Kyoko grinned and pulled at Yukio’s hand. “We’re early, and she might be late. Wait?”

Yukio shook his head. “Let’s see if they’re already up by the shrine. Man, I’m freezing my butt off.”

While Kyoko wasn’t entirely convinced, there was the chance that Kuri-chan had opted to climb the stairs and wait for them with something to eat or drink in her hands. Looking up the stairs Kyoko observed how they’d be over and done with the harsh climbing once up there. If worst came to worst they could always send Kuri-chan a call. The last thought made her mind up, and Kyoko followed Yukio up to the shrine.

There were quite a few stalls there. Nothing like the main temples and shrines, but still enough to make everything look festive. January second also meant there were a lot of people on their first visit for the year, and a lot of people meant that when Kyoko finally remembered to call Kuri-chan she found out much too late that her phone had next to no signal.

I’ll call her in a moment, Kyoko thought when Yukio offered her some amazake. Then the warmth of the drink and Yukio being close to her made that moment into two, and a hot bite of Yukio’s food took another several moments. Before she knew it half an hour had passed since they were supposed to meet.

“Kyoko! Kuri!” Yukio said just as she frantically dug for her phone in her pockets.

Where? Kyoko looked around, but she didn’t see nothing like the unmistakable blond sunshine anywhere.

“No, I mean she should be here,” Yukio said.

Kyoko’s phone still refused to connect to any network. “No, we should have been there,” she responded and pointed in the direction of the stairs.

Yukio had the decency to look ashamed when he grabbed his phone and made the call. Apparently he had better luck with his connection. He glued the phone to the side of his face and stared into the air.

No! Kyoko shook her head when she noticed how he just continued staring into the skies without talking. Kuri-chan’s phone is out. Kyoko grimaced when Yukio finally gave up and gave his phone an angry glare.

“Message her so she knows we tried?” Kyoko said.

She didn’t need to. Yukio’s fingers already stabbed furiously into his screen.

At a lack for anything else to do Kyoko stared at the crowd around them. Hatsumode made itself reminded in the clothing. While she and Yukio wore normal clothes there were a lot of kimonos here, and it being hatsumode several men wore them as well.

“Sent,” Yukio said and turned her attention to him again. “Urufu and Noriko are here as well, together with Ryu,” he added.

Kyoko grimaced again. Well, they were supposed to celebrate together this time, so she couldn’t really complain about Ryu coming with his sister rather than his girlfriend. She just didn’t have to be happy about it. Noriko and Urufu didn’t get anywhere near enough alone time.

Yukio must have noticed that grimace, because he suddenly hugged her. “They’ll be fine,” he said, and Kyoko understood that ‘they’ meant Noriko and Urufu. “I still want to get in touch with Kuri though.”

Just as he said that Kyoko saw Tomasu and Jeniferu in the crowd and waved to them.

“Haven’t seen you since Christmas, how are you doing,” Kyoko said, but she hoped Jeniferu wouldn’t answer how she really felt.

Jeniferu’s face split up in a smile that almost reached her eyes. “It’s super! I never got to do this last year.”

I don’t know if you’re pretending to have fun or if you’re trying to. It really didn’t matter, did it. If fun was the game of the day… “Heard anything from Noriko?” Kyoko said.

Tomasu looked at Jeniferu, and she looked back at him. Then both of them broke down in laughter. This time her grin reached all the way to her eyes.

What?

“Yep, she’s not in the toilet.”

“She’s not what?”

Jeniferu struck the back of her hand to her forehead and stared skywards. “How thoughtless of us! How could we possibly forget...” and she bent double laughing again.

Around them people stared at the two wheezing teenagers.

“Seems Christina called her, and, and, and...” Tomasu said between laughing fits.

“So Noriko got real pissed off when her bro didn’t leave ahead to meet Christina.” Jeniferu stood straight again and wiped hair from her face.

“And I don’t know exactly what happened, because I spoke with Ulf about it, and he just went: bloody idiot, suits you you dickhead, why don’t you spend all of hatsumode there, and so on.”

Kyoko stared at both of them. They stood hugging each other, more for support than to show any affection, because both still shook with silent mirth. It’s good to see that smile on you again. I’ve missed it. Whatever happened it was worth it.

Yukio must have used the comedy stunt to buy drinks, because Kyoko felt his arm on hers, and then a bottle showed up in her hand. He promptly gave Jeniferu and Tomasu one each, twisted the plastic cap off his own, pushed the glass marble back into the bottle and emptied his Ramune in one go.

“I never learned how to open one of these,” Tomasu said when he was alone with an unopened bottle in his hand and both Kyoko and Jeniferu greedily followed Yukio’s example.

When Yukio tried to help him Jeniferu growled. “My boyfriend,” she said and pushed Yukio’s hands aside. She gave Tomasu a good stare and took the bottle from his hand. Very slowly she removed the plastic so he could see, popped the centre of the cap out and demonstratively placed it on top of the marble. “Thomas, you do the pushing.”

His face lit up. “Ah, that’s why the damn cap is there!” With a huge grin he pressed, and when the marble dropped into the bottle he grinned as if he had just invented the wheel. “Super, Jennifer!”

