Festival Finale Time

When we arrive, the festival is already going strong. It is pretty small compared to what I’m used to, but I guess it would be for a small town. Still, there are the usual food and game stalls lined together with paper lanterns. I hear some folk music playing in the background. There are just as many adults milling about as there are kids running around. Everyone looks so happy that I start to get into the happy atmosphere as well.

The girls start running around and exploring the area while I try to keep up. We try all sorts of stalls including toy gun shooting and goldfish scooping. No one is very good at them but we have fun anyway. Keiko buys a mask from a stall and starts terrorizing us and nearby kids. Later, we start to get hungry so we buy some cheap fried food. I take bite after bite of my fried chicken and share food with the others. It’s all so good. I wish the food was this cheap back in my time.

We go to buy some dessert when Keiko notices a familiar face. It’s her sister and brother-in-law. She stops in her tracks and starts to turn around but it’s too late. They’ve already seen her and are starting to walk towards us. We all turn worryingly to Keiko as well.

“Keiko!” Her sister calls out to her.

Keiko turns but doesn’t look at her. Her face is quite annoyed. “Hey, Sachiko. What do you want? Don’t you have a restaurant to run into the ground?”

Sachiko doesn’t look pleased. She starts tugging on her ear. “The restaurant is closed since everyone is at the festival. And anyway, when are you going to learn a little respect, Keiko?”

“Cut it out!” Keiko yells, trying to get her sister off.

Her husband gets closer and puts his hands by his face as he tries to calm them down. “It’s ok. She’s just a bit rebellious and trying to look cool in front of her friends. Weren’t we the same at her age? I know. You guys are here to buy this candy, right? I’ll buy you each some. My treat.” Sure enough he buys six candy apples and hands them to us. I thank him as I take one.

“You didn’t have to do that, Mister!” Yumiko looks really pleased regardless of her words.

“Who said I wanted a candy apple from you, huh? I wanted the cotton candy.” Keiko says after taking a bite of the apple.

“If you want to complain you have to come by the restaurant tomorrow. I think we just put up ‘complain’ on the menu for 300 yen yesterday. Didn’t we, honey?”

“Oh yeah. It’s was right after we put up a ‘Keiko tax’ as well. Girls named Keiko have to pay an extra 500 yen.”

“Then I’m not coming over!”

“Hm, well if you don’t want to pay the tax then you can just come by our house and I can give you food for free. How does that sound?”

“…Ok, I guess.”

“Great! We’ll see you tomorrow for dinner!” Without waiting for a response, Sachiko and her husband wave goodbye and turn to leave. We hear them laughing at their own joke.

“I didn’t say I’ll be there tomorrow!” Keiko yells after them. I want to laugh too but I don’t want to be rude.

Yumiko takes the bait. “You’re brother-in-law is super nice, Keiko. Tell me about the dinner later.” She says while trying not to giggle. Keiko did not appreciate it.

Time continued to pass, and all of us knew trouble would have to come for Keiko eventually. While we were sitting and talking, Makoto casually strolled up to us holding something to his chest. He had a confident smile as he walked. Keiko looked interested this time as the thing he was carrying was rather large and dark. She stood up as he got closer. We all hushed.

“It’s great to see you here, Keiko. You look nice today as always.” His compliments roll off his tongue so easily, there is a nagging thought if he actually says what he means.

“W-what do you want, Makoto?” Keiko is losing her cool attitude already.

“Tonight is special. I want to ask you something very important, but first I want you to accept this gift.” He hands her what looks to be a black helmet.

“Is this a motorcycle helmet?” She inspects the helmet in his hands. It’s very nice and looks brand nice.

“Yes. Your fiery sprit deserves to be completed with a bike that matches your personality. I can’t afford a bike, but I wanted to give you this gift at least for right now. If you allow me to date you, I promise I will buy one for you in the future.” All the girls gasp in amazement. Somehow, I have a bad feeling about this scenario.

“I-I don’t know. This feels…” Keiko speaks slowly but is cut off when a rock hits her shoulder. It angers her immediately. We all turn towards the direction it came from.

Another interruption in the form of a girl appears. She looks just as upset as Keiko. She must be from our school as she’s wearing the same uniform as us. Her two friends with her make faces at us.

“Keiko doesn’t deserve your kindness, Makoto. She’s just a rude girl who’s bad at everything! I’m tired of seeing your face everywhere, Keiko. Just don’t come to school anymore! Everyone would be happier!” Her friends yell in agreement.

“Shut up, Tomoko! I haven’t done anything to anyone else but you because you deserved it!” It’s clear these girls have beef with each other. I want to help calm them down but I don’t know what to say. All I can do is watch.

“Why do you think she always hangs out with the class next door? It’s because she doesn’t have any friends in her own class! She never helps out and makes fun of people to their face.”

“I just call it out when I see you being such a snob! Why don’t you say these things to my face and see what happens?” Keiko shoves the helmet back to Makoto and storms off towards Tomoko.

“You don’t have the guts to fight me because you know you’ll lose. You’re all talk.” Tomoko mocks her.

“We’ll see about that.” I’m getting nervous; this looks bad. Should I do something? I look around and Keiko’s friends are cheering her on. How can they act like this?

