Chapter 623: Festival Music and Night Stalls
The sound of the festival music—don-don-doon from the large drums and pee-hyararara from the flutes—irresistibly drew us into the world of the festival.
As the sun began to set and the twilight deepened, the glow of the paper lanterns created a fantastic, enchanting world.
The festival being held in the neighboring town, where my grandfather’s house is, was a typical local neighborhood festival, with stalls lining the area around a small Shinto shrine.
It wasn’t a massive event, but rather a community festival organized by the neighborhood association and local residents. A small stage, a yagura, was set up in the town square, where a spirited old man in a happi coat was beating a large drum.
My mother told me this festival wasn’t an ancient tradition but something that had been organized only in the past few years.
“Oh, this reminds me of the festivals in Eashen, for sure.”
“So, Eashen is a country similar to Japan, then.”
“That is right, Father-in-law. There are many similarities between Eashen and this country, for sure…”
Yae, walking ahead of us, was telling my father about Eashen. It’s a country that blends elements of the Sengoku and Edo periods, I mused.
“Ah, they’re selling balloons!”
“Hmm?”
Frei looked toward a shallow tank placed among the stalls.
I thought they were simply selling balloons, but it was actually a Yo-Yo fishing game. Wow, they still have this, I thought.
Inside the tank were many small, brightly colored water balloons. These are the Mizu-Yo-Yo or Yo-Yo Balloons. A rubber string with a loop was tied to each palm-sized water balloon.
“Want to try it?”
“Yep! I’m gonna do it!”
“Ah! Me too!”
“And me, Steph!”
Not just Frei, but also Linne and Steph, who had been watching the Yo-Yo fishing with keen interest, responded to my mother’s suggestion.
My mother paid the money, and the owner gave the girls a hook attached to a paper string, or koyori. The goal is to hook the rubber loop on the water balloon and lift it out.
“Got it, ah!?”
The moment Linne lifted a water balloon, the thin paper string broke, and the balloon plopped back into the water. Yep, that happens all the time.
I shared a little tip with Linne that I had learned from my grandfather.
“Try to lift it without getting the paper string too wet. Hook the rubber string, and follow it up to the loop. It’s also better to hold the string near the base, not the tip, and keep a short grip.”
“Got it!”
My mother paid again, and I gave the hook with the new paper string to Linne. Before I knew it, the other girls, including Elze and Sue, had also started trying to catch yo-yos.
“I caught one!”
Frei, who had been listening to my advice, shouted as she pulled up an orange water yo-yo. Oh, she caught it.
“Can I keep going?”
“As long as the paper string doesn’t break.”
“I’m going to do it!”
In Yo-Yo fishing, you’re usually done if you fail once, but you can keep catching as many as you want as long as your paper string doesn’t break.
Frei eventually stopped after catching three water yo-yos and gave one to Steph, who hadn’t managed to catch any.
By the way, I showed them how to loop the rubber string around a finger and play with the yo-yo by throwing and retracting it, but Frei pulled too hard, the rubber snapped, and one yo-yo burst into a wet spot on the ground. That’s just part of the fun.
“Oh, look! They have cotton candy!”
Arcia eagerly noticed the cotton candy stall. My mother seemed surprised that her granddaughter from another world knew what cotton candy was.
“Cotton candy is sold at festivals in the future Brunhild, too. Father makes it using a magic appliance tool he invented.”
Oh, dear. It seems I invented a cotton candy magic appliance tool in the future.
Now that I think about it, Lucia and Yae were eating cotton candy at a school festival when we came to this Earth for our honeymoon. Maybe they pestered me into making one.
“But they didn’t have these colors, though. I see they have more than just white here.”
Ah… I must have made a simple one using only plain sugar.
I remember you can get colors like red, blue, and orange by using colored sugar. And look, some look like a rainbow.
My dad bought cotton candy for the children who wanted it. Kuon, Yakumo, and Quun weren’t interested. In their place, though, Sue and Sakura got some.
…Something has been bothering me for a while: the people around us are glancing over here.
Well, it would be weird if a group with this many children didn’t draw attention.
Plus, when nine adorable girls are walking around in yukata—yes, they definitely stand out.
They’re all my wives, though!
“What’s wrong, Touya-san?”
“Sorry, I was just boasting in my mind.”
“Boasting…?”
Yumina tilted her head with a puzzled look. Even that gesture is cute, my dear wife!
Hmm, seeing them in yukata definitely increases their charm rating. I need to be careful, or I’ll be overwhelmed. Though, being overwhelmed wouldn’t be a problem.
“Oh, they have a Shooting Game.”
I found the stall that you only see at festivals and felt a wave of inexplicable nostalgia.
