Chapter 23 – Touring the Town
By the time Mika woke up, it was already very late in the morning. She shot out of bed, and after looking at the clock and confirming it was late, dressed quickly. She opened her door, and walked into the hallway, but at this point realized that everyone else’s door was closed as well. She headed down the stairs to see if anyone happened to be down there, but saw no one.
“What are you looking for dear?” the older maid asked, coming up behind her.
Mika turned around, slightly startled by her sudden appearance. “Oh, nothing. I was just wondering if any of the others happened to be down yet.”
Madoka shook her head. “You are the first one I’ve seen this morning, so I think it is safe to say they all must still be asleep.” She smiled kindly, and Mika nodded and headed back upstairs.
She shut her door with a soft click and sat down on her bed facing the ocean. She could faintly hear the waves rushing onto the shore, and just the sound of it was almost enough to put her to sleep again. She had just closed her eyes when a light knock sounded at the door. Mika jumped up and opened it hesitantly. She was surprised to find it was Kana that was at the door.
“Good, I thought I heard you up,” Kana said. “Do you think we should wake up the other two?”
Mika considered this for a moment and then answered, “I imagine that Kaito has already been awake for a while, but I don’t mind letting Ayako sleep if that’s what you want to do. I’m not really in a rush to get anywhere.”
Kana nodded. “That sounds good to me. Would you like to go eat then? Ayako might not wake up until it is time to eat lunch.”
“Okay!”
On their way down the short hall, they collected Kaito, who of course had heard the majority of their conversation already. For once, the breakfast was fairly small: just some rice with optional raw eggs to mix in, toast, and miso soup.
After their small breakfast, the three of them just sat around and chatted about how nice Okinawa was and what their favorite thing had been so far. They were in the middle of this light conversation when a loud thumping came from the stair area, and then a second later, Ayako came hurtling into the dining room.
“Why didn’t you wake me up!!” She shouted as she grabbed a piece of toast and shoved it in her mouth as she sat down.
“Mika and I agreed that you might would like the rest,” Kana explained.
“Well yeah that was kind of nice, but now we don’t really have a lot of time to go anywhere.”
“Can we not just take an easy day to go enjoy the town?” Kana raised an eyebrow.
“Well I guess we
can. Is that what everyone else wants to do?” She turned to look at Kana and Mika who both gave an enthusiastic consent.
“Wait,” Kaito interjected with his elbow resting on the table and his hand in the air as if he were trying to get a teacher’s attention. “’Enjoying the town’ as you so nicely put it, inevitably involves you all shopping, which in turn equals me carrying a butt-load of bags. I don’t like this plan.”
Ayako turned to him, and with a smirk playing across her face, said, “Deal with it.”
“Hmph,” he muttered as he turned away from them.
Thirty minutes later, they were all piled into a nice car, which had been hidden away in the garage until now, with Jun driving. The outside of the car was black, and the seats were covered in tan leather. One could easily tell that the car was built for speed, although Jun didn’t seem particularly eager to test that speed. He drove along only a couple kph over the speed limit, but it still didn’t take them long to reach the town.
Ayako had Jun drop them off at a small shopping center, and then he left telling Ayako to call him back when they were ready to be picked up. The first store Ayako herded them to was a simple tourism store. It had pictures and images of Okinawa stamped on just about anything they could think of, tea cups, mugs, jewelry boxes, shirts, towels, pillows and sheets, and many others.
Despite all of the interesting things in the store, she only found one thing that she was particularly liked, and it was a bit expensive. She knew she wouldn’t buy it, but she couldn’t help herself from coming back to the beautiful shell. It was made of glass, but one couldn’t tell that until they got closer. It had the exact pattern of a conch shell with various shades of purple, pink, and tan all masterfully blended together. Then on the inside, it had 'Tokunoshima Island, Okinawa' in an elegant golden script. Mika picked it up very carefully to observe it more closely.
“What’cha got there?” Ayako asked coming up to Mika.
