Daichi let out a soft laugh, lying down face-first on his bed. The first day of summer break, and he was already bored. That had to be a new record for him. In the past, he'd have found something to occupy his time by now, whether it be digging through his parents' library or trying something new, like fishing in the river. But no, this was a new kind of boredom; well, to him, at least. Everyone else in his class had already managed to find themselves something to occupy their time, be it visiting relatives elsewhere, finding a job... Whatever it was, they still had something to do.

Well, damn. And here he was all excited just yesterday about classes ending for a while.

"...Ah, geez! Enough lazing around!" he shouted, forcing himself off oh his bed and taking a look at the clock. It was only 9 in the morning, which meant he still had time to figure out... Something. The first step to getting that done, though, was getting outside.

With that in mind, Daichi quickly slipped into a set of cargo shorts and a white t-shirt before grabbing a visor from his closet and donning it and he left his room. Quietly slipping out of his house, he sighed and began walking down the street. Well, a walk was better than nothing...

A few minutes later, Daichi found himself wandering the slightly more populated streets of the town's shopping center. The shopkeepers seemed to all be out and about (as they should be), which meant he could...

Probably grab breakfast, actually.

"...Huh. Well, I could do for some rice and soup right now..." he thought to himself as he walked up to one of the storefronts, part of a small complex with a group of benches and tables nearby to use.

"Yo!" he waved to the old man, who seemed to be in his late sixties, running the shop. "One order of rice, eel, and miso soup please!"

"Well, if it isn't Daichi! Sure, sure; one moment, please!" the elderly man responded in turn as Daichi slid a 1000-yen bill onto the counter. "By the way, how's school goin' for ya? Everything fine?"

"Yeah, it's fine; summer break just started and all, so be expecting a lot of students here for a while..."

And so their conversation continued on as the food was being prepared.

Reiko had already been awake for a couple hours, sorting through her papers from the semester that just ended and thinking about what she would do of her life, come next December, and her graduation with it. Though, dwelling on those matters would do her no good, so Reiko decided to go out and get some fresh air, to clear her head bit.

Fetching a red beret and sunglasses from her drawer, Reiko went on a walk and eventually reached the shopping center "I might as well have something to eat", Reiko thought to herself, scanning the place before walking inside. On the way to the food court, Reiko bought a new book that had just arrived on the bookstore that she usually frequents and once there, she got a cup of café-au-lait and some cream puffs from a pastry shop and set to read the rather small book sat by the shade of one of the parasols that covered the tables of the open air part of the food court.

Despite the fact that Reiko almost looked like a foreigner model, or celebrity, of sort, while dressed in her usual clothes, she wondered if anyone would come and try to talk to her.

"Sorry for this one
. ignore this post.

The bag rustled as she walked.

She shoes clacked against the concrete sidewalk, the sun hitting her as she went. One hand was firmly in her pocket, the other on the straps of her duffle bag. The contents were obscured, but there was the sound of paper rubbing against paper every step she made. She looked like someone focused, someone concentrating. For Mizuki Kumiko was deep in thought, as she walked down the sidewalk. Unlike other times where more pressing matters filled her mind, today's thoughts were on her hunger. For the moment, she had not particularly a large amount of money, and she was hungry. She had to eat something. Kumiko could ignore her desire to eat no longer. As she walked, she glanced to her side. There was a storefront. A tall woman had just walked in. There was a boy getting food. She could smell food being prepared...

Turning towards the storefront, Kumiko approached, only to pause for a moment. There were... other people. What's more, there was the owner of the storefront. What could she do, really? Having to talk with them if they struck up conversation... It would just be annoying. A hassle. Kumiko didn't feel like dealing with something like that right now. And yet... she was hungry. There was really no denying that she was hungry, not at all. But... to have to talk to these people...

To bystanders, it would seem if the girl had simply stopped, hunger warring with irritation inside her.

