Golden Time:Volume5 Chapter1

Status: Incomplete

48% completed (estimated)

   

Golden Time 5: Chapter 1

Chapter 1

When Spring came to Tokyo, it came to Saitama too.

Right now, the ten other members of the youth group "The Law School Japanese Festival Culture Research Society"... alias "Omaken", were on the edge of a shopping district in the Saitama prefecture.

Indeed, they were in a very large parking lot owned by a sponsoring temple. They were gathered under one tent of several set up as if in a row in the corner, lined up with their necks outstretched in front of a single electric fan set standing there. They were hardly talking any more.

Now and then somebody would feebly murmur "the wind is whispering," and somebody else would, equally feebly, answer back as if on cue, "It's hot, too hot..." And when that happened, some people would simply laugh. Not knowing where they got it from and not having the energy to join in the mysterious byplay, Banri,

"Isn't Awa Odori something you do at night...? Why in this kind of heat...?"

Crouched down still, they pressed their cool upper arms against their flushed faces and muttered. When they closed their eyes, even their eyeballs had gone red: the heat had soaked through their eyelids.

Right behind Banri, seated loosely on a pipe chair, Kosshii-senpai,

"Thirty-eight degrees."

Was all he said.

"...Is it Panmunjom?

'The Military Demarcation Line?' thought Banri, shaking his head.

"Right now. It's thirty-eight degrees! The temperature. You aren't thinking."

He showed them the screen of the smart phone he held in his hand. It was showing the current temperature around the area, so it had to be 38 degrees Celsius. Ugh... Even Banri could manage nothing more than a low moan. Indeed, it seemed he would have been a lot better off with no clothes on the open air.

At length, they'd tied back their yukatas from their chests so the drops of sweat would go rolling down and falling off. Even though they hadn't even danced yet, Banri's entire body was quickly sopping wet with sweat. Along with all the rest of the guys, the color of the cloth on his back had changed from being wetted.

Saitama in mid-summer was too hot in general, and there was no real objection to calling it Hell. They were close to hitting record temperatures for all of Japan, and what's more, there was hardly a cloud in the sky. The address in Hell was probably Block #1, Red Hot. Now and then the wind blew, but it was no different from fanning oneself with a blow-dryer. Shining, burning brightly, as the afternoon drew on the sunlight becoming even more energetic, as if it were trying to burn everything living on the surface world to a crisp.

If he went even one step outside the shadow of this tent, he would surely be bathed in rays of strong, direct sunlight. And then his skin would probably be burnt to a crisp as if he'd been thrown on the stove. Before Banri changed his clothes, he'd smeared sunblock that Kouko had brought along all over his face and arms. This was sweat now. He noticed it had practically all dripped off.

Saying 'Let's put on some more,' he pulled out a plastic container from a rucksack set by his feet, and shook it vigorously up and down. Making a sound like a cheerful Mexican shaking maracas,

"What's that?"

Kosshii-senpai peered curiously over at Banri close at hand.

"It's sunblock. Senpai, how about you too?"

"Whaat? Sun block? No way, our freshmen have got that stuff on?"

He said 'You sissy～', while pointing and grinning at him, but Banri paid him no heed at all. Taking the white, fragrant liquid in his hand, he blended it in carefully around his cheekbones using his fingers. The bridge of his nose, his forehead, his chin, the nape of his neck, his upper chest. As Kouko had shown him, little by little, thoroughly rubbing it into his skin.

"I'm smearing it on. UV rays seem to be pretty bad news."

"Hahaa, sounds like something Robo-Girl would say. You've fallen completely under her influence."

"And isn't that all right? Sunlight like today's is rather incredible. It practically seems violent."

"Oh shut up, how's a real man going to notice sunburn?"

"Really, isn't is all right? Your skin cells, aren't they getting massacred? She said, 'Though the world says suntan, suntan so lightly, frankly, it's a burn! It damages your DNA! It's mass murder of your skin!'"

"You idiot, don't exaggerate. Everyone, even little brats, is used to getting sunburnt."

"Kouko's little brother forgot to wear a hat in Hawaii and it looks like honey dripped from the top of his head."

"...Honey...?"