At the back of the stall was a shelf lined with boxes of snacks and targets with numbers on them.
Small stacks of cheap gum and ramune soda were set up. The object is to knock them off the shelf with a cork bullet from a cork gun to win whatever falls.
If you knock down the numbered tags, you win the corresponding prize. Wow, they have a remote-controlled car and a large stuffed animal, too. …But the targets for the remote-controlled car and other big prizes are the size of a penny… They have absolutely no intention of letting people win those.
Well, those are probably just eye-catchers to lure in customers. There are no towers of snacks around the numbered tags, eliminating the chance that a wild shot will knock something else down.
“Hmm…”
As I was debating whether to try the shooting game, Quun suddenly stepped forward.
“How much is this?”
“It’s 100 yen for three shots.”
Quun took 100 yen from her purse, handed it to the owner, and received a cork gun and three cork bullets.
As I taught her, she pulled the lever back before setting the cork bullet into the muzzle. If you put the cork in before pulling the lever, the air is compressed less, and the power is weakened.
Quun aimed the gun at the targets. She was aiming for Target number three. That’s the penny-sized one… Number three is… the remote-controlled car. I should have known.
The rules here seemed to allow you to lean over and shoot as long as one foot remained on the ground, but given the children’s height, they couldn’t lean out too far.
Quun placed her elbow on the stall’s counter, seeming to completely stabilize the gun.
“I may not be as good as Mother Yumina, but I am quite skilled with a gun.”
Gashapan! With the sound, a cork bullet flew out and missed the target for the remote-controlled car, flying off into a completely different direction. Huh?
Gashapan! Gashapan! The remaining bullets also missed without even grazing the target.
What happened to being skilled? Quun, whose hands were trembling as she held the gun, glared at the stall owner.
“Excuse me, Shopkeeper! What is the calibration on this gun like?! The bullets won’t fly straight at all!”
“Well, I don’t know what to tell ya…”
The old man running the stall gave a wry smile at the sudden complaint. There’s no “calibration” to speak of; you’re supposed to figure out how to shoot straight yourself. Besides, from the old man’s perspective, a perfectly adjusted gun would put him out of business.
Quun’s usual gun is adjusted for the ultimate precision.
“Nngh, Mother Yumina! Avenge me, please!”
“Oh…? Well, if you insist…”
Yumina paid 100 yen and received a cork gun and bullets. Pulling the lever down, she carefully loaded a cork bullet into the muzzle.
Unlike Quun, she had the height to lean over, but she began to aim with her elbow resting on the table, just like Quun.
Wait? Maybe she doesn’t know the rules. Or maybe she’s doing it to keep the gun perfectly still?
She aimed the muzzle at the remote-controlled car target. Gashapan! The fired bullet flew slightly off the mark. “Aww…” sounded the disappointed voices of everyone watching.
Yumina pulled the lever and loaded the bullet again.
“I’ll hit it this time.”
“Heh?”
The moment the shop owner let out a strange sound at Yumina‘s words, Gashapan! The bullet flew and knocked down Target number three perfectly.
“You did it! As expected of Mother Yumina!”
“No way…!”
The old shop owner stared blankly at the fallen target. Yumina must have figured out the gun’s idiosyncrasy with the first shot and then aimed and fired based on that for the second one.
I bet Yumina could now hit a bullseye with that gun every time. And she still had one bullet left…
Gashapan! This time, Target number one fell. Number one was… a portable game console. That’s the main prize. Sorry, old man. Well, she didn’t cheat.
We said goodbye to the crying-faced old man who handed over the remote-controlled car and the game console and left the shooting stall.
Yumina gave the remote-controlled car to Quun and the game console to Kuon.
Kuon tried to politely decline, saying, “No, I…”, but Yumina firmly pressed the game console into his hands.
“I know, you know? That Kuon was interested in that game where you can build various buildings and towns. Your mother sees everything.”
“Yes… Thank you…”
Kuon hugged the game console tightly. That game, is it the one called ‘The World’s Best-Selling Indie Game,’ where you can build things in a sandbox world?
I definitely remember seeing Kuon watching game streams of it online with interest. But…
“You can’t play without the software, though…”
“Well, you can download it from the device itself… I’ll buy the software with my credit card when we get back.”
My father to the rescue, as always. We’ll pay for it later.
Charging shouldn’t be a problem in the other world since the Doctors can manage the electricity somehow.
I apologize that he won’t be able to update to the newest version or play online competitive games… Wait, he can come back to Earth once a year when we return to the future, so he can do it then.
Honestly, knowing how dedicated Kuon is, I have a feeling he’ll create some incredible, god-tier architecture with that game… Well, as long as he enjoys it.