"...Anyhow, it's good to see that you don't seem to have any problems. Remember, you're not alone in this town, kiddo. Takes a village to raise a child... Or something like that. My memory isn't as good as it could be." the old man finished, handing Daichi a tray with his order, along with the spare change left in the corner of the tray itself.

"Of course, of course." Daichi nodded, a slight smile on his face as he lifted the tray off the counter. "Thanks for the food."

With that said, Daichi bowed his head slightly towards him before turning to the street nearby.

"...Huh. Didn't expect paper-girl to be the type to eat out." he muttered to himself before shrugging and walking over to take a seat at one of the tables before noticing an unfamiliar face nearby.

"...Well, dad would probably gut me alive or something if he knew that I wasn't trying to talk to people while I was out..." he rationalized to himself as he walked over to take a seat near the girl with the beret instead.

"Hey, haven't seen you around here before." he said, placing his food down on the table before sliding into his seat. "Place is usually pretty empty around this time, I think, so I guess that it might be better coming here now for breakfast... Probably."

"Kawamoto. Daichi Kawamoto. It's a pleasure."

Internally, though, Daichi was pounding away at a wall. God, introductions were always the weirdest thing ever to him. They always felt AWKWARD; how the hell did his father deal with this all the time?

Not a long time after Reiko set on reading her book, she noticed a girl with disheveled black hair standing around the entrance of the courtyard, glaring at people, though she paid it no mind. Tears of living on a metropolis do that to people after all, and Reiko knew all too well that meddling with people would only invite trouble for her.

Before Reiko could resume reading, however, a teenager boy (probably a high-schooler) with brown hair that looked more like a rat's nest came to the same table as she and began some idle chat. Reiko set her book aside (after marking the page, obviously) and took off her sunglasses, before gazing at the boy with curious eyes "I moved here only a few months ago, I'm still not used to this city" she said.

Once Daichi introduced himself, Reiko gave off a brief chuckle when she noticed the boy's unrest "Asamiya Reiko" she introduced herself in the kind of business-like way that you'd expect from someone used to live in big cities, up to and including, offering her hand for Daichi to shake. A rather western greeting, but Reiko was used to dealing with people from overseas, so she got used to this, instead of bowing.

"If you don't mind me asking," Reiko paused to move a strand of hair that had fallen over her face back behind her ear "is everyone around here like you? I mean on Tokyo people barely spare the time to acknowledge someone else's presence, but..." she sighed before a smile of mixed longing and tiredness crept its way to her beautiful lips "things here seems warmer." Indeed they seemed, and Reiko couldn't help but wonder what would have been of her life, if she too had been raised in such a small community.

Would she be happier? Would the man she once loved still be alive? Or would life be even harder?

The young philosopher couldn't help but think about these possibilities, and yet no answer would came of it, so absorbed was she in her thoughts that Reiko didn't even noticed the gaze that she was giving Daichi.

"Hah..." Concentrating on the task at hand, one Suniyama Sakie focused her until both physical and mental bodies connected into one cohesive whole. Dressed in a white chef's uniform and hat, the girl regarded the assembled ingredients in front of her before nodding with narrowed eyes. Fwash. Strong blue flames burst from her stall's stove as she clicked it on, before placing a heavy iron wok atop the fire. Cooking had now begun. Shishou was waiting patiently. Sakie complied and began the ritual, raising her ladle in expectant finality.

White sesame oil was splashed on the quickly heated up metal before a handful of white sesame seeds were tossed into the cooking utensil as well. Swiftly shaking the wok so that the seeds were liberally heated up, the incredibly savory smell of toasted sesame began drifting out into the surrounding areas. Bowls of beaten egg were then splashed and stirred for a bit before rice was thrown in along with finely chopped vegetables and seafoods. The entire thing was then vigorously shaken, the ingredients flying up into the air in an arc before descending. Soon a pattern was reached where the fried rice was now flying about in a looping arc, the best way to even out the myriad flavors and cook everything to standards. The heat and physical exertion was familiar to the girl, given that even this part time work could be seen as training for the body, and was thus encouraged by the clan.

