"One takoyaki coming right up!"

"Whose idea was it to have goldfish scooping near the 'Bobbing for Apples' stall?"

"I got dibs on the big one!"

"Alright, you're out of shots. Now put the gun down."

"Mommy, can we get some cotton candy?"

It's no surprise that the Rebirth Festival is already in full swing by the time the girls and I put away our instruments. Wouldn't hurt to look around while Sueka's changing back into her usual attire. The Rebirth Festival's lineup of stalls, much like its architectural structure, is a blend of First Age Asian, English, and some American attractions. I just wish some of these stalls didn't require money, considering we really don't use it, but you can't have everything be free for a whole day, I suppose. All things in moderation.

(Wonder which attraction I should check out first?)

"Hey, Oren!"

I turn around to see Tony dodging his way through the crowd to get to me. Judging by his attire, he was handling the temple's Taiko drums.

"I thought you said you were taking the year off from Taiko?" I shout back to him.

"Hehe. Short staff. We've got more visitors than usual."

"Tell me about it."

Tony then grabs my right hand and puts some Mesure in it.

"Thanks for working overtime, my friend," he says, smiling.

"No problem."

"Still, why the need for money?"

I look at his face for a little bit, then smile. "That's a secret."

I can tell that my response puzzles him. I have to say, animal tones are pretty easy to tease.

"A-Anyway," he continues, "You going to check out the sumo matches?"

"Not interested this year. Sure, not having Doryoko participate means the others actually have a sporting chance, but I don't really have anybody to..."

"How about rooting for me then?"

"Seriously? You just recovered from our battle!"

"Trust me, I'm fine."

."..Don't push yourself, alright? It's back to work tomorrow."

"Yeah. Yeah."

The two of us smile, exchange a handshake, and part ways through the crowd.

"What was that about?" Asks a familiar voice.

"Oh? Mydrea-sama! How are y...!"

Turning in her direction, I see her wearing a red kimono decorated with a motif of shoubu iris flowers. Honestly, it complements her hair quite nicely. Considering how angry she was earlier, I find it hard to believe this is the same girl as before.

"Wh-What're you staring at!?!?" she says belligerently, crossing her arms to hide her chest.

In response, all I do is give a thumbs up with both hands and say, in First Age English, "It's Oren approved!"

(Baka...) she thinks.

In one hand, she is clutching the drawing. Still no luck after five hours to look...

"No luck?"

She looks at me with suspicion, but, after a few seconds, she turns her head away from my face and nods.

"BROTHER!?!?!?!?"

?

"Over here, Sueka!" I yell, waving my right hand.

I keep waving, but, suddenly, I lose sight of her in the crowd. I jump slightly to look over the crowd, trying to look past a large group of foreigners.

"Nyaaaaaaa...."

I look down at my feet and see a pink-haired cat rubbing itself against my leg.

"Hey, sis." I say, grinning at the cat.

Sueka looks up and, after taking a few steps back, transforms back into her human form. Sueka's subtone, the First Age "domesticated farm" subtone, allows her to take the forms of any livestock and other domesticated animals raised on any farm over the course of First Age history. Unlike Tony's subtone, Sueka's gives her a large number of transformation options.

"Hope you weren't waiting long!"

"No worries. I'm good. Anyway, Mydrea-s..."

I turn back, and I see her eyeing Sueka intently, slightly squinting her eyes. What's with her?

"Anyway, how did I do?"

"Outstanding, sis." I say petting her on the head. Kind of weird considering we're the same height, but still... Whoops!

"Hey...sis? Your tail?"

Hearing this, Sueka twists around to see her cat tail lifting part of her cheongsam in the back. I pray she isn't wearing anything revealing down there, like last time!

"Oops! Sorry!" she whispers, blushing and retracting her tail. As I look behind her, it seems a few people got a...glimpse.

"You guys didn't see anything!" I say pointing at them. Although they continue to look wide eyed in my sister's direction, they just nod and walk past. I look back towards Mydrea-sama, and she still seems to stare at Sueka the same way.

"I'm sorry about that, Mydrea-sama," I say to her.

"Kawaii..." she says under her breath.

"Hm?"

"Oh...OH! Nothing! Nothing at all!" she says shaking her head and blushing.

(So obvious...)

"Oh, hey, Sueka! Have you seen the girl in Mydrea-sama's drawing?"

"Un dibujo? Lemee see! Lemee see!," Sueka replies, with her usual childlike enthusiasm. She grabs the drawing from Mydrea-sama's hand and inspects it.

"She's pretty! Never seen her!"

"Pity..." I say.

Sueka shoves the drawing into Mydrea-sama's hand.

"You should enjoy yourself! Come on, let me show you around! I know the best places!"

"I'm sorry, but I don't have the..."

"Come on, pretty please!! I'll be your best friend!"

Mydrea-sama looks past Sueka towards me. All I can do is shrug and shake my head. When Sueka gets like this, you'll almost never get away. Mydrea-sama continues to look in my direction, so I assume from her reaction that she saw a few individuals that she is well acquainted with. I turn around and see a tall androgynous figure and a muscular one in the distance, both most likely foreigners, but that's about it.

"Something wrong?" I ask.

"Um...no. It's nothing. Still, I have to..."

"Wonderful!" Sueka says.

"Eh?" exclaims Mydrea-sama.

"Eh?" I say as well.

"Come on, let's go!" says my sister, grabbing Mydrea-sama by the sleeve and pulling her through the crowd.

"Hey, wait a minute!"

(Good luck, Mydrea-sama. You're going to need it.) I think as I walk behind them.

