Yo. Bastion here.

Before anyone tried to kill me, I'm really, really sorry for the very late update.

The story was actually finished months ago, but I think there's something missing, so I checked it over and over and over..until I forget about :p

Again, Please don"t kill me.

Disclaimer: I do not own Baka and test.

Chapter 3

Festival, Sake, and a so-called death.

The walk to the village really did take about 15 minutes of walking, just like what Aiko told them. As they reach the village, there were already a lot of people there, but somehow it didn't feel crowded at all. The whole village was covered in flaky white snow, and there were also a lot of stands there, like merchandise stands, games stands, food stall, and others stands. At the middle of the village there was also a giant Christmas tree, fully decorated with Christmas themed ornaments.

"Hwa, amazing..."

Minami eyes sparkled in astonishment. A winter festival was not a common sight for the Japanese itselves, therefore it's not weird for a girl who spent most of her childhood in Germany to react like that, right?

Even Mizuki, who was born and raised in Japan, had the same reactions.

"See? My idea to come here was not bad at all!" Aiko raised her head, proud of herself.

"And since this village is quite big, maybe it will took us some time to look around the whole place." Hideyoshi started. "Which is good to kill time."

"Anyway, you guys could go anywhere you want and meet again here, okay?"

"Okay." The rest of them answered.

"So, Akihisa-kun, where do you want to go first?"

"Uh, well, I don't really now where to go, so I guess I'll just follow you. Maybe I'll ask Minami to join us. Oi, Minami, do you want to-huh? Where's Minami?"

"She dashed just now to no-one-knows where." Hideyoshi responded, lifting his shoulders.

"Kuh, that girl can be really childish at times."

"Hi hi, If she didn't act like that upon seeing this kind of place, than that's not the Minami-chan we know, right, Akihisa-kun?"

"Couldn't agree more with you."

"Well then, I'll go ahead with Akihisa-kun" she then grabbed Akihisa's hand and drag him behind her, leaving the rest behind her.

"I'll go that way then." Kouta picked up his camera. "There seems to be a lot of pretty girls that way." He dashed off with his ninja-like moves before anyone could make any comment.

"Urgh, that Muttsurini. Then, I'll follow him to make sure he doesn't do anythi-huh? What in the world is... " His words were cutted by a clicking metal sound coming from somewhere near his wrist. When he take a look at his wrist, he found something that looked like a...handcuffs. With the other and being cuffed onto Shouko's wrist.

"ARRRRGGGHHHH! What did you with my wrist?!"

"...You won't go anywhere without me by your side, Yuuji."

"Being with you is already scary, not even talking about cannot getting away from you! Give me the key!"

"...Never."

"Oi, Shouko, why won't you liste-GAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"...That should calm him down." She said calmy as she hold the taser in her hands. "What about you two, Aiko, Yuuko? Are you coming with us or do you want to go separate ways?"

The two of them waved their hands to reject that offer. "Maybe we'll go this way." They said simultaneously.

"Looks like this is the gifts and merchandise area." Mizuki said as she examined the place they're at. A lot of stands, big and small, could be seen around them, and most of them are selling goodies rather than food.

"Anyone could tell that just by looking." Akihisa responded.

They took a walk to see an interesting stand to visit. After walking around for a while, a stand catches Mizuki's eyes.

"Hey, Akihisa-kun. Let's see that stand over there." She walked to th stand that she pointed, along with Akihisa following behind her.

The stand itself was not that big, but not too small either. The stand sells a lot of merchandise, like bracelet, earings, even bags. All nicely arranged in separate shelves, making it easy to find things.

"Uwah, there are a lot of cute things here..."

"Do you like cute things that much, Himeji-san?"

"Yes! I love them very much!"

Just then, the shopkeeper appeared out from behind the stand. She looked like in her early 30's, with a long, wavy, light gray hair.

"Oh, what do we have here. Such nice young couple." She said with a smile on her face.

COUPLE? The same words rang through the so-called couple heads, making they blush in the process.

"N-No, no, w-we're not g-going out o-or anything." Akihisa answered, stuttering. Mizuki just looked down, trying to hide her blushing face.

"Eh? Really? Aw, that's dissapointing. You two make such a cute couple, you know."