Finally, the huge portion was done and soon several white dishes were now filled up with steaming, fragrant seafood fried rice with clean porcelain spoons at the side. Even Sakie who made this plenty of times was captivated by the smell of toasted sesame and egg, that wonderful heady aroma as tempting as any vixen. Pleased with herself for not disrespecting the ingredients and making a good batch of the rice dish, Sakie relaxed as she began to hand out the plates to customers lining up at her stall. In the distance she could see other people milling about, socializing and eating food from other eateries, different aromas of different cuisines drifting about the air. To the foodie Suniyama Sakie, such a place was already heaven.

It was then that the current part-timer saw a really irate girl that was just glaring at the surrounding people and food, looking stubborn and recalcitrant. Blinking for a moment, the chef pondered a bit before making the connection, seeing as how fervently she was looking at the surrounding foodstuffs. "A-ah, miss..." Her voice quaked, but Sakie still managed to pitch it loud enough so that one Mizuki Kumiko could hear. "W-would you like to try a s-sample dish of our Seafood Fried Rice?" While a bit nervous, Sakie still went on with it stubbornly. After all the girl was her age, and she was trying to make friends after all. "First-time c-customers get a free d-dish."

A girl, one of the employees, had approached her. Kumiko let out a sigh. Well, she wasn't going to get any choice in the matter now, was she? Jeez... this was just annoying. At least, it was annoying until the girl mentioned that the Seafood Fried Rice was free to first-time customers. Kumiko didn't eat out very often, and it was her first time at this particular storefront. Naturally, as someone with rather lacking spending money, the promise of free food was something that she could not ignore. Seafood Fried Rice would at the very least be somewhat likeable as a meal in Kumiko's opinion, as well. Fried rice was one of the foods she generally quite enjoyed, and so there was a strong chance that she'd like this as well. And, of course, it was free. The fact that it was free was the undeniably best possible situation that had come out of her arrival at the storefront.

"... I'll take a free seafood fried rice, then," she said, simply, turning to fully face the girl, her bag rustling as she did. Naturally, she left it at that. There was no real need to elaborate on it. Not to go talking to some random girl she didn't know anything about who had her own job to do.

Ah, that made things much more understandable to him. After all, if she had moved here with little fanfare (if any), then it'd be obvious that he wouldn't know her... And, well, neither would anyone else, for that matter. Her commentary provided the little insight that he'd need to start a conversation up, which was... Well, good enough to start.

"Oh, you're from Tokyo, huh?" he asked, taking a bite out of his rice before continuing. "It's a nice place, or so I hear. But... Yeah, I guess that with more people, each one kinda matters less."

Shrugging, he turned up to look for Reiko's response, only to see her staring right at him, though seemingly lost in thought. Strange. Was it because of what she had said earlier?

"Er... About your last statement, though... I dunno what to say, honestly. There's all that stuff going around about how people grow up differently in different places, so... I guess?"

Well, he was only a high school student; there wasn't really much reason for him to ponder these sort of philosophical quandaries in the end, after all...

"Yes, I'm. I used to study at Tokyo University, but I moved here because of certain issues. I don't want to bother you with the history of my life, though. I'm sure a kid of your age has much more to worry about." Reiko replied to Daichi's inquire about her origins, before moving to the matters of Tokyo. "As for Tokyo, I can't negate that it's one of the most convenient places in the world to live, but... I guess that you'll only be able to form your own opinion on it if you move to there." She sighed wistfully before continuing "For me, it's a place that'll forever be linked to false promises, a future that was not meant to be."

However, when Reiko noticed how her expression was making Daich stiff, she gave him a genuinely beautiful smile, like she always did when she tried to reassure her younger sister that all was well "I guess that you are right, Kawamoto-san, there's no use in dwelling on these topics right now. I'll leave the philosophy to the lecture halls."

