Show

The fireworks were incredible. 

They arced through the air, low enough that they seemed like they should bump into the spectators that were standing up but somehow not doing so. 

They burst in displays of color, twisting into impossibly intricate shapes. Animals, flowers, famous architecture…all of it in waves.

It was a little eerie how silent the display was, but the gasps and cheers of the audience made up a lot of the difference. 

Miyori tore her eyes away to peek over at Shizuka, who was staring overhead with a rapturous smile on her face. 

It seemed like she'd enjoyed the day—chatting with event volunteers, eating snacks and winning prizes. Honestly, with the activities and all, it had been more like a date than anything else. A small voice at the back of her head said that maybe Shizuka should have brought a boy she liked, instead of her less fashionable, less outgoing friend. 

Shizuka's gaze slide over to Miyori, likely because she'd noticed herself being watched. Her grin only widened. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she said brightly. 

Miyori, caught, looked up at the sky again. "It's lovely. I wonder how they're doing it?" 

She scanned the edges of the crowd. The guests and all the volunteers she could see were at rest, staring up at the display together. But there were fewer of the latter than she remembered.

Perhaps they were working behind the scenes on the event takedown? They were going to have to be careful getting home, so they weren't out after curfew. 

If Noa was volunteering here, as Miyori thought she'd seen earlier, then he might have even more of a problem with that. Maybe she could get him out of it early if she claimed she'd come by to pick him up? 

Beside her, Shizuka gasped and pointed up at the sky, and Miyori felt bad for being distracted. She was tired and, yes, more than a little hungry, and annoyed that Noa hadn't told her he'd be here, but none of that was Shizuka's fault, and she didn't want to ruin her good time—

Movement drew her eye across the event ground. A few people who'd been crowded up against a large white tent stumbled and exclaimed as a figure pushed past them. A figure in an apron, moving at a run. 

Miyori was standing before she even saw the people in suits who burst out of the tent after Noa. Shizuka turned to look at her, surprised. 

Miyori glanced around herself. There was no room—people were sitting all around them on the bench they'd chosen, and even on the ground around them. 

She was big and everyone was in the way and Noa was already nearly out of sight, pushing past some trash cans and, for some reason, heading straight for the chain-link fence instead of the gap in it. 

"I'll—I'll be right back," Miyori said. 

There were two worlds colliding in front of her. Immediately around her, the people staring, starting to get annoyed—Shizuka staring—everything to close, hemming her in. 

And then there was the one further away, where Noa reached the edge of the event grounds and launched himself clumsily into the air. The people chasing him reached vainly after him, and then two started levitating over the fence themselves. Noa crashed back into the ground more than landed, but was up in a blink of an eye, tearing down a side street. 

Miyori didn't have time to pick through the crowd. Noa was already almost out of sight.

She didn't want to do this, but...if she lost track of Noa again, she was going to spend the rest of the night worrying about him. And that was the best-case scenario, if he hadn't somehow landed himself in danger. 

She'd have to apologize to Shizuka later. For a lot of things. 

"Sorry," she said now, to make a start, and dropped her purse into Shizuka's lap. 

Then she jumped into the air, releasing her enlargement spell as she went. She shrank down, down, uniform shrinking with her, back slits opening to accommodate her wings. 

Suddenly the amount of space around her was plenty—more than comfortable. It was easy to zip up and over the humans' heads. 

Then a light exploded too close to her head, and she realized that up was in the middle of the fireworks show. 

The magical explosions were still completely silent, but that didn't matter as much when they were as big as she was, enough to completely fill her field of vision. 

She flinched away from them, but as a spark brushed her cheek, she realized…she didn't feel anything. 

They weren't just silent. They were simply illusions, with no weight or physical presence to them at all. 

Well, that explained why they were safe to let off so close to the ground, she thought. 

She aimed herself in the direction she'd last seen Noa, screwed her eyes shut, and flew. 

When the sounds of people below her dropped off, she opened her eyes again. She'd passed over the chain-link fence and was now in the street, everything suddenly dark and quiet. 

This wasn't the best neighborhood, she realized. The windows around the vacant lot were all dark, with boards over the doors or windows scattering fragments into the street. 

Closing her eyes once more, she heard the echo of footsteps. 

Hoping she was choosing the right direction, she flew after them as fast as she could go.