Koharu looked confused for a moment, and then her face went bright red. “Wha… N-no! It’s not for me! It’s for my little brothers! They asked me to bring home one of those big squeezy ones with the spikes all over it!”
Oh yeah, I remember those things. Had one for like a week before it got a big hole and deflated into a worthless plastic husk.
“Aw, that’s nice of you,” I said with a smile. “Y’know, you seem like a surprisingly good big sister, what with the way you still play cards with them and whatnot.”
“Hey! What do you mean, ‘surprisingly’? …Oh yeah, that reminds me! Do you have any siblings, Anzu?”
“Nope. I’m an only child.”
“Wow, that’s cool. I always wanted to be an only child.”
“Really? I always kind of wished I had a little brother or sister, personally.”
“Ha ha, no… Trust me, they’re nothing but a hassle. Always pestering you to play with them, or to be the chaperone whenever they want to go someplace… And oh God, don’t even get me started on having to take baths together…”
“W-wait, that’s a thing?”
I found it kind of rewarding to see Anzu having a normal conversation with someone who wasn’t me. It was hard to believe how sociable our scrappy rebel had become lately. I felt like a proud parent watching their eldest child go off to college as I followed the pair at a safe distance, not wanting to interrupt their lively discussion.
As we got closer and closer to the center of the action, the crowds grew a fair bit denser. There were a lot more food stands in this area too, as evidenced by the savory scents of deep-fried food and yakisoba sauce hanging warmly in the air. Before long, I heard the sound of someone’s stomach growling loudly; it was like a sound effect straight out of a cartoon.
“Wow. Excuse you, Kawasaki…” Anzu said with a teasingly judgmental glance.
“Oh, no, no, no! Don’t lie! That was you, not me!” said Koharu, placing her hands grumpily on her hips with a big harrumph.
Wow. Did Hanashiro really just try to gaslight Kawasaki? What is this, elementary school? Even from a distance, I could tell that it was really Anzu’s stomach that had growled.
“If you’re getting hungry, we can stop and grab food somewhere,” Koharu offered. “There’s still plenty of time before the fireworks start.”
I checked my phone. It was now 7 p.m., and the show didn’t start for another hour. We agreed to take our time perusing the different food options as we continued down the riverwalk. After passing several booths, Anzu stopped dead in her tracks in front of one, peering in at their display of grilled squid with curiosity and awe.
“Whoa, is that just, like…a whole squid, grilled up and impaled on a stick…?”
“Yes, Hanashiro… That’s why they call it grilled squid on a stick. Or wait—have you really never seen that before?” I asked.
She nodded. “I mean, I’ve seen it on TV a few times, probably, but I’ve never really been to a festival or anything before…”
“Wow, no kidding?”
I supposed they probably didn’t have too many traditional-style festivals in Tokyo proper. Either that or she’d never had anyone to take her to one growing up.
“Have you had one of them before?” she asked. “Do they taste good?”
“Yeah, they’re great. Why don’t you get one and see for yourself?”
“Ugh. I’m tempted, but I’ve been really craving takoyaki too…” she whined, clearly torn.
“Well, why don’t we get both, then?” Koharu chimed in. “There’s a takoyaki stand right over there. I’m getting pretty hungry, myself, so I’d be happy to go wait in line for it.”
“Really? Could you buy enough for both of us, then?”
“Sure thing!”
Anzu handed her some cash, and Koharu went click-clacking off in her wooden sandals to the takoyaki stand. Meanwhile, Anzu had placed her order for a grilled squid with the elderly man running the booth. When my nose picked up the tantalizing scent of Worcestershire sauce nearby, I started getting hungry too, and I remembered the yakisoba stand we’d passed on the way.
“Hey, I’m gonna go buy myself some yakisoba real quick.”
“Okay. If Kawasaki beats you back here, we’ll be waiting in the dining tent.”
“Copy that.”
I spun around and walked back the way we’d come. Luckily, there wasn’t a long line, so I managed to get in and out with my yakisoba pretty quickly. Grand total: four hundred yen. When I got back, Anzu had vanished from in front of the grilled squid stand, so I took a peek inside the dining tent, where sure enough, I found my two companions seated and digging in. I got there just in time to see Anzu sink her teeth into the squid for a big honking first bite; she seemed to really enjoy it. I looked around for a place for myself to sit, but the tent was a small, cramped space between two food stands, with only three two-seater benches for people to sit on, all of which were currently occupied. Resigning myself to eating while standing, I was about to take my first bite of yakisoba when Anzu stopped me.
“Hey, wait a minute. Kawasaki, could you scoot a little that way?”
“Sure, how’s this?”
“Great, thanks. Come have a seat, Tono-kun.” Anzu patted the barely thirty-centimeter space now open beside her. I thanked her for her thoughtfulness and sat. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it beat standing, and for that, I was grateful. Though the fact that our shoulders constantly rubbed against each other did put me a little on edge.
I opened the plastic takeout container that held my yakisoba and dug in with my chopsticks, slurping the thick noodles one by one. They were utterly drenched in sauce, which might have made them a bit too rich for some, but I loved it.
“Hey, Tono-kun!” Anzu tapped me on the shoulder. I turned to look and saw that she was holding a piece of takoyaki on a toothpick toward me with a big old grin. “Open wide!”
“Er, no thanks. I’m good…”
Koharu gave me an instant death glare from over Anzu’s shoulder, as if to say “You eat that goddamn takoyaki right now, or else.” Fearing for my life, I caved to peer pressure and opened wide to let her shove the whole thing straight into my mouth.
“Oh God!” I yelped with my mouth full. “Iss so hod! Hodhodhodhod!”
The girls burst out laughing. At least someone was having fun at the expense of my melting taste buds. I tried my best to roll it around inside my mouth like a hot potato as I suffered through each painful bite before finally gulping the molten ball of lava down my throat. It felt like my tongue was bleeding by the end.