August 5: Candy Wars
#14 of Morenatsu: My Summer Days in Minasato
Okay, only two-thirds of this story followed the original scenario as the rest was already following a different scenario. But that aside, it also links to another scenario which, in the VN, was days later in another route. Since said scenarios don't impact the story much, combining them would be better to save some time :P
Anyway, here Hiro pays a visit to the candy store (again; I already know Minasato's small but how small is it exactly?) and meets with Kouya, Kyouji, and Kounosuke (veterans, you know what happens next). Hiro spots some umaibou and the three push him to make a choice on three flavors (IMO though he could've taken a fourth option just to rub it in their faces)
Clouds were scattered around the sky this morning which made the day's weather less hellish. Well, for me at least. Finished with all my morning chores, I made my way to the old candy store to see whoever was around. True to the image of a summer break, kids were coming and going around the place with bottles of Ramune, popsicles, and even gashapon capsules. It reminded me of the time in third grade where me and Tora fought over a rare toy I got from the gashapon machine. I had to give up said toy back then when the little tiger started bawling until snot came out of his nose. Man, if only I had a picture of his face!
Another flashback aside, I went closer to the store and saw Kouya, Kyouji-san, and Kounosuke sitting on the bench. Guess they still kept the old tradition alive after all these years. The four of us exchanged greetings and had a bit of chatter, Kyouji-san remarking that us being there was kind of making the store unapproachable for kids, seeing as we were the only "adults" in the place.
Kounosuke shrugged. "I blame Kouya."
"And why me?" Kouya asked with a knit brow.
"Well, you always have this look on you." The tanuki tried to make an impression of Kouya's look. "It's like you're about to murder someone. All the kids might as well scream 'It's the Big Bad Wolf!'"
Kouya shot a menacing glare at him. "First, I'm a husky. Get it right. Second, you want me to shove my foot up your ass, Kuri?"
Kyouji-san had to break up the two, looking at them with opened eyes. "Now, now. We don't want to become an inconvenience to the owner and scare more kids away, do we?"
"N-No..." Kounosuke and Kouya answered, visibly shivering.
We went into the store and broke off, each one of us looking at a different shelf. From chocolates to candy imitating actual food, the lineup was mostly the same as it was back then. Even the small purple basket for the imported candies that changed every month was still there. I reckon Shin-kun would've taken a lot of it if he was here. Then, under the counter near the cash register, I found it. One of my favorites: umaibou. Those four inches of puffed corn goodness were something I've never had in a long while, nor have even bothered buying while I was in the city. And for ten yen per stick, I could buy a whole bag and share it with everyone or - my favorite thing to do - hog it all to myself.
"So, which flavor...?" I thought.
And that was when the three stood next to me.
"It's gotta be salad," Kounosuke said.
"No, it should be cheese," Kyouji-san said.
Kouya grinned. "What are you talking about? Gotta be takoyaki."
"O... kay? That was surprising."
I failed to notice that the three were approaching me while I was thinking of a flavor to get. Maybe it was just me getting too used to the city, but ever since my arrival here I've been failing to notice people approaching me.
Kyouji-san chuckled. "You've been tamed by the concrete jungle, Hiroyuki."
"And you used to be the champ at hide-and-seek too," Kounosuke said, putting his hand on his forehead.
Kouya nodded. "You're not even a shadow of who you used to be, huh..."
"That's not the issue here! Alright fine! Want me to pick a flavor? I'm getting..." I could feel the aura of anticipation coming from them. "... Salad."
And out of nowhere after that, Kounosuke gave me a thumbs-up. Kyouji-san on the other hand, was visibly frowning, and Kouya just had a look of disappointment on him. Weird, but their reactions were enough to tip me off that something was going on between them.
"Alright, spill it. What's going on?"
With that familiar mischievous grin, Kounosuke puffed his chest and spoke. Apparently, the three had a bet on what flavor I was going to pick. The winner would then be treated to a bottle of soda by the losers, which the tanuki received just when he was done talking. Gambling over food was something I didn't like, but seeing as the two of us got free soda for it, I let this one slide.
On one bench, me and Kounosuke ate our salad-flavored umaibou while Kouya and Kyouji-san sat on another, their shoulders still hanging low in defeat while eating their chosen flavors. Just to cheer the two dogs up, I bought them small bags of chocolate candies, two for Kyouji-san as I had a feeling Tarou-kun would want some too.
Kouya took a piece from his bag. "How can you be sure Kyouji won't eat it all?"
"Because I need to watch my weight for the coming game," Kyouji said. "Having small treats like this is fine, but not too much."
"Yeah! Or you might end up like Juuichi-san!" Kounosuke remarked, standing next to me.
I ruffled the tanuki's hair. "Kounosuke, let's take it easy on the jabs okay?"
"Okay, okay! Sheesh..."
After our round of fun, Kyouji and Kouya left for their own business for today. I accompanied Kounosuke around town because he wanted to look and probably buy some stuff. Our stop was the crafts store, where he was looking at some photo albums. After a while he grabbed two: one with a marine-colored cover and the other sunset orange. Now I already knew the guy was into taking pictures and all that stuff, so it wasn't something out of the ordinary. What was weird though was that he bought two albums. Did the guy take that much pictures to need two?
"Isn't one enough?" I asked.
The tanuki grabbed some money from his wallet. "Hey, you don't know when you'll need another. Hold on, so that's 1000 yen per album, right?"
"Yep," the old clerk said.
Not bothering to question his motivations, I shrugged off the matter and let it be. Then again, I have heard of some people doing albums with pictures relating to a theme, so maybe that was what he was needing them for. Speaking of which, I haven't seen any of the photos that he took yet.
"Can I crash later at your house?" I asked. "I still haven't seen anything that you took. Mind showing me some?"
Kounosuke dropped his change. "Y-You mean today? But... why?"
"Well, why not? Wait! Don't tell me, are your photos..."
With his face bright red, he raised his fists at me. "Don't get any weird ideas! Jeez, Hiroyuki! I'm not that insane."
"Sorry," I said, putting my hands together. "But why don't you wanna show them?"
He fidgeted. "Well, that's, you know, I don't feel like showing them right now."
"Aw, come on! Promise I won't laugh. I mean, not like there's anything embarrassing in there."
After the clerk called Kounosuke and gave him the bag containing the albums, we went out of the crafts store while explaining himself. He didn't want to show the photos he had back home because he felt some weren't good enough. Some of his old photos, ones he swore to himself to never show to anyone, got mixed with the new ones, which further fueled his resolve to not show them. But knowing him, there was one way he could be persuaded.
"I'll treat you to shaved ice for a week. How about it?"
His ears perked up. That meant my words got through to him. From a distance, it seemed like nothing was happening but from here, I could see Kounosuke's hands trembling, one clutching the bag tight. When it came to having him do stuff for us, sometimes the way to have him do it was to give him a thing he had never seen before. If that failed, we resorted to treating the guy to food. I heard a sigh come from him, which pretty much meant that even now, that method still worked.
"Fine, you win," he said. "But you better not laugh or that'll be two weeks."
Feeling the wallet in my pocket at the thought of it, I nodded quickly. As much as I'm dying to see Kounosuke's pictures, it's not worth losing any more money I have for the summer. But just as we were heading home, we caught sight of a familiar black cat wandering along the stores of the district. Without hesitation, we ran and called for him.
"Shin-kuuuun!"