“It’s just a glass shell. I thought it was kind of pretty,” she said with a small smile, holding it out a bit for Ayako to see.
“That is pretty,” she agreed. “Are you going to get it?”
“Nah, probably not. I don’t really have a place to put it.” She didn’t really want to say that she did not have to money to spend on simple souvenir items. It was embarrassing, especially now that she knew Ayako’s family had so much.
“You sure you don’t want it?” Ayako said cocking her head slightly and studying Mika’s expression. “I’ll buy it for you! Give it here.” Without waiting for a reply, Ayako took the shell, leaving a protesting Mika trailing behind her.
Ayako bought it without a second thought, and handed it to Mika before going to see where Kana had ended up. Mika gazed at the shell for a minute longer before wrapping it up tightly in the newspaper that the cashier had given her, and placing it gently in the bag. By this time, Ayako had gathered the other two.
“Salt and pepper shakers?” Mika asked when she saw the two small glass bottles Kana was carrying.
“My mother collects them. It’s her odd hobby.”
“Oh okay.”
“Come on you guys! Onward to the next location!” Ayako shouted as she marched out of the store. Mika and Kana almost had to run to catch up with her.
“You didn’t buy anything Ayako?” Mika asked when she had caught up.
“Nah, I’ve visited that store for a while and their products don’t seem to change very often. I already have the stuff I like. By the way, where did Kaito go?” She looked left and right, and then turned around to find him trailing a good way behind Mika and Kana. “What are you doing way back there?! Come up here so you can carry everything!”
“But it’s rather nice back here,” he contradicted.
“Ayako don’t make a fuss about it,” Kana said softly. “We are perfectly capable of carrying our own things.
“But that’s really the only useful thing he can do at this point,” she muttered under her breath.
Their next stop was a clothing store. Mika regretted her lack of allowance even more now, and the clothes were way over her price range. Ayako took it upon herself to drag them around to every corner of the store, and put both Mika and Kana in pretty much anything she could find.
“Here, here Mika!” Ayako said running up from another clothes rack. “Put this one on next, and Kana, come take this!” She shoved the two dresses into the appropriate hands and herded them toward the dressing room.
A moment later Mika, clad in a skinny purple dress, and Kana wearing a short pink one, came from the dressing room. Mika tugged at hers uncomfortably. “Ayako... I don’t like this very much.”
“Nor do I,” Kana added.
“Aww... but guys, you look so good in it! Don’t they Kaito?”
Kaito’s eyes ran over Mika once, making her feel ten times as self-conscious as she had before.
“I suppose it’s fine,” he said nonchalantly. He wasn’t really looking at either of them, and appeared rather bored.
“See! I told you!” Mika shouted, her face now a brilliant red.
Ayako ignored Mika’s protests, and was marching off in Kaito’s direction. “No need to be such a liar.” She put her hand on the top of his head and forcibly turned it so he was facing the two that were still standing rather awkwardly in the middle of the isle. “See, doesn’t it look good on them?” she cooed in his ear.
“Get off of me!” he protested, using the back of his hand to shove her arm away. “Incidentally,” he turned to Ayako, “why is it you are only playing Barbie with those two. Shouldn’t you put stuff on too?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Hentai (Pervert)!” she shouted smacking Kaito on the back of the head with the shopping guide she had been carrying.
“Wha-what the hell is with you people?!" He stuttered at the unexpected comment. "I haven't ever done anything to you! I was just making an observation."
Mika and Kana burst into laughter at the match off between the two. For a moment, all discomfort was lost.
“Okay, enough with dresses,” Ayako announced. “Hurry up and change out of that! Let’s go look at the bathing suits now!”
“NO!” Mika and Kana both shouted in unison.
“But –”
“I refuse,” Kana said pushing her glasses up further on her nose. “You would have us wear all the skimpy bathingsuits, and I refuse to do that.”
Mika nodded her head vigorously in agreement.
“Okay, okay, fine. You don’t have to put any of them on. Let’s just go look.”