“OK, that’s the bribe. Now spill it, man. What about that toilet?”

“Oh,” Tomasu said, “Noriko’s not in it,” he added helpfully.

“The three of them arrived at some station earlier, and Ryu had pressing needs...” Jeniferu began.

“and we expect Noriko and Ulf to show up here any minute now,” Tomasu filled in.

“Eh, man, what about Ryu?” Yukio asked, but by then Kyoko had already doubled over in laughter of her own.

“They left him inside?” she guessed.

***

Not funny you two!

Ryu grimaced. At least he knew what shrine they were supposed to visit.

He spent the better part of a half hour searching for his sister and Urufu after he was done in the men’s restroom. Twenty minutes it took before he was struck by understanding and made for the next train.

Not funny at all!

He kept swearing silently and downed the last of his coke before discarding the bottle in a recycling can.

The train arrived with a thunder and he entered. A little less than ten minutes later he left and stretched put his legs to make up for some of the time he had lost. Walking at a brisk pace was something he was better at than his sister. Her short legs simply didn’t allow her to keep up any tempo at all.

Sometimes Ryu wondered how Urufu could stand her snail’s pace when the two of them were together. That made Ryu recall the part about the two of them together, and his thoughts soured again. It wasn’t as if he disliked Urufu, not really. In fact Ryu considered him one of his best friends, but him and sis together. Well, it just wasn’t right.

Ryu also knew he needed to be more subtle about his disruptions in the future. That Yukio and Kyoko would follow up on their threat he didn’t doubt in the least. That would be bad, but not fatal. Kuri dropping him like a hot potato, however, would be. There was also, Ryu understood, the risk of Noriko, with the help of their mother, cutting all ties with him as well. He couldn’t chance breaking up their family, because family was all the home he knew.

He swung back and forth to the rhythm of the train, and as they closed in on their destination the number of kimono gradually increased just to suddenly vacate the train all at once; Ryu one of of them but sans the kimono. Their family might be old money, but he wasn’t enough of an Edo era remnant to wear a kimono of his own.

He followed the sea of people all walking in one direction, and when the crowd split up Ryu just followed the greatest concentration of traditional Japanese clothing. He overtook most of them and caught up with the ones ahead.

The street he walked slowly sloped uphill, and he soon got warm and a little sweaty, which wasn’t anything a vending machine couldn’t help. A can of coke later he felt ready to defeat the slope at a good pace.

Ahead of him the shrine area loomed, and a last push up the brutal stairs had him in a crowded place flanked by stalls, and somewhere here the others were bound to be. If only his phone could connect to the network he’d find them in no time at all. As it was he had to search for them the old fashioned way.

Searching for friends was thirsty work, but some amazake and a cup of hot tea solved that problem. Worse was that he had no luck finding his friends. He walked from stall to stall, and once he even waited by the shrine to see if anyone he knew would show up to offer their prayers.

In the end he gave up looking for the dead giveaway tall blond in the crowd. Had Kuri been here he’d have seen her by this time. Or rather, when his phone finally connected to the network he promptly called her.

“Christina,” she answered with the muted sound of a driving car in the background.

“Where are you?” Ryu wondered.

“Driving.”

You don’t say. He shook his head. “I’m at the shrine now.”

“Could you please tell the others we’re a little late.”

We? Ryu looked around. He couldn’t. “I seem to have misplaced them,” he tried.

“Misplaced?” There was something off with Kuri’s voice. Ryu could have sworn he heard muffled laughter.

“They aren’t near enough for me to tell them,” he said instead of explaining what had happened.

This time he was certain he heard a guffaw.

“We’ll be there in fifteen minutes or so. Would you wait for me?”

Would he wait for her? She was his girlfriend. Of course he would. He nodded until he realised she could hardly hear him nodding in the phone. “Sure.”

“You’re a sweetie,” Kuri said and closed the call.

Ryu stared at the phone. She still hadn’t explained the part about ‘we’, but he guessed he’d know soon enough.

A cold wind reminded him that fifteen minutes standing still would be fifteen very uncomfortable minutes, so he shuffled in the direction of the nearest stall serving amazake. On his way he managed to buy something warm to eat as well. It went down his stomach in no time at all, and Ryu swore a little as he glanced at the long queue where he had just bought his food.

He had just managed to buy and drink his amazake when he finally recognised Urufu and Tomasu chatting with each other a bit away. With hurried steps Ryu closed in on them, and when he caught up he saw his sister sharing a conversation with Jeniferu. Yet another stall away Yukio showed Kyoko something; a prospective gift most likely if Ryu guessed right.

“Sis!”

There was no reaction.

“Noriko!”

This time there was one. “Ryu, you took your time.”

Urufu turned his back to him, and so did Tomasu. Ryu swore both were grinning.

I got caught up,” Ryu said in an attempt to salvage a little of his pride.

“Caught up?”

“Well,” thinking of what had happened combined with the biting cold and the warm amazake he had just drunk suggested a pressing need. It wasn’t just a mug of amazake Ryu realised. “Guys, please wait for me!”

There was a queue, but it wasn’t horribly wrong, and Ryu soon came back, a lighter and relieved man.

Not funny you guys! Not funny at all!