That words just made their face boiling red. As for Mizuki, smokes appeared to have emitted from her ears due to her blushing.

"H-Himeji-san, I'll go see other stands, o-okay?"

"O-Okay."

They just couldn't handle embarassement very well, seeing from their stuttering words.

"So, have you found something you like?" The shopkeeper lady asked.

"Well, I still don't see something eye-" her sentence stopped when she noticed something that caught her attention. She then moved toward that thing and picked it up. It was a silver bracelet with a golden brown pattern on it, and a light brown orb hanging on it.

"Beautiful.." she muttered to herself. And the color somehow...reminds me of Akihisa-kun...

"Oh, does that thing caught your attention?" asked the shopkeeper lady. Mizuki nodded in reply.

"Then that bracelet must have remind you of someone important for you, right? Let me guess...that young boy from before, perhaps?"

A slight tint of red emitted from her cheeks. Eh? H-how did she know? "Hwa?" She lifted her head to see the shopkeeper lady. She just didn't know how to respond with words, too shocked from having her mind read by someone else.

"Oh, you don't need to be surprised like that. That is clearly shown on your face back when you're blushing from being thought as a couple, you know. Oh, maybe you should check the shelf name."

"Shelf name?" Dumbfounded, she stood up a bit to read the label the lady was pointing. "The...Reminders?"

"Yup. Just like it's name suggest, everything there somehow always reminded us of the person that we care the most. A lot of my previous customers also had similar reactions to yours. And it seems like that bracelet just remind you of someone, judging from how you reacted upon noticing that bracelet."

The person..that we care the most, eh? She nodded again to the lady. She brought the bracelet to her face, and smiled at that bracelet. "So, how much this bracelet cost, 'mam?"

"Oh, that one's free. You can take it."

"Eh? Really?"

"As far as I remember, that bracelet had been lying there since the time I opened my shop here. And I couldn't even tell anymore if the brown on it is it's original colour or rust. Also, I don't think that someone other than you would buy it anytime soon."

"B-but.."

"Don't worry, I don't think that is much of a loss."

"I-If you said so, then I'll take this one. Thank you very much, 'mam." She bowed to the lady, just as polite as ever. "I'll be going then." She turned around and waved at the lady.

The lady waved back at her. "Remember, you two make such cute couple!" She could saw Mizuki blushed from the distance before she finally dissapeared among the crowd.

Not long after that, a small girl holding a teddy bear come from inside the house. "Mom, isn't that the bracelet that daddy gave you before he died?"

The lady patted her daughter's head. "Sweetie, you know the bracelet that your dad gave to me, right?

"Uh-huh."

"That bracelet turns out to have a charm in it. It is believed to give the holder a good luck in love. I let her take that because I think she will needed that charm."

"I don't get it, Mommy."

"Hihi." She giggled at her daughter. "Don't worry too much about it. You will understand that once you grow up."

"Okay." She walked back to the house.

Meanwhile, let's move back to Akihisa.

"Um..."

He looked around to see something that he notice.

"Uh..."

Which he failed miserably.

"...Where the hell am I?"

He was officialy lost.

It was not like he had a bad sense of direction. But all this time he relied on his pure luck to choose which route he should take. Maybe he didn't realize how unlucky he is.

"Gah, I should've taken a map along with me!"

Now, since he was lost in a strangers village, he could only walked around randomly until he found one of his friends. While he was walking with no direction at all, he just realized how peaceful the village was. Everyone, both villagers and tourists, seemed to be enjoying themselves to their fullest.

But that was before he hitted somebody.

"Ahh!"

"Ah, sorry 'mam. My mista-wait." He stopped talking as he saw the face of the person he crashed into. "Himeji-san?"

"Akihisa-kun! Oh, it really is you! I'm very worried about you!" She unconsciously jumped at him, embracing him into a hug while making him fell in the process, which not only caused him to blushed, but also attracting some attention from the pedestrians "Hi-Himeji-san?"

"Just where have you been, Akihisa-kun? I just couldn't find you anywhere! I'm very worried!"

He didn't make any response, but instead he was digesting what she just said, word by word.

That's strange..she seemed to be bit too...talkative. And a bit hysterical too, which is just not like her.

"Akihisa-kun? Is there something wrong?" She noticed him staring at her.