Although she tries to resist at first, after visiting a few stalls, Mydrea-sama definitely begins to show interest in the festival. Turns out she hates water, but that's to be expected of a fire tone. She's terrible at goldfish scooping but perfect at the shooting game. She seems to get invigorated whenever she comes across anything cat related. Cat masks, cat keychains - the list of souvenirs she's bought goes on! She's also really good at arm wrestling, even against animal tones! Especially after someone makes a comment about her chest size... All the while, she's been asking me some of those personal questions again. As you'd expect, I respond with my usual "No comment" and "I don't know." Luckily, Sueka keeps her on her toes, so the questions are kept to a minimum.

"And here's my personal favorite!" says Sueka in her usual giddy voice. "The high striker!"

(Oh crap!)

"Hey sis! You remember what happened when you played that last year, right?"

"Don't worry, I'll be gentle!"

(Not only does that sound menacing, that's not the point!)

"Mydrea-sama, help me out here. ... Mydrea-sama? Mydrea-saaammmmaaaaaa???"

I look around for our companion, but she seems to have left the scene.

"Alright, here we.....!!!!!!"

(SHIT!!!)

"Sis! That's not a good...!!"

"GGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" she shouts, swinging the hammer down towards the high striker puck lever. BBBRRRIIINNNGGGGG!!!!!!!! And...there goes the bell...and the puck...just like last year... And they are rumored to rig this to be hard for animal tones, too... We spend a few minutes apologizing to the high striker maintainer. As usual, Sueka can't gauge her own strength. Still, she's always been like this. Out of our entire generation, Sueka is not only the strongest physically, she can reach what many locals her age consider to be "full power" without even using any rhime! Still, as one would expect, there is a tradeoff...

"Young lady," says the vendor, "That will be one week's worth of provisions as soon as the harvest begins."

Oh boy...a math question. I can already see the smoke coming from her ears again. Another mental overload. That's her greatest flaw...she also has the lowest IQ in the village, even by animal tone standards.

"Wht d'd I mssh?" I hear someone say behind me. I turn around, and there's Mydrea-sama with a candy apple in each hand and three more in her mouth.

"Not much, just an annual blunder."

"I said I was sorry!" Sueka whines, pouting.

"You know, you're only going to get stronger. Don't think you won't break it next year."

"Aaaaahhhhhh! But it's so fun!"

Saying this, she has that...dark look in her eyes.

"It's the one time I have an excuse to hit something really...reaaalllyyyyyy hard..."

I'm pretty sure that causes Mydrea-sama to stop eating for a split moment.

"But okay!" Sueka says, reverting back to her happier self, "I'll try to be more careful!"

(It's a good thing I like her for who she is, split personality and all.)

Mydrea-sama then shoves a candy apple in my face, gesturing for me to take it.

"Oh...thank you."

A good candy apple should calm me down. Nothing beats a sweet treat after a long day of..................................................................

"HHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

WHAT THE HELL!?!? I can literally see flames coming from my mouth. Come on, there's got to be....! THERE!!! I rush towards the stall running the "bobbing for apples" game, quickly pay the vendor, and dunk my head into the tub. Sssaaawwwaaaaaa.......... Much better. I lift my head from the tub with an apple in my mouth. Behind me, I hear the cheering of some of the children watching the spectacle. I'm pretty sure I also hear Sueka's hearty laugh, the one similar to that of Doryoko's. Story of my life...

"I'm sorry, wrong candy apple," Mydrea-sama remarks casually, barely apologizing.

I then get to my feet and walk back towards the girls with the apple I got still in my mouth. I turn my head and spit the apple in her direction. She easily catches it.

"I hate you..."

"Okay, so you don't like wasabi. I get it."

"WHO THE HELL PUTS WASABI ON A CANDY APPLE!?!?!?"

(And honestly, I didn't see any wasabi on it, either!)

"Mind if I have it?"

"Well, you already destroyed most of my taste buds. Go for it..."

Presently, she pulls out a...where the heck was she keeping that jar of liquid wasabi!?!? And she just dumps the apple right in as well! How much do you need!? After retrieving the apple from the jar, Mydrea grips the apple tightly, and her fire rhime begins to circle, causing the liquid wasabi to evaporate, showing the apple again as if nothing has happened.

"Nothing like fruit with the taste of wasabi burned into it."

"You don't eat out much, do you?"

"Having fun?" I hear a voice say.

I turn and...see a bull's face right in front of me!

"Gotcha!" the bull says.

"Haha, very funny, father..."

Doryoko then turns back into his human form at the front of what looks like a wagon full of harvest vegetables. I guess he's going to start with the shipments early this year.

"Having fun?"

"Aside from shaving a few years off my life, I'd say so."

"You're Doryoko Tsurai, correct?" Mydrea-sama asks.

"Yes. And you are?"

"Nobody you'd know, I just...hear your name occasionally where I come from. Your reputation precedes you."

(Reputation?) Sueka and I think simultaneously.

This statement causes Doryoko to eye Mydrea-sama suspiciously. It's not typical of him. After looking her over for a bit, he smiles faintly and asks, "Are you here sightseeing?"

"Sort of."

"Well, if you are, there's one place I'm sure you'd like to see. Oren? Sueka?"

"Yes?"

"Yes, father?"

"Could you please take her to our special family spot?"

"You sure?" I ask.

"I'm sure."

....

"Well, if you say so. This way, Mydrea-sama."

"Al-alright then."

Sueka and I start towards the southern exit of the forest, but Mydrea is stopped one last time by Doryoko.

"If you're with those I think you are, don't try anything funny."

....

"I gave up that life long ago, so don't get my children involved."

And with that, Doryoko reverts back into his bull form and leaves with the wagon. As he continues on his way, he passes by three foreigners walking together, Darius being one of them. A strong smell from two of them causes Doryoko to snort in disgust, but he shakes off the smell and continues his pace away from us.