Keiko steps right up to Tomoko’s face and shoves her chest. Tomoko retaliates with a slap to the cheek. In a heartbeat, Keiko punches her collarbone. She loses her balance and falls to the ground. Tomoko throws dirt at Keiko’s face and some hits her in the eyes. Oh no, that looks painful. I clutch my fists in tight balls to my chest. Right next to me, Yumiko yells more words of encouragement. I can’t really understand all of this. Is this the true life of a delinquent?

As Keiko is wiping her face, Tomoko gets up and charges at her. Keiko won’t even be able to defend herself like this. But Tomoko doesn’t make it to her. She lands on the ground with a pained grunt. She’s out of the fight. Makoto has stepped in and landed a full blow that knocked the wind out of her. Keiko looks just as surprised as all of us.

Minoru speaks up. “Why did you do that, Makoto?” What? Minoru? When did he get here?

“Minoru? How long have you been watching? Didn’t you see Keiko being attacked? What kind of man are you that just sits there and watches the girl he likes get beat up?” Makoto speaks roughly at Minoru as he walks up to him. He looks like he’ll punch Minoru as well.

“A man doesn’t punch a woman unless they are a threat. I didn’t think for a second that girl was a threat to Keiko. I believed Keiko could win the whole time so I was waiting here for her to finish. I don’t think you really see Keiko as anything but a weak girl that needs your protection, Makoto.” Minoru speaks proudly even in the face of the older boy. Makoto falters and steps back.

That’s it. I feel like I’ve seen enough and adrenalin starts running through me. I whisper to my bag. “Hota, I’ve made my decision.” I quietly point to the boy. “The fake is Makoto.”

Suddenly, Hota glows bright white from my bag and the world feels like it has frozen. Only I move in this frozen time. Hota transforms into a watch on my wrist and I’m bathed in sparkles and light. It feels warm and comforting like when I first met him. My long skirt becomes more ruffled and grows in length at the back where it splits in two. My red necktie adds shades of orange and turns into a bow shape. The same but smaller bows appear down my sleeves. Lastly, white lace flows behind me from my hair.

I wish I could see myself in a mirror. I try to strike a powerful pose with my legs spread out and say the first thing that comes to my mind. “My name is Time Traveler Magical Girl Runa, and the time has come for you, Dust Bunny!”

The sparkles by my watch grow more intense on my outstretched arm. These culminate into a ball of white light that shoots out towards Makoto. He, alone, turns towards the light in shock. His eyes glowing a deep shade of red like rubies. As he is struck by the light, his form takes the shape of a black rabbit with gold and blue stripes down the paws. It looks painful. The whole world is vanishing leaving just me and the dark rabbit.

It seems to lose strength and transforms once again into a pair of gold and blue striped earrings. They only exist for a moment before vanishing along with the rest of the memory world. I fall on my knees, exhausted. There are clouds around me like from the trip into this world but they are calmer this time. Hota congratulates me from my wrist.

“You did it, Runa! Your first victory! That Dust Bunny is no more. Be proud of yourself!”

“I don’t feel like I did all that much. It was mostly my intuition after Minoru’s speech. Almost like a guess.”

“All you need is your intuition to be spot on for these missions. But also, maybe a better catchphrase would be good.”

“Don’t make fun of me for that! I made it up on the spot!” I knew I would get flak for that from Hota at some point. It didn’t have to be right now!

With no more than a few blinks of my eyes, I’m back in my own time. I touch my uniform and look around. I’m back in the same clothes in the same café that I left on. The two elderly ladies are still talking in the table next to me although one is quieter now. Is that one Keiko? I put my hand to my head. My mind is fuzzy and I can’t remember too much anymore, but I think about Keiko, Yumiko, and Hayahiko. I’m feeling emotional and want to give her a hug.

As I sit and collect my thoughts, I notice that I don’t feel as tired as I felt after using Hota’s power. It’s like I really never went anywhere or did anything. I look to my green watch and remember the earrings that the Dust Bunny turned into.

“How do you feel, Runa?” Hota asks me.

“Alright I guess. What happened to that Dust Bunny?”

“It turned back into normal rest energy. It was a rather weak one. Stronger ones can take a few hits from my power before dissolving like that.”

“I’m not sure that makes sense but alright. So all of you bunnies turn into jewelry?”

“Yeah, that’s our other form to fit into this world. Small pieces of jewelry can blend in well for many years.”

“Does that mean that Dust Bunnies make contracts, too?”

“Yes, even they need to make contracts with humans to create memory worlds.”

“Then is the owner around here right now?” I’m so surprised my voice raises in volume. I’ve got to tone it back down.

“Not necessarily. They can send the Dust Bunny off on a target and they will come back when the job is complete. That’s why it’s important to fix the memories when we see them being tampered with before it’s too late.”

I look behind me to see the other lady still with the dark clouds above her head. I sigh. I want to just go home for the day but I know I can’t abandon her.

“I don’t know if I can do it, Hota. What if it’s harder than the last one?”

“No sweat. What if it’s easier?” Hota is ever the optimist.

“Ok. Let’s go."