"Ah, no, it was just that-" He then realized something. Her face was bright red.

He then examine her body to find something suspicious. This time, he found something on her hand. "Himeji-san, can I take look at that paper cup in your hand?"

"Of course. Here." She handed him the paper cup she was holding. He immidiately sniffed the cup, and noticed a very familiar scent from the paper cup.

"Himeji-san, what did you drink before I crashed into you?"

"Just an orange juice from the drunken old guy from the sake stand that I visited before."

That expalined all of her weird behaviour. Sake is similar to orange juice in terms of colour. The old guy probably mistook the sake for orange juice and offered it to Himeji-san, which has a surprisingly low alchohol tolerance. And do not forget that the old guy is also drunk. He possibly mistook the sake for orange juice.

"Himeji-san, you've just drink a cup of sake."

"What are you talking about, Akihisa-kun? That clearly was orange juice."

"No, you are wrong. That was a cup of sake."

"That was not a sake, Akihisa-kun."

"It was a sake."

"No, it wasn't."

"Yes, it w-"

"Do I need to repeat myself, Akihisa-kun?"

"No, 'mam."

The drunken Himeji-san is the last person he would want to talk or a have an argument with. The drunken Himeji-san is not only more arrogant, but also more persistent, less caring and has no common sense at all. And to top it of, somehow, she won't stop smiling as she talks, whatever the subject is, which make her even...scarier.

"So, Akihisa-kun." She said as she dusted her clothes.

"Y-yes?"

She lifted his arm up, and then, for who-knows-why reason, she immidiately locked their arms together, making them looked like what the commoners nowadays call "Couple".

"Shall we started walking around again?"

"Okay, but d-do we have to walk around.." he pointed his arm that was locked into hers. "...like this?"

"There's nothing wrong with us walking together like this, right?"

"Well, this is just kind of-"

"Or maybe.." she looked away from him for a moment before turning back to face him. "...you don't like it when you do this with me?"

Gah! It's cute girl's secret weapon: Puppy dog eyes! It was really not like you to go even this far, Himeji-san! You are completely drunk!

"Ah, nonononononono! I-it's definitely not like that! I didn't trying to say that I hate your idea of walking together like this!"

"Then there's no problem if we walk like this, right?" She switched back to her 'happy-go-lucky drunken girl' face.

I would be very inhumane if I could still say no after I saw that face of yours before...

He gave up trying to get her off of him, and just let her to do what she wanted to, which was the best thing he could do to handle her when she's drunk.

But I didn't said that I'm not enjoying this, did I?

"Huh, finally I could give some rest to my tired legs. It feels like they will come off anytime now." He said as he slumped down to the nearby bench, with the pink-haired girl in his arms, sleeping soundly.

He turned his head a bit, looking to the girl at his side. He blushed a bit seeing the situation he's in. There's no doubt that people will think of us as a couple if they saw us like this. Good thing minami isn't here to see this, unless I would've been dea-

"AAAAAAAKIIIIIIIIIII!"

Maybe I spoke a bit too soon.

As he said that, he was sent flying by the truly-deadly-and-painful-but-somehow-won't-kill-you-and-could-sent-you-flying-without-making-the-girl-besides-you-moved-an-inch kick.

And as he landed, he scraped the ground for quite a distance.

See? I spoke too soon alright.

"That's as far as I let you go, sir. I left you for not even a hour and you already doing something indecent to Mizuki?"

"Did my face looked like I'm doing something indecent to her?"

"You blushed while having your arms locked in hers. That's enough reason for me to beat you to death." Minami took out her cellphone from her pocket, and phoned someone.

"Hello? Yes, it's Minami. That's right, this idiot was about to do something indecent to Mizuki. Good thing I stopped him before he acts. Now, I'll need your help to punish this idiot." She finished her call and put her cellphone back to where it was.

"Did you call something like SWAT to punish me?"

"SWAT? No, I won't be that hard on you..."

Seconds later, a helicopter came hovering right above them. There seems to be some people in cloth covering their whole body, readying themselves to jump from the helicopter.

"...I just called for the FFF."

Maybe my life ends here...today is what Akihisa had in mind before the FFF rushed at him mercilessly.

Pretty much a hangover, huh? Just how much I love hangover :

Stay tuned for future updates!

~Bastion~