going instead of backtracking.
A short while later, she arrived at an unusual park.
“Is this safe…?” she asked herself, looking up at a massive structure at the center of the park, which was empty at that time.
It was an enormous slide.
There was a giant concrete podium, resembling a stage, with a metal frame on top of it, which Takina estimated to be ten meters high overall. Two silvery metal slides extended at a rather steep angle from there to the ground.
Ten meters—that was as high as a three-story apartment building. Takina looked around at the surrounding houses. It seemed to her that the slide was taller than they were. The view from the top must have been nice. You could probably see the old radio tower really well from that height… But it must also have been quite scary at the top.
Making another slide like that was probably impossible, given modern safety regulations. Truly a relic of a time when regulations were far laxer, yet it was in a very good shape—proof that children still played on it and grown-ups kept up with maintenance. It was so well looked-after, the slide didn’t seem seriously dangerous despite its shocking height.
Chisato would probably be dying to go up, even if she was wearing a skirt.
“Well, I’m not going to do that,” Takina said to herself with a little giggle.
And so she walked away from Kyojima Minami Park. After that detour, she passed through a residential area, and once she was out of it, she finally saw a “Kirakira Tachiba Shopping Street” sign on a utility pole. She followed the signs to the grounds of Tamaru Shrine, which kind of merged with a local park. It was supposedly a place where you could pray for luck and fortune. Since she was passing by anyway, Takina pressed her palms together in front of the shrine. She wasn’t religious, but somehow, sacred places had a special atmosphere in the early morning hours.
Takina left the shrine and entered the shopping street from the south side. This downtown street seemed to be designed for pedestrians rather than motor traffic, yet strangely, it didn’t feel cramped. There were signs on the lamp posts with “Downtown Community Spirit—Kirakira Tachibana” written on them. The bright colors of the signs and the heavy advertising of the shopping street reminded Takina more of Kansai customs.
It was early, so not all stores were open yet, but there were people milling about, and some shopkeepers were loudly advertising their wares. Takina was interested in a stall selling warm soups, but she resisted the urge to walk over since she’d already made soup for the day, using leftover broth from the previous night. She forced herself to look away from the soup stall. Sekihan was what she had come for and she didn’t need anything else… That was what she had to remind herself.
Chisato would have probably told her to just buy some soup, justifying it in a way that didn’t make much sense to Takina…for example, by saying it was a special occasion. Maybe Takina should get something for herself, too, instead of only doing shopping for Chisato…?
Takina kept thinking about it for a while after leaving the soup stall behind her. In the end, she decided that it would be too inconvenient to walk over two kilometers with soup, even if it was sold in a sealed container. If she weren’t running this errand for Chisato, she might have gotten some soup and enjoy it on a bench near that shrine she’d passed by earlier.
“Today’s not the day…”
She couldn’t quite get that soup stall out of her head, but she continued north nonetheless. Then she saw a line of people near the north exit of Kirakira Tachibana Shopping Street. There it was—the Japanese confectionery store Sagami An. The end of the line was farther north, so Takina had to pass by the store before joining the end. She checked the products on display. They were selling sekihan in two sizes: small or large, both very cheap. One glance was enough to tell they were freshly made since steam was rising from the rice. Fresh, warm sekihan…
“Oooh…,” Takina said without thinking, salivating.
She’d learned in her classes that Japanese confectioneries had a long history of excellent glutinous rice recipes, and some considered sekihan to fall into the Japanese desserts category. And freshly made, it must have been really delicious. Takina was certain of it the moment she laid eyes on the red rice.
When she joined the line, an elderly gentleman in front of her turned his head to look at her. Perhaps it was unusual to see a schoolgirl in uniform waiting in a long line to buy sekihan early in the morning.
“Are you buying it for yourself…?” the old man asked her quietly.
Takina shook her head.
“No. My friend who’s not feeling well said she’d really like sekihan from this store.”
“Ah, I see. Sagami An’s sekihan really is delicious. You should buy the large portion. It disappears all too quickly.”
The large portion was indeed quite big. Takina had been planning to get the small one since it was just for Chisato… But if the sekihan was as delicious as it seemed, she might want to try some, too.
“I think I’ll take your advice,” she told the old man, who smiled and turned to face toward the front of the line again.
A while later, Takina saw the old man leave the store with two large servings of sekihan. He had a ring on his finger, so she guessed he bought one for himself and another for his wife.
It was finally her turn. With the steaming rice in front of her, Takina was practically drooling again. The shop clerk asked her which size she wanted.
“Erm, large, please… Sorry, can you make it two large portions?” she asked on the spur of the moment.
Seeing the old man walk out with two portions, she felt as if getting just one wouldn’t make her trip worth it. She could always leave the extra portion for Mika, Mizuki, or Kurumi to eat. It would surely not go to waste.
The shop clerk filled two plastic boxes with sekihan, sprinkled toasted sesame seeds mixed with salt on them using a spoon, and put the lids on the boxes, securing them with rubber bands.
“Thank you… Oh!”
When the clerk passed Takina the bag with the two boxes, she felt that the rice wasn’t just warm—it was really hot. Chisato was going to love this. Takina really wanted her friend to eat the sekihan while it was hot… Or rather, she wanted to eat it while it was hot. Her feet moved fast as she headed back to the café.
Takina’s phone vibrated in her pocket while she was walking—Chisato had sent her a sticker to show she woke up. Takina let her know she would be arriving at the café soon. As soon as she was done typing the message, she sped up to a jog. She had get to LycoReco before the food cooled down.
Takina was hungry and excited, too. She was glad she went out to buy the sekihan before eating breakfast.