きっち☕(Pixiv)

~

"Summer break starts tomorrow," Mr. Miyazaki informs the class. "Please spend your time meaningfully. However, as seniors, you will have summer classes, so..."
"Hey!" I hear a whisper coming from my right.
"What?" I whisper back.
"What are you going to do during summer break?" Taichi inquires.
"Summer classes," I reply lazily.
"Apart from that."
"Studying."
"Any big plans?"
"Summer classes."
"C'mon..." Taichi turns back to face Mr. Miyazaki, noticing his curious stare.

"I thought you'd be going to Summer Fest or something like that." Taichi has his eyes glued on Mr. Miyazaki as he says this.
"What's Summer Fest?" I ask.
"You're part of a Light Music Club and don't know what Summer Fest is?" Taichi turns to me in bewilderment.
"Of course, I know what it is. That's why I asked."
"I guess you don't need me to explain it then..." Taichi stays silent.
"All right, fine. What is it?"

"Summer Fest is-"
"Summer Fest is a festival where many bands perform on outdoor stages." We look behind us to see Mr. Miyazaki glaring at us.
"Hey..." We say hesitantly.
"Hi." He replies. "Because it's the last day — and because I'm feeling generous — I'll tell you about Summer Fest. As I said, Summer Fest has many bands performing outdoors. They've got all types of musicians: from the upcoming stars to the long-lasting classics. The festival will last deep into the night, so bring a tent to pitch for nightfall. There will be food stands, so you can order something to eat instead of having to bring food from home. But remember to take some money with you. But the most dangerous thing about Summer Fest is the summer heat. Remember to bring a lot of water with you to stay hydrated."

"Sir, you sound like an expert!" Rikka, a girl in our class, says in awe.
"That's because I go every year." He replies. "However, if any of you decide to go, be sure to study for summer classes, all right?"
"Yes, sir!" The class replies in unison, like a squadron listening to its commander.

~

I'm greeted by the familiar sound of panting and almost pushed to the ground. "Hey, Bud!" I scratch behind his ears. "I'm home!" I pat him for a while before I feel my phone go off in my pocket. 

Yui: We're going on a training camp! Do you want to come with us?
You: Don't we have summer classes?
Yui: It's only a few days. It'll be fine!
You: Alright then. Sure I'll come.
Yui: Cool! Meet me at my house tomorrow. We'll be discussing our plans there.

"Y/N!" I hear Futaba call my name in a hoarse voice from upstairs. I climb the stairs and see what she needs.
"Are you okay?" I say.
"Do I look okay?" She says sarcastically. "I've been bedridden for three days! And something tells me I won't be recovering anytime soon."
"What do you need? Water? A bite to eat?" I ask.
"Give me a second," She rolls onto her stomach and opens the drawer next to her bed. From it, she takes a piece of paper and hands it to you. "Here."
"What is it?" I inspect the paper.
"A ticket to Summer Fest." She says weakly. "I was planning to go with my boyfriend, but... you know."
"Huh. This is the second time I've heard of Summer Fest. The first time was an hour ago. Now, why are you giving it to me?"
"You like music. You play guitar. I thought if you went, you might get inspired to write a few songs or something."
"Like I can write a song."
"Yeah, you're right. I just didn't want the ticket to go to waste, but I couldn't get out of bed to give it to my other friends."
"That sounds more realistic." I laugh.
"Doesn't it? Now get out. Give Bud a walk while you're at it."

~

The next day comes. I arrive at Yui's house to see Mio, Ritsu, Mugi, and Azusa standing outside. I greet