With that matter settled, Mika and Kana changed back into much more comfortable clothes, and spent another hour or so in the shop just looking at various things. Ayako, having lost the two girls’ enthusiasm, had tried to get Kaito to try on several things, but he had adamantly refused, and no matter how much she shoved him, he had grounded his heels, and she couldn’t move him. With not much else left to do in the store, they left.
The next store that they went into was a bit down the road from the clothing store. Kana had seen it as they were walking down the street, and had insisted that they go into it. So now, Mika had parked herself on the floor with a book in hand. Finally a store she could really enjoy, the bookstore.
Kana had also disappeared from view. Mika figured she was in a very similar position. She found a book, and had immediately stopped to read it.
“’Ghost Hunt?’” Kaito pronounced cocking his head to read the title. “What’s that?”
“It’s an old light novel by Ono Fuyumi. I can’t believe they still sell it here! I’ve read the manga and watched the anime, but have never read the novel!” she said, clearly very excited by her find.
“So what’s it about?”
“Well, it starts off with a young girl, Taniyama Mai, who meets a ghost hunter, Shibuya Kazuya. She ends up working for Kazuya’s company, SPR. It’s really good. The group of seven, including Mai, Naru or Kazuya, Lin, Naru’s assistant, a Miko, monk, priest, and a psychic medium travel all around solving cases. And there are several hidden subplots that are even more exciting!”
“I get it, I get it,” he said trying to calm down Mika who was steadily getting more and more excited.
She went almost immediately back to reading, and Kaito decided to leave her in her book for a while. He caught sight of Kana who was also parked at a small table reading a book. With a sigh, he turned to browse the numerous shelves of books.
There was one large history book crammed into the shelves that peaked his curiosity. It was entitled, 'The Old World'. It was very much like that history show that he had seen back when he had just met Mika.
The book started off by saying that Japanese folklore had been centered around the beliefs of Shintoism, Buddhism. and Taoism. The first section was on ghosts. Kaito only skimmed this briefly before moving on to the section he was more curious about, Japanese Demons. He wasn't entirely sure why he bothered with reading such things, but it was incredibly amusing just to see what the humans could come up with.
'In Japanese lore, demons wander the space between the living and the dead', he read.
'They sometimes perform good deeds, but are generally known for creating chaos. They have supernatural powers, and the ability to influence natural phenomenon. According to some, they are at the root of all disasters.'They make it sound like we just sit on our butts just waiting for a moment to create a mess in the world, he thought scornfully.
As if we really care what the humans do, although I guess it is true that some natural disasters are caused by a break in the order, or a war. He continued skimming as it went through the oni and tengu, but then slowed again as he reached a section called, ‘Animals with Supernatural Powers.’
’The most popular animals attributed with natural powers are the raccoon and the fox. They are mischievous, and often get themselves into trouble. They can transform into anything they desire, and often take on frightening shapes; however, they can make some negative situations good.'“Tch, hardly. They make those stupid foxes sound nearly innocent when they’re the ones that are constantly causing all of the chaos –”
“What are you muttering to yourself about?” Ayako’s voice sounded behind him.
Kaito snapped the book shut and stuck it in a random spot on the shelf. “It’s nothing.”
“I can’t believe it. Even
you are reading now! What the heck am I supposed to do?! I hate reading!”
“You can go play with the magnetic bookmarks.”
“No!”
“Shut up Ayako. You’re in a bookstore, you know, the place where people come for peace and quiet?”
“I know that! I’m just so bored!”
Kaito rolled his eyes and then replied, “Well go see if you can rip the other two from their books.”
“Fine...” she muttered as she headed in Kana’s direction.
With a sigh, Kaito moved off in Mika’s direction once more. She was still in the same position that he had left her in, although she seemed to have made significant progress in the book in the time Kaito had been gone. “Mika, I hate to break you from your concentration but –” He stopped when he realized she hadn’t even acknowledged his presence yet.