"Yes. It seems to have been syrup that dripped from some useless guy."

"...Then, then just a little...?"

"Here you go, here you go!"

"Ah, really just a little, eh? Because a little's okay..."

"Well, you didn't tell me that! Oops, oops!"

"Ah, so much... it's already over there, and over there..."

"No, no senpai, let's put a little bit more! It looks like you ought to have a little bit on the back of your neck! And if I could, the top of your head too! Here, do like this... with this kind of feeling."

"Eh~, ...like this? Not like this? Won't this be enough?"

The two guys spread the milky sunblock lotion all over the centers of their faces with awkward, unfamiliar motions. Though anybody else doing this kind of thing would have acquired a rather feminine atmosphere to it, somehow both Banri and Kosshii-senpai just crossed their arms, chuckled and smiled in their embarrassment.

Incidentally, the Omaken girls were apparently still in their preparations in the temple's hall, as not one of them had appeared outside yet. Having been given only one room (without partitions) as space in which to get themselves ready, the guys had already changed (quickly) and were now wondering just how long the girls would take before giving up the room.

Thanks to that, they had lots of time during which they had to wait under the scorching heat of the blazing sun.

"Eh!? What's this? You guys are putting on makeup!?"

One of the third year seniors had noticed them smiling and smearing on the milky lotion. As he smiled back, Kosshii-senpai cocked his head,

"You got it wrong. I was just putting on some sunblock Tada Banri gave me."

"Oohh. You scared me. I was thinking you'd finally decided to be one of the 'Cats'."

The so-called "Cats" could be seen in another tent a little apart, their group encamped over there, as laid back as they themselves were.

In that group, not just the girls, but all of the guys too were painted all over with white-pink greasepaint like Kabuki actors. Highlights were drawn all along the bridges of their noses and on their eyelids with red and jet black eyeliner. There was even lame sparkling on their chests and the napes of their necks. Gathered here as they were, anybody passing by would say without thinking, "Aren't they cats...?" Even so, whether it was okay, or wandering towards the dark side, those members of Omaken who were participating for the first time weren't going to try and judge.

His cheeks gleaming a little, Kosshii-senpai spoke too.

"Of course, that sort of thing isn't each group's plan. But for now, we guys have gotten mixed up in some sort of makeup game."

Banri belonged to Omaken, but this time a few other local college clubs had asked to join with them to form a dance team, and it had turned out they would all participate in the Awa Odori sponsored by this shopping district.

There were in identical yukatas and brand new snow white rubber-soled tabi socks. On the light green cuffs there was a blue design as of running water. Diagonally across the back "Alliance of Tokyo Region Private University Awa Odori Clubs" was written in large letters. They boldly wore those with the hems tucked up, showing white, even bleached tight pants, and they all had the identical blue fans they'd been given. All that was left was to tie hand-towels around their heads and their preparations would be complete.

Incidentally, alone among the Okamen guys, Kosshii-senpai had a black and silver checked hem on one side, making him stand out even more in the colorful group.

Having a muscular, sportsman's body, the quietly standing form stood out, illuminated by the mid-summer's light. His face was a little ape-like, but between this and that, he was a handsome guy. Banri thought of him as a different genre of he-man compared to Yana-ssan.

He bent down to smear as much sunblock as he could over everything, even his kneecaps, and while he did so he looked down over his own clothes. It was not as neat as that of his seniors, and he had quickly loosened the clothing around his chest. He was having fun in a cosplay sort of way, but if he did much more of this, wouldn't it get a little out of hand...? He tried to fiddle with his belt a bit, but it didn't make much of a change for the better.

At that moment, the sound of drums echoed brightly around the parking lot. Another team's band was starting to warm up.

As if on cue, there was the sound of a hanging chime. On its heels, a shamisen, a flute and a shakuhachi sounding loudly, and then, like thunder to the stomach, a great bass drum. And on each side, skillfully guiding the rhythm, hand drums. The Omaken had only practiced with drums and chimes. They didn't have anybody who could play other instruments.

Somebody murmured, "Incredible..." Another guy responded, "Yes..." The performance's impact, as expected, was markedly greater.

