After Story: Compassion

Chapter Eighteen: Festivities

I smiled as a family walked by before checking my watch for the umpteenth time as I stood next to the gates to the school. Pastor Ashton had told me that he planned to attend the summer festival on Tuesday due to some things he had to do on Wednesday. He had also told me that he planned to be there around noon, so I made sure to be there early. I was to be Kyou's crowd control for the day, keeping him away from her as much as possible. I had no idea why she seemed so anxious around him, but she was a friend so I would help her as much as I could.

"Morning, Okazaki-san!" he greeted, pulling me from my musings. "Beautiful day, isn't it?"

I smiled at his enthusiasm. Looking up at the sky, it certainly was nice weather; a mostly-blue sky with a few light puffy clouds to keep the sun company. "Yeah, the Student Council sure picked a good time for this."

He stopped in front of me, rubbing his hands. "Well, shall we go, then?"

The place was crowded, which wasn't really surprising; every time the school held a festival it seemed like half of Japan would show up. I supposed that it wasn't too surprising, considering how well-known Hikarizaka was.

"So," he said, rubbing his hands together again as we stopped just inside the gate and surveyed the booths. "Where should we go first?"

"I dunno," I replied. "I'm thinking of you as the guest, so I figured that I'd take you where you want to go."

"Tour guide, eh?" he said, then chuckled. "Well, considering that I helped put together about half of this, I might not need one."

"Yeah, that's true," I said with a chuckle of my own. "Well...since it's noon...what do you want to eat?"

"A little of everything until I'm full!" he declared.

We tried the takoyaki, which was really good. Then we stopped at a booth that sold onigiri and ended up there quite a while because they had quite a variety of fillings.

"I was serious when I said that I wanted a little of everything," he said with a smile and a seaweed-filled ball in hand.

He was stuffing a chicken-filled ball in his mouth when I heard a voice call out: "Tomoya!"

I turned to see Tomoyo heading toward us with the biggest smile I'd ever seen. "Hey Tomoyo," I greeted with a smile and a raised hand. "Having fun?"

"Well, I'm not supposed to be, but..." she abruptly turned toward my festival companion. "Good afternoon, Pastor. Could I borrow Tomoya for a while?"

"What? Fe getf to caw ooo 'Tomoya'?" he said with fake annoyance and a mouthful of onigiri. "Oh...forry." He said before quickly swallowing. "Sorry about that; forgot my manners. I'll be here for a while, so you could go with her for a while if you wanted. In fact..." he said, giving me a mysterious smile, "why don't you two go have fun? It's not like I'm a stranger here; I've already seen three families that attend my church."

"You sure?" I asked.

"Get out of here," he ordered, waving me off.

"I will be bringing him back soon," Tomoyo said. "I'm responsible for the smooth operation of the festival, after all. Which reminds me," she said as she dragged me off, "you need to meet with the Theater Club at 1:00, don't you?"

Crap, I had almost forgotten. Fortunately, the costumes were in the clubroom so I didn't have to bring anything. "Yeah, you're right," I said as I checked my watch. "That doesn't give us a lot of time."

"Should be enough for you to treat me to ice cream," she said with another smile, this one playful.

"Ice cream?! How about you eat lunch, first?"