“Oh, yakisoba, for sure!”
“And they have takoyaki, too!”
The always-hungry duo of Yae and Frei rushed towards the food stalls. The other children, in turn, excitedly followed them.
Well, it is dinner time, and everyone must be hungry. I, for one, have been thinking about the okonomiyaki scent for a while.
Since there were plenty of benches and tables in the square below the shrine, we decided to take a break and eat here.
After getting some funds from my mother, the food procurement team of Yae and Frei merrily headed toward the stalls.
The rest of us sat down on the benches to rest. The children were munching on the cotton candy they had bought, but that wouldn’t fill them up.
“I hear a strange song.”
“Huh?”
I listened closely at Sakura‘s voice, and a folk song, or min’yō, accompanied by the drums, could be heard. It’s a Bon Odori (Bon Dance)… no, Bon is over, so it must be a Noryo Odori (Cooling-off Dance) song.
I’ve heard this before. These kinds of folk songs vary by region, but my parents’ hometown and this town aren’t far apart, so it’s probably the same one.
“That’s a song I’ve never heard before.”
“Yeah.”
Sakura nodded quietly at Yoshino’s comment, who was also listening intently.
Wait? Have I never played folk songs for them? I thought I played some enka (traditional ballads), but maybe not the folk songs.
To be honest, I barely know any myself. My grandfather didn’t listen to folk songs much either. I only know a few like the Soran Bushi or Aizu Bandai-san.
Sakura was listening intently to the folk song, and Yoshino’s fingers on the table were twitching rhythmically. She’s memorizing the pitch right now… She’ll probably play it as soon as we get home. And Sakura will likely sing along. Well, I’d certainly like to hear Yoshino’s performance and Sakura’s folk singing.
“We’re back, for sure!”
“We bought a lot of food!”
While the Noryo Odori song was playing, Yae and the others returned from the stalls. They bought quite a variety. Oh, the okonomiyaki is mine.
Takoyaki, yakisoba, okonomiyaki, candy apples (ringo-ame), candy strawberries (ichigo-ame), crepes, taiyaki, baby castella cakes, frankfurters, yakitori, fried chicken (karaage), twister fries… It looks like they bought as much as they could… Well, with this many people, it can’t be helped…
“Is it tasty, Fuyuka?”
“Yeth, yummy!”
Fuyuka was in a good mood after getting a crepe from my mother. The children mainly focused on sweet things like crepes and taiyaki. Yae and Frei, however, were primarily eating yakisoba and yakitori.
I, too, started eating my okonomiyaki. Hmm, if you ask if it’s incredibly delicious, I’d say not exactly, but there’s a strange sense of comfort in knowing, “Yes, this is how it tastes.” It’s decent.
Elna, sitting across from me, was crunching on a candy strawberry. Next to her, Elze was also crunching on a candy apple like her daughter, but soon started chomping and grinding the candy shell. Yep, candy apples tend to end up like that…
After finishing my okonomiyaki, I got a candy strawberry as a dessert. This one had three strawberries strung together like dango. The outside was sweet and crunchy, and the inside was soft and pleasantly tart. It tasted great, perhaps because it had been so long since I last had one.
With our stomachs full, we made another round of the night stalls.
The children looked interested in the Goldfish Scooping game, but since we couldn’t keep them here and taking them to the other world would present various problems, they agreed to give up on owning one.
However, since they were only allowed to scoop for fun, I let them try. When I told the stall owner we would release the caught goldfish, the kind man gave each of them two free scooping nets (poi).
The children had fun playing with the goldfish even after their nets broke. I should take a picture.
After everyone had caught at least one goldfish, we released them as promised and left the stall. That was quite entertaining. I imagine it was extremely annoying for the scooped goldfish, though.
Returning to the square, we saw people dancing in a circle around the yagura stage. People of all ages were dancing, but there were mostly children.
The movements to the festival music followed a set pattern and weren’t too difficult. Actually, I danced this when I was a kid…
“Daddy, can Steph dance, too!?”
“Uh, I think so… Can you dance?”
“I learned it!”
Steph took Sue’s hand and plunged into the dancing circle. She was mimicking the movements but was doing a decent job…
“I’m going to dance, too!”
“Mother, let’s go!”
Yoshino pulled Sakura’s hand, and Frei pulled Hildegard’s hand, and they entered the circle. While Sakura was fine, Hildegard looked flustered but danced as Frei told her to. Don’t push her too hard…
Hildegard isn’t very good at dancing. However, since it was a simple dance, she quickly mastered it using her high-level athletic ability.
Perhaps reassured by this, the other children, excluding Kuon, also started joining the dance, bringing their mothers with them. In Kuon’s case, he was pulled in by Alistella and Yumina.