With a sigh, Kaito walked closer to her, grabbed the top of the book, and gently lifted it out of her hands. Mika’s dazed eyes followed the book as Kaito took it from her, and then they moved to his eyes.
“If you keep Ayako in a bookstore for too much longer, she’s going to explode,” he answered her unspoken question.
She blinked and then reality seemed to rush upon her. She jumped to her feet and asked, “How long have we been here?”
“You don’t even know?” Kaito responded with a slight smile. “You must’ve really been into that book of yours.”
“Sorry, when I get into something good, it’s just so easy to lose track of time...”
“We’ve been here a bit longer than half an hour.”
Mika nodded and then held out her hand, “Can I have it back now?”
“I suppose.”
He handed it back and Mika marked the page she was on before heading to the counter to buy the book. Kana was already in line, and an impatient Ayako was standing at the door tapping her foot.
“You might as well chill out,” Kaito said as he approached her. “They tolerated your running around dressing them up, so the least you could do is be patient enough to let them read for a while.”
Ayako sent a glare in his direction, and then turned away. In another couple of minutes, they were headed back down the street with more bags in hand.
“Hey, hey,” Ayako began excitedly – her bad mood had vanished almost as soon as they had left the bookstore. “Why don’t we go get ice cream next? There’s a really good store right around the corner! It’s hot outside so it will be perfect!”
“Are you sure the store will be okay with us coming in with a bunch of bags?” Mika asked dubiously.
“Sure, with all the tourist shops, they’re probably pretty used to it by now.”
So for the next half-hour they parked themselves in the patio outside the ice cream shop.
“What did you get again Kana?” Mika asked glancing at the greenish ice cream.
“It’s mint chocolate chip.”
“And what about you Ayako?”
“Cookie dough!” she replied. “I love cookie dough ice cream, it is definitely better than anything else!”
Mika replied with a laugh and lifted a cherry out of her ice cream. It had been so hard for her to decide what she’d wanted, but in the end, Mika just chose the plain combination of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and cherries. Although Kaito had topped her on the plain meter, he just had a vanilla milkshake.
“So Kaito, why exactly didn’t you add anything to yours?” Mika asked casting a glance in his direction.
“I don’t know,” he responded with a shrug. “I don’t really like chocolate all that much, so –”
“What do you mean you don’t like chocolate!!” Ayako shouted. “That’s so weird. Everyone likes chocolate.”
Again he shrugged, “Every
human perhaps.”
“Weirdo.” Ayako let the conversation drop at that, and went back to eating her ice cream.
They all finished their frozen treats rather quickly, and were back on the road again with Ayako demanding where it was they wanted to go next.
“How could we know what stores or activities there are?” Kana reasoned with Ayako. “It is utterly pointless to ask us unless we know the town.”
“Um...well I know there’s a lot of other tourist stores.” She glanced over in the other’s direction and upon getting no responses to that idea, she continued, “There are activities like kayaking and diving, but it’s getting kind of late to do those. I think there’s a putt-putt golf place around here, and I know there’s a park.”
“Let’s not do the putt-putt,” Mika suggested. “I’m not good with clubs.”
“Okay, then what?”
“Let’s just go to the park,” Kaito interjected. “It’s easy and we can spend as much time as we want there.” He looked to the others, and saw the general hum of agreement between them all.
They changed directions and began walking on the road to their left, and after making several various turns, a small sign for the park appeared. It was mostly a large grass area with asphalt paths crisscrossing each other as far as she could see. There were also a lot of sakura trees lined up along the paths, and a small playground with a couple of swings and slides for the children.
They chose one path that went off to the right. It quickly went into to a slightly more forested section and a stream ran a few meters from the path.
“This is very pretty,” Mika couldn’t help commenting.
“It really is. I think I’ve only been to this park once, and I think that was a long time ago. I remember playing on the swings though,” Ayako said.
They got to one point on the path where a small wooden staircase lead down closer to the river and opened up into a platform right above the water. One could tell by the tracks that children often did not use the stair case, instead they made their own paths to the river, and Ayako only helped to increase these paths.