Banri, too, was overwhelmed, paralyzed amongst the voices of the instruments playing their tune at a terrifically fast pace. He was shaken from his neck to his back by the vibrating atmosphere. The festival rhythm cut through the red hot summer haze as it shook it.

A guy peeked into the tent and said "Omaken-saan, please, it's about time you wrap up your preparations, okay?" He was from another college, and would be shouldering the burden of this team's leading role. When Kosshii-senpai answered with "Yes-sir!" and a smile, he withdrew. Kosshii's hand already held a large paper lantern on a pole with the team's name written on it. Hanging jauntily from his hip was an inrou. To Banri it looked cool. It had a long tassle of stylish purple.

"Kosshii-senpai..."

"What is it, Tada Banri? You nervous?"

"A bit, just a little... Are we already starting?"

"In about fifteen minutes."

The order in which the various teams would leave was already decided, and this parking lot had become the place from which all the teams would start.

The individually costumed dancers were making quite a commotion as they gathered under the blazing sun. When a sports-oriented team huddled and raised a shout, there would be another team making one last check their instruments were in tune. Under the tent there were some handsome old guys drinking stuff like crazy to give them stamina. At the least, they were drinking. There were little kids in Happi coats here and there wandering about, and crying voices echoed as if something had happened.

The starting time drew nearer. The dancers everywhere suddenly started getting busy.

Clapping his hands, Kosshii-senpai raised his voice so everyone could hear.

"Any time now! It's hot, so be careful along the way so you don't get cramps in your legs!"

Oh! Answered the groups of Omaken youths from every direction.

"Every one of you, now's the time to take plenty of water, and don't forget to stretch!"

Responding with a hoarse groan in unison, they all stood up and started carefully stretching their Achilles tendons.

"Oh, they're finally here."

While Banri also flexed his knees, he looked over towards the temple building. From the old-fashioned sliding door entrance, the girls, wearing light yellowish green yukatas, conical hats in hand, were walking noisily towards them in wooden geta clogs.

With black satin obi belts secured in the otaiko style, wearing shiny scarlet shirts under their kimonos, covers on their arms, and with heavily done makeup, they were all seductively pretty. It seemed that they had all suddenly leveled up from an ordinary student's casual style, or occasionally their practice jerseys, to being beautiful women. It seemed Banri wasn't the only one to think so: the rest of the group broke out in spontaneous applause.

"Incredible! They look like women!"

"They really are! We've got girls in our club!"

"Whaat!? You, you guys, you really were women!?"

"Why'd you hide it until now!? You think we were all just a bunch of old men!?"

Ignoring the exaggerated fuss the guys were making over them, just telling them to shut up and waving them away lightly with their hats, the Scarlet Shirt Brigade parked themselves in front of the fan, stealing it away from them. All while they complained it was too hot and their makeup was melting.

All the while, Banri tried to spot the form of his beloved. But even when all the other, older girls came under the tent beautifully changed into costume, Kouko's figure was the only one missing. He cocked his head in puzzlement. He looked all around. Then he tried to ask the upperclassmen near him "Umm... what about Kouko?"

The one person not holding a hat,

"Sorry we took so long! I mean, it's so awful hot! We couldn't fit everybody in a place like that, so were you okay? Even though you could hear the A/C in there!"

The person slipping under the tent with a smile was Linda. The way she looked.

"No, we were not okay! Though didn't we give it up to you so you could get changed!?"

At the laughing woman's protestations, Kosshii-senpai jokingly tapped her forehead. Without thinking, Banri pointed at the figures of the two apparently close upperclassmen.

"Don't you two look the pair!?"

"Huh? Yes, indeed!"

Turning around in response, Linda gave both thumbs up.

Her female figure was wearing the silver-gray checkered costume of the male dancers, just like Kosshii-senpai.

Her snow white chest and bare feet were exposed under the merciless sun, her narrow, feminine waist was snugged tightly with a belt, and her toes were tightly wrapped in dancing socks. Her appearance was extraordinarily chic, gaudy and sexy, and even though it was a guy's outfit, to Banri's eyes she seemed to sparkle more gorgeously than anybody else there.

