“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself,” said Anzu, coming down from a massive giggle fit. “But it was Kawasaki’s idea, for the record!”
“Hey, most guys would kill to have a pretty girl like you feeding them! Be sure to savor each and every bite, now!” Koharu snickered.
I honestly couldn’t savor much of anything given how flaming hot it had been, but I nodded submissively nonetheless. I proceeded to quietly work through about half of my yakisoba until eventually, Anzu stood up and offered to go buy us drinks.
“Want me to come with?” Koharu offered.
“No, that’s okay. If two of us leave, we risk losing our spot. I’ll go by myself.”
“You sure? Well, okay. I’ll have a Cheerio Cola. Or any cola, if they don’t have that.”
“I’ll take a bottle of Lifeguard, if they’ve got it,” I added. “Otherwise I’ll have the same thing as her.”
“Got it. Be back in a bit.” Anzu turned to walk out of the tent.
“Man, she’s changed…” Koharu said once she was gone.
“For real…” I nodded, actually agreeing with her for once—hell, maybe for the first time in history. “Though I’d say you’ve changed just as much, if not more. I mean, you’re like a totally different person now.”
“Yeah… I know. Believe me, you’re not the first to notice. Things sure have been different around here since Anzu showed up,” Koharu mused affectionately.
She wasn’t wrong, though I still thought her personality shift was by far the biggest shake-up Anzu’s school transfer had wrought. It remained to be seen whether Koharu would truly be happier with her new self in the long run, but at the very least she’d matured an awful lot in a considerably short amount of time. If it were me, I’d certainly prefer people think of me as a kindhearted person rather than a terrifying one.
“…I’m really grateful to her, you know. I hope that someday I can repay the favor.”
As I watched Koharu gaze up at the roof of the tent with reverent admiration in her eyes, my chest panged with melancholy, which I quickly attempted to shake off by diving headfirst into my remaining yakisoba.
A moment later, Anzu returned to the tent, and the three of us made casual small talk as we enjoyed our drinks together. Once we had a touch more room in our stomachs, we bought a piece of castella sponge cake and split it three ways. We’d utterly forgotten about the upcoming fireworks until we heard the first shot go whistling into the sky outside.
“Aw, crap,” said Koharu. “The whole riverside’s probably packed by now. We’d better hurry, or we’re never gonna find a spot to sit.”
We crammed the rest of the sponge cake into our mouths and washed it down with our respective drinks, then threw our garbage in the trash can on our way to the river. Just as Koharu had foretold, the embankment was heaving with people. It wasn’t so packed that there wasn’t room to stand, but the whole hillside was covered in blue tarps with families and friend groups sprawled out on top of them. We wove through the throngs of people, searching for a place to sit down, until finally we managed to find a small open spot just large enough for three. Koharu pulled her own checkered picnic tarp from her tote bag and spread it on the bare earth. It was clearly only designed to seat two, but we easily managed to make it fit all three of us.
After settling in, I looked at the night sky with anticipation, eager to finally see some fireworks. Before long, there came a thunderous boom, followed by reverberations so intense, they could probably defibrillate a person’s heart. Then came the crackle and the flash as the glittering trails of falling gunpowder painted a technicolor dreamscape across the night sky. The vivid starburst seared its triumphant shape into our retinas, then drooped lazily downward before finally fizzling out into the darkness. Then came the next one, and the next, each splaying new spectrums of color onto the jet-black canvas.
“It’s beautiful…” I heard Anzu whisper beside me.
Another rocket whistled into the sky, though this one was followed by a long pause before it finally exploded into shimmering vapor trails that wriggled out from the center like tiny fish swimming frantically upstream. The crowd oohed and aahed as the golden branches came zigzagging down to form the shape of a weeping willow. Next came a gigantic flower, blooming brilliantly as it was joined by dozens of smaller supporting fireworks. This was succeeded by a wall of classic two-tone peonies, their color-changing pistils zipping away like honeybees from the hive before falling limp and cascading like waterfalls. Next on the agenda: a bombardment of fast and frenetic star-mines.
Something soft rubbed against my right pinky. Anzu had slid her hand right next to mine. Normally, this alone would have sent my heart racing and turned me into a nervous wreck, but in this moment, for whatever reason, all the right moves came naturally. I slid my palm over the tarp to take her hand in mine, and our fingers effortlessly intertwined. Though our hands were cold at first, the exchange of body heat helped us keep each other warm.
Then came the grand finale, as the biggest and boldest fireworks of all lit the night sky in striking colors, illuminating our faces in warm and ever-changing hues. It was a dreamlike vignette plucked straight out of a storybook ending.
“Whew! Man, that was good!” Koharu stretched her back as we meandered up the riverwalk. Now that the main event was over, we were ready to head home. The crowds had thinned quite a bit, though the food stands and other attractions were still going strong. The various vendors shouted out their offerings in an attempt to lure a few last customers as people filed out of the festival grounds.
“Excuse me! I’d like to buy a turn, please!” Koharu called out, handing two hundred yen to the attendant at the bouncy ball fishing stand. He took it and plopped a tiny paper scoop in her hands. She knelt in front of the big water tank, rolling her sleeves back as she psyched herself up to fish out some bouncy balls like nobody’s business. “All right, let’s see if I can get a hundred in one go this year!”
“Is that possible?” Anzu asked, looking genuinely perplexed.
“Oh yeah. I’m a pro at this. Ain’t nobody ever scooped more balls than me. I’ve been undefeated since elementary school!”
I thought you swore you were only doing it to bring back a souvenir for your brothers, I wanted to say, but I held my tongue.
“Huh… I’ve never done it before, personally,” said Anzu.
“Wait, seriously? Then why don’t we do it together?! Excuse me, sir! Could we get another scoop over here? …All right, now watch closely—there’s a trick to it, see. Before you do anything else, you’re gonna want to dip the paper in the water, ’cause that’ll—”