While the other three got on the platform, Ayako climbed down around it and went down to the water’s edge, and seeing a fairly large boulder, climbed up onto it and used it to jump on the other side of the stream.
“Ayako, are you sure you should be over there?” Mika called to her.
“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “But look! You can see where other people have made trails on this side we should go –”
“No!” all three of them cut her off simultaneously.
Ayako made a bit of a puppy face and looked at them again, “Aww, come on guys, please?”
It was Kana that gave the final answer of ‘no’. After seeing how much Ayako wanted to explore the other side, Mika hadn’t been able to reply, and Kaito’s attention had been lost all together.
After realizing that Kana wasn’t going to let her explore the trails no matter how much she begged, Ayako climbed dejectedly back to the other side of the stream, and once she had rejoined the others, they began walking on the path once more. Although Ayako seemed to be bored with concrete paths, so she walked a bit off to the right, in the woods.
The path continued around the very edge of the park and made a huge loop back to the place they’d started from. By the time they reached the entrance again, the sun was considerably lower in the sky.
“Wow, how long did we walk for?” Mika asked to no one in particular.
It was Kaito that answered, “It was around an hour and a half, I think.”
“It certainly didn’t feel like it was that long of a walk,” Kana agreed.
“So should we go get dinner now? There’s a really good seafood grill not too far –”
“Ayako,” Kana interrupted once more, “you keep saying that, but I believe that your concept of far is a bit different than the rest of ours, perhaps excluding Kaito. How far is it really?”
“Umm... I guess it’s about a kilometer away...”
Kana nodded and both she and Mika agreed that they could probably manage that distance. Mika could feel her feet beginning to ache though, and she wondered how many places they would go after they ate.
“I guess after we eat, you all would be about ready to go home?”
For a moment Mika wondered if she had spoken her thoughts out loud, but Ayako’s question wasn’t specifically directed at her. “I think I will be ready,” she answered with a small smile.
It really didn’t take them very long to reach the restaurant, although it was a bit crowded so they all had to wait about fifteen minutes to even get seated. Although despite the crowd, the chefs were very quick to make the food. Mika ordered just a simple grilled salmon with a side of mixed vegetables and rice. Both Kana and Ayako had rice with shrimp and eggs, and a variety of other vegetables. Kaito had a combination of fish, shrimp, eggs, chicken, and a couple of other meats that Mika couldn’t identify in his rice.
“So what do you want to do tomorrow?” Ayako asked once she had finished what she wanted of her meal.
“Can we go back out on the boat tomorrow?” Mika’s eyes were shining with enthusiasm and hope.
“Sure, if everyone else is cool with that,” Ayako said grinning at Mika’s expression. “Where specifically do you want to go, or do you know?”
“Oh, no... I hadn’t thought about that I guess.”
“Well, what about Kume Island then? It’s just a little past the Kurama Region. Kume Island has a lot of good observatories although the beaches aren’t quite as nice. They also have a place where you can rent kayaks!”
“Ayako, I’m not sure either Mika or myself have the strength to go kayaking for an extended about of time,” Kana stated.
“Oh don’t worry! They have two-person kayaks too, so it won’t wear you out as quickly.” Ayako was beaming at the idea, and no one had the audacity to burst her bubble. “So are you all about done eating?” she asked after a moment.
“Yep, I am,” Mika replied. She glanced over at the other two who were also nodding.
“Perfect! Then I’ll go call Jun-kun and tell him we’re ready.”
While Ayako left to make the call, Kana and Mika handled getting the leftovers into boxes for later. They managed to squeeze everything into just two smaller takeout boxes, and in another fifteen minutes, Jun had arrived and they were heading back to the house as the sun finally sank over the horizon.
A/N~ A bit of a slower and more relaxed chapter, but the next one will make up for it, I promise.
I also made my ode to Ghost Hunt which is an awesome anime and an even better manga in case you want to check it out.
by Muse. » Sun Dec 02, 2012 2:48 pm 
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