Then, Reiko drank some of her café-au-laite, before asking Daichi "But, enough about me and Tokyo. Tell me about this city and yourself, I got here only a week ago and the only other place that I know other than this shopping arcade is the University that I'll be attending after the vacations end. I'm specially interested in the kind of summer festivals that you have on smaller cities like this one, if you know something about they, please tell me."

Sitting to himself with a few bowls stacked on top of each other, Kouta was probably on his fourth or fifth helping which he was ravenously attacking and stuffing down his throat with reckless abandon; his feet resting on a guitar case that was sat on the ground.

As he did so, he looked about to see whoever was talking and focused in on some kid talking to an older woman. He also noticed some other people not too far away, but decided that it wasn't worth it to investigate any further and set down his bowl on top of his little stack when he noticed that there was no more food to shovel into his esophagus. Kouta reached into his pocket and lightly plopped a bill into the bowl at the top of the stack to pay for the hearty meal that he'd just consumed.

Almost immediately after he'd set down his bowl, Kouta felt drowsiness begin to set in. He blinked his eyes and bobbed his head, attempting to fight off the sleep. He reached down, cracking open his guitar case half-way, and slipped out a small white pillow which he set on the table in front of him. After closing his case, he then rested his head on the pillow lightly and placed his arms underneath it. His breathing slowed and it was quite easy to tell at that point that he was most definitely asleep.

Reiko's shift of topic away from her own own problems certainly made the mood a lot easier for Daichi to deal with; it was a bit too early in the day to counsel someone... ESPECIALLY someone new to the town.

"A week, huh? Well, the town's got what it needs, which is probably just the bare minimum in your case." he stated, temporarily lapsing into thought as he went through the layout of it all inside of his head. "We've got... Well, lots of suburban housing, a library, a few banks here and there, a lot of restaurants... Well, to be blunt, we've got what we need here to keep the place afloat. Sure, we might not have the newest of luxuries, but what we don't have in stores we can usually import. Thank goodness for the advent of the internet."

Downing the rest of his meal, Daichi clasped his hands and let out a quick 「ごちそうさまでした」 and moving it to the side to continue on with his generalization of his hometown.

"The place is pretty small, though, so it shouldn't take too long to take every location to heart. I mean, if there's any location that you need to know of, you can ask pretty much anyone here. Pretty much."

Tossing a sidelong glance at the girl who, for once in her life, seemed to take the kindness of others in, Daichi shrugged and wrote it off as an unusual phenomenon before continuing.

"Yeah. That aside, the festivals here are a pretty big deal; the entire town gets involved to set it all up, and everyone has fun time and time again. If I recall correctly, Tanabata's around the corner... And it's as much of a big deal here as it is pretty much everywhere else in Japan, so look forward to it. We've got some other smaller things on the side, but those aren't really... Consistent. So... Yeah, if there's anything else you were curious about, just ask. My dad's the de facto community coordinator of the place, and I'm supposed to take his place in the future, so I tend to know this stuff. Kinda have to."

As he finished his statement, Daichi noticed, out of the corner of his eye, the narcoleptic glutton who tended to, well... Sleep in class, if nothing else. And, as expected, he was fast asleep in the middle of the food court.

Figures.

"...One moment, please." Daichi said, excusing himself from the table for a moment before walking over to Kouta's side and firmly grabbing his left shoulder with his right hand.

"Hey. I know that it's, like, almost ten in the morning, man, but sleeping here in the open's gonna get you in trouble." Daichi sighed, shaking his head. "Like, we know you can't help it, but at least do it somewhere that isn't gonna steal a seat from other groups that might want it."

With that said, Daichi let go and returned to his seat from earlier, the one next to Reiko.

"Sorry 'bout that. He tends to do that... Enough. Narcolepsy's kinda... His thing, I guess. I'm usually the one next to him in class, so the whole 'waking him up' thing kinda got stuck with me. Force of habit."