“Aren’t you going to join them?”
“No, I have the important mission of filming, you see.”
I made a plausible excuse and snapped pictures of everyone dancing with my smartphone.
I’m bad at dancing and things like that… I was drilled in social dances as part of my kingly education in the other world, but I’m bad at what I’m bad at.
While taking pictures, I decided it would be better to switch to video recording.
Everyone dancing to the folk song and the rhythm of the drums looked happy. Hmm, maybe I should have danced too…
Finally satisfied, everyone returned from the circle. My father had bought ramune soda and was handing it out to everyone.
Yumina and the others looked confused by the ramune bottles. Ah, they don’t know how to open it.
I decided to show them. I took the ring off the ramune cap that my father gave me and slammed the tama-oshi cap down, popping the marble into the soda with a bam!
Suddenly, the ramune fizzed and sprayed out vigorously, soaking my hands. This always happens…
“It’s better not to use so much force. If you gently push it down like this, and keep pressing even after it drops… See?”
My father slowly pressed down on a ramune bottle placed on the bench and kept holding it down, so the contents didn’t spray out even after the marble fell. Hmph. Now I look like the bad example.
Everyone copied my father and managed to drop the marble without spraying soda.
Ramune requires a little trick to drink. If you’re careless, the marble will cap the bottle again.
I was careful and took a big gulp. Delicious. Ramune tastes basically the same as cider, but because it’s in this bottle, it’s ramune. It has a certain… charm. It’s the perfect drink for a festival.
“It’s about time to head home.”
My mother announced this while cradling Fuyuka, who was full and starting to doze off, nodding her head. Steph also looked like she was about to conk out.
They were dancing with all their might… Of course, they’d be tired and sleepy.
On the way back, Steph completely ran out of battery and fell asleep, so my father had to carry her on his back. Then Linne started to doze off, and Linze carried her. Next were Elna and Alistella, meaning all the younger kids, except for Kuon, were down for the count.
We opened a [Gate] in an unpopulated area and returned to my grandfather’s house.
I used [Levitation] to float the children, who were already sound asleep, and carried them to their futons.
“Good job.”
My mother said, pouring me a cup of roasted green tea (hōjicha). Ahh… it’s delicious.
I was supposed to be resting, but I ended up going to a crowded place again. Well, at least I rested during the day…
Our trip to Earth is already past the halfway point, but perhaps tomorrow, I can finally take it easy…
“Touya, about tomorrow…”
“…Where are we going?”
My hope for a relaxing day was immediately dashed by my mother. Please, just somewhere with few people, my mother.
“Shouldn’t you go and visit the grave once? You haven’t been in years, have you?”
“The grave? Ah, grandfather’s…”
The reason I haven’t been in years is that I’m supposed to be dead here, so I couldn’t.
A grave visit, huh… I should report on my wives and children to my grandfather…
“Hmm…”
“What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”
“No, I was just wondering if our thoughts would reach my grandfather’s soul or spirit.”
I think he’s probably been reincarnated by now. The souls of the dead are eventually cleansed of their memories and impurities of this world, becoming pure and innocent spirits that dwell in new life.
If the soul is damaged or eaten, like in the case of Undead, it breaks the cycle of reincarnation.
So, if my grandfather has been reincarnated, I think he’s living as a completely different person now.
Well, even if the person isn’t there, I believe a grave visit has meaning. Thinking of and remembering the deceased is something only the living can do, and the deceased can continue to exist in the hearts of those people. They say the real death is when you’re forgotten by people.
“Couldn’t you ask God to look for your father-in-law?”
“It’s not impossible, apparently, but it’s like trying to find a single diamond in the Sahara Desert. It might be possible if we expend an enormous amount of effort, but I can’t possibly ask for that.”
Souls from other worlds, not just Earth, flow into the heavens. We’re talking about tens of thousands, hundreds of millions, even trillions. I can’t ask them to find my grandfather among all that.
If he had any regrets in this life, he might have lingered in the present world, but my grandfather’s personality suggests he wouldn’t leave any regrets. If anything, he’s the kind of person who would quickly say, “Well, I died, so that’s that. On to the next life,” and be off to be reborn.
I’m pretty sure he’s not in the grave.
“Doesn’t he come back during the Bon Festival, or things like that?”
“He might stop by if he hasn’t been reincarnated.”
There are quite a few customs, not just Obon, but like the ‘Day of the Dead’ in Mexico, where the deceased return to this world. I believe Halloween was originally a similar event.
Perhaps he has been back a few times already.
A grave visit, huh…
It’s not Obon or his death anniversary, but there won’t be many people, so maybe we should go. The location isn’t far. I just hope it doesn’t rain…