"Today I'm a beautiful woman dressed as a man!"

The bright, funny, dependable and beautiful person with the scarlet painted lips drawn wide grinning at him was Linda-senpai.

"Whoa, that's great! Yo! You're handsome!"

"Thank you! Alrighty, right now I, am handsome!"

The senior in the club and her junior! Banri thought that now, perhaps, he was becoming accustomed to that simple feeling of distance in their relationship. There was nothing artificial about it: the smile he returned to Linda was the real thing.

In previous practice sessions, when their eyes met, it was still somewhat awkward. It was as if Linda were trying to make normal contact, and yet Banri could not make proper eye contact with Linda.

But today, it seemed to be okay already. He felt he'd exchanged smiles with Linda.

The heat yanked out his ability to think by its roots, and the festival music echoing in the already noisy area took his breath away. The costume he wore. Makeup different from usual. The approaching start time.

That those things were mixed together into a summer festival was unusual, but it may have been that the awkwardness that hung in the air between them had come to strike him with a strange kind of brute force. The vagueness was sort of like being dealt a blow with an all-conquering Harisen Chop.

"Really, Linda-senpai, you look better than I do. For some reason, perhaps due to my slumping shoulders, I am strangely worn out."

The physical distance between the two, about two meters. If they were club senior and junior, then Kosshii-senpai... was at the natural distance, perhaps even too far away.

But maybe, the appropriate distance.

"You're okay, you're okay, don't worry about it. It's all about having fun. Or rather, Tada Banri, your girlfriend, actually, she's having a bit of a problem..."

"A problem? With Kouko?"

Linda, her smile fading a bit, frowning as if worried, turned her gaze away from Banri. Turning where that gaze was going, Banri looked too, and there was the shape of a sad piece of junk.

"Ko, Kouko...!"

She could no longer walk on her own.

Dressed pretty much in costume, but propped up on both sides by two senior girls, the two of them held the golden Robo-Girl, Banri's lovely girlfriend... Kaga Kouko, her strength entirely gone, the geta on both her feet dragging on the ground as they carried her.

Her turned up face was ashen. Her hair hung over her cheeks, disheveled as if she'd been struck. Rather than her resembling C-3PO as per usual, she was a butterfly resembling Yaoya Oshichi, the girl who was arrested for frantically ringing the fire alarm bell.

Banri, completely confused, flew out from under the tent in a hurry, rushed over to the pitiful piece of junk and peered up into her face,

"What is it!? Hey, what's happened!?"

"Ba, Banri..."

"You went off and committed arson! Isn't that a capital offense!? Didn't you know that!?"

Obviously, she was confused.

"...Of course, you have no idea what that means...?"

Her colorless lips trembling, Kouko looked back at Banri's face with teary eyes.

"N, no, because! Because the situation is just too strange! It feels like I'm thrown back into the Edo times, and the fire, they say..."

"Don't leave... I am... still... a little... nervous..."

Kouko's too-white cheeks twitched dangerously as she shook briefly,

"Aaaahh!"

She uttered a single, high pitched shriek. As one, Banri and the seniors reared back without thinking. As for Kouko, she twisted her body and shaking off the hands of the girls that were holding her up,

"It's no use, of course! Back to the bathroom again!"

She turned back down the way she had just come. She walked by her own power after a fashion, but shuffled rather strangely... her body shook as if it were being twisted awkwardly by walking with her left hand and foot moving out together, then her right hand and foot.

"She's... Nanba-walking...!"

Banri gasped also, she indeed had that ancient style of walking.

"Kouko, Kouko! It's all right, Kouko-chan! Haven't you been to the bathroom three times since we got here!?"

"Li, Linda-senpaii..."

Chasing after her right away, Linda wrapped a gentle arm behind Kouko and caught her. While so doing, she drew her mouth close to Kouko's ear and,

"Your bladder is empty! It's vacant! Okay? Calm down and think it through! That need to go..."

"This need to go..."

"Is a phantom urge!"

"A phantom urge...! Aahh...!"

It seemed her persuasion was successful.

At length pulling Kouko under the tent, Linda looked over at Banri's face, saying "here you go now."

<~~48% Completed~~>

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