"I-indeed." With a deft and practiced twist of the hand that was entirely at odds with her nervous fac and body language, Sakie spun the plate and then flicked it easily in a snap wrist motion so that the spinning container flew towards a nearby table. Following it was a folded napkin as well as the porcelain spoon which rested flat side down on the cloth. All this with most minimum of noise and not a grain of rice out of place. If anything, this seemingly flashy move aerated the settled rice one last time while it was in motion so that the aroma burst out in a concentrated puff once again, the heat from the inside of the dish rising freely. "One sample of seafood fried rice. I h-hope it is to your liking." The Suniyama heir stated, bowing down to her newest customer.

"..."

Well, this girl seemed to have some strange sense of style in terms of how she served her food... whatever. It smelled pretty good, regardless, and Kumiko sat down as it was set at the table. Unfortunately, this motion lead to her overstuffed duffle bag bumping into the side of the table rather awkwardly. Given how full it was, it did not take much for the strained zipper to start slipping... and with that familiar noise, the bag unzipped about halfway just as Kumiko set it down. There was a rustling as the bag fell open, ofuda spilling out onto the floor, freed from their overcrowded prison. For a moment, the black-haired girl sat there in disbelief and frustration. She'd spent her morning stuffing them all in there, and now they just came bursting out...?

"... Damn it."

Kneeling down off of her seat, Kumiko began the task of trying to gather up all the ofuda quickly, before someone came and started asking her about them or whatever.

Reiko observed quietly as the teenagers around her went by with their carefree lives, sometimes spending a few extra moments to analyze the most interesting looking ones, like the stuttering girl that was work on the food stall right over the courtyard, or the gruff one who she offered a free sample as well as the large bag stuffed of more papers than even most PhD candidates carry around. Or, Daichi's own way of dealing with his narcolepsy afflicted friend and the boy who would be as bold-faced as to sleep on a public space in the middle of the morning.

When Daichi returned from his small errand, he would notice a faint smile on Reiko's face, a nostalgic one, almost as if the young woman was already reminiscing on the days of her own adolescence. When the boy talked to her, Reiko answered in as much gentle a voice as she possible could make "Thank you, Kawamoto-san, this city really seems like it'll do me good. A place where children can be this carefree certainly is a good place to live."

"What do you say of me paying the favor back by paying a drink for you, then?" Reiko asked calmly as evaluated Daichi's reaction "As long as you don't mind having me as company for some more time, and... coffee, because I don't think that you are above 18 yet." she called a waitress to get her another cup of café-au-laite and whatever was it that Daichi might want to drink.

The familiar feel of a hand grasping his shoulder caused Kouta to quickly be thrust from his sleep and back into the waking world, where he was greeted by the words of that one kid from school. Guy had a point, no need to be taking up space that other people could be using. With his head still laid down onto the pillow, Kouta mumbled out a muffled "Sorry," and pushed himself up off of the pillow.

He mumbled to himself, most likely trying to memorize something, as he took the pillow and shoved it back into the case he was resting his feet on. Kouta then slipped into the strap on the case and fastened it to his back so that it wasn't hanging loosely. He then uttered a yawn that shook his frame slightly and stretched before looking about awkwardly trying to figure out what he should do with his time. Deciding that he might just want to relax and watch passersby, he just kind of shuffled out of the way and looked about.

Daichi let out a small laugh at Reiko's comment, amused at how she still saw the people around them as... Children. It was a long time since he'd heard that directed at him, but it wasn't as if it was insulting or anything. Heck, if she was happy here, then there wasn't any reason for him to worry about her getting possessed by a Youmu or anything. Less work for him.

"No problem, no problem. Though... I guess that we're all kinda quirky, in our own way. Doesn't mean we're still children, though."

The offer of a drink, though... That caught him off guard.

"N-no thanks, I couldn't bother you with such trivialities. I'd be fine without a drink, but thanks for the offer." he declined, waving the waitress away as she hesitated to take his order. "But yes, you're correct, I'm not yet 18. 17, though; doesn't mean I like the taste or smell of alcohol any better. And, let's be real here: it's the middle of the morning; what kind of person drinks at this time of day?"

