Scary surprise

Days went by, and yet Raiko has not succeeded in her search for fun things to do. The sheer anxiety of her big day being so close didn’t help on that, but it couldn’t be helped.

She is supposed to meet her contractor today. Apparently a veteran purifier will show up as well to answer her questions, Raiko was wondering what she would look like. Her instructor told her that most of the time the matter would be handled by an elder purifier from the same town, but since Aomura didn’t have purifiers prior to this day, they would send one from the neighboring town of Elsa.

She was heading home, noticing some clouds on the horizon. She looked at them hoping that May’s rain wouldn’t begin right on the day of her contract, that would suck.

On the opposite side of the road there was her grandmother, walking on her direction escorted by her father and her uncle. Raiko cheerfully raised her hand the moment their eyes met.

“Granma!, going to the market?”

“Yes, we ran out of some groceries and your father and uncle are out of work today, so I thought it was the right time.”

“Want me to help?”

“No, that won’t be necessary, but thanks.”

“Oh, alright, I’ll just go home and take a nap then.”

Doing chores would have helped her to distract from her thoughts and focus on something, but it seemed that she couldn’t do it, the stars were not in position for that request. Either way, she opened the main gate and walked through, given the time of the day, she should be alone.

The instant she closed the door and turned towards her room someone grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth. It had to be Hanako, she tried to look. Please be Hanako, she said to herself.

It was her indeed, telling her to keep quiet with an excited smile. She was up to something, that much she knew. Knowing her it was most likely a very elaborate prank that needed two people to be successfully carried through. When Raiko calmed down, she let her go.

“Let’s go to my room, I got something for you.”

“Can’t it wait?”

“Of course it can’t, grandma’s gone and she took our old men with her, now’s our chance.”

She made it sound like she was about to do something illegal, but then again Raiko knew her cousin was harmless... for the most part. They stopped at the door, Hanako’s stupid smile wasn’t going anywhere, whatever it was, she sure was proud about herself.

The biggest perk of being an only child is that she had an entire room all for herself, the room didn’t have many things on it besides what one would expect for a bedroom. After dragging Raiko inside, she dug under the bed looking for something.

Raiko quickly noticed that maybe there was more stuff in Hanako’s bedroom, but she just kept them all hidden under the bed. It was taking her pretty long, too, only the Gods know what is hidden down there, maybe she is digging through the ruins of a long forgotten civilization.

“Ow!”

Judging by the sound she hit her head against the bed frame, she began to pull back shortly afterwards, the characteristic sound of glass colliding gave her a pretty good guess about what was going on. Unable to hold her own excitement, Raiko watched her cousin getting back up with her treasure.

A brown bottle of beer absorbed the entirety of Raiko’s attention. Hanako was saying something, but she was hypnotized. The elder cousin moved the bottles around with an amused look, then flicked Raiko’s forehead.

“What was that for?”

“Didn’t they teach you that it’s disrespectful not to listen to your elders?”

“You said something?”

“You want these, don’t you?”

“Well... yeah.”

“Like I was saying, I had to sneak these in with the highest secrecy, regardless of what grandma says, you’re almost there, nothing bad will happen if you have your first drink two weeks earlier than you’re allowed to.”

Without a word Raiko jumped to hug her cousin, she was completely unprepared for this development and so both of them fell, managing to land on her bed. Most importantly, the bottles were safe.

“A simple thanks would have been enough.” Hanako laughed.

“S-Sorry, I’m just too excited and too nervous about this, all of this.” Raiko drew a circle with her finger to emphasize.

“Well...” Hanako was playing with a bottle opener on her finger. “Kids always want to grow up until they realize it isn’t as good as it seems, anyway, here you go.”

Hanako opened the bottle and passed it to Raiko in a single movement. That was probably not a skill to be proud of, but she worked at the only liquor store in the village, and many customers preferred to enjoy their drinks at the place, so it was just part of her work.

Raiko knew she shouldn’t, she isn’t 15 yet, but the excitement of mischief was too strong to bear, besides, she was with someone she trusted. With a nervous smile she put the bottle on her lips and drank her first sip, immediately putting it away with a frown.

“Bitter!”

“Ah yes, this one’s bitter, I like it more than the sour ones.”

“It isn’t THAT bad, but I wasn’t expecting this, everyone said it was delicious.”

“Well, well, stronger drinks like raja taste a lot better, but I won’t see the end of it from grandma if I get you drunk now.”

On a second glance, it wasn’t that bad, maybe she could get used to it after a while. It wasn’t simply the taste of the forbidden fruit, the grownups did it, and she wanted to be like them.

Sure, it was not the best reason to start drinking, but it was hers. Sharing a drink with her cousin was something she wanted to do, she wanted to become 15 so she could do it with her mother, too.

“Hanako?”

Of course Hanako didn’t answer, she just looked with an amused expression.

“Thanks.”

“Hey, you’re not drunk from just this, are you?”

“Of course I’m not!” Raiko spoke in a decent enough manner to sound convincing. “But I’m happy about this.”

“Well as long as you’re somewhat sober... speaking of, wasn’t your meeting today?”

“Eh? ah yes, but it’s later in the day, it will be fine... I think.”

The two girls just laughed at Raiko’s statement.