Reiko couldn't say that she was happy at having her offer refused, nevertheless, she chuckled "17? Then you really should know not to turn others generosity away, don't you think?" Reiko said, with a hint of a teasing tone under her collected voice. If he was old enough to attend the college on his own (though Reiko doubted that it was the case), so it wouldn't be wrong of Reiko to try and get some amusement out of the first person she had the chance to talk with on this city. It's not like she is teasing a child that does not know that ways of world, right?

"Aren't you even a bit sorry for staining a maiden's pride like this?" Reiko continued saying, still sounding a bit amused "What do you think of paying me back by... hmmm... showing me the city?"

Daichi was an interesting person, so much that Reiko kind of mellowed to him far faster than she would to most people. Talking with him made Reiko feel a couple years younger, when her life wasn't nearly as half as convoluted as it became a semester ago, thus she thought that it would be good to stick around the boy for a bit more.

"If you wish, you can even tell your friends that we are on a date." Reiko moved to drive the last metaphoric nail in the coffin of Daichi's psyque, just before calling the waitress again and giving her the payment saying that she could keep the change as a tip.

Then, Reiko circled the table and stopped right besides Daichi, just before bending down to whisper her true intentions in the boy's ear "Also, I want to know the places where youmu are more likely to spawn, or... do you think someone with experience wouldn't notice that you are all linked to the spirit world?" she said pointing to the undeniable proof, the girl with a bag stuffed of ofuda.

Looking at what spilled out from the bag, Sakie's face blanked out before she went into a quiet panic, fidgeting this way and that with her eyes darting about the place. Shaking as she tried to figure out how to help the girl without being all that pushy, the rushed cook simply made her way over after pushing her chef's hat comically over her eyes so she couldn't see anything and bent down to help the girl pick up her spilled ofuda. Even without her sight, her hands alone easily picked the spilled paper seals due to their honed sensitivity and sense of touch, which seemingly drew her fingers over to the papers like a magnet did metal. "H-here you go!" Sakie stuttered even as she held out a splayed hand of ofuda like she was showing a deck of cards before sliding it together into one regular "deck" like she was in a casino before handing it over to the girl. With her hat still hiding her eyes in a very silly manner.

Daichi rubbed the back of his head nervously as Reiko talked him off about refusing her initial offer. That... What?

"Er... I dunno about how it usually goes in the city, but I'm fairly certain that I was..." he began to say before being cut off by the girl once more.

"Are all the people in Tokyo pushy like this, or is it just people like her...?" he asked himself before sighing and shrugging.

"Sure. I've got nothing to do this summer break, anyhow; might give me a little something to pass the time." he returned, this time glancing over to see if Kouta had moved yet. He had. Work complete.

Of course, Daichi was caught completely off-guard by Reiko's mention of youmu in the city; it was almost as if someone had suddenly held a knife up to his neck. of course, the actual thing was nowhere near as extreme, but the way she had mentioned it so offhandedly...

And then his gaze turned to paper-girl, who had all of her ofuda scattered about on the ground. Luckily, someone was already helping to resolve that mess, but...

"...Right. Okay. This just became a whooole lot more work for me." Daichi said leaning on his now-propped up right arm, his eyes closed in contemplation as he attempted to figure out how to handle the issue. "Okay, first and foremost... I assume you've gotten the license and notice of transfer filed out and ready to be sent in, right? If that's been done, we can get right to that mess, but otherwise..."

Daichi let out a sigh and, lifting his head off of his arm, took to standing up and looking in the general direction of his home.

"You know what? Lemme just skip the boring formal stuff that my parents made me memorize, if that's fine with you; if all your paperwork's been sent in to the right address, but I'm technically not allowed to do anything before that's resolved. It's done, right?"

Given the way Reiko conducted herself, Daichi very much hoped that it was the case; her ID would have to have been updated if she wanted to do anything here, and the only one with the authority to update it here was his father. Maybe she had dropped by sometime earlier this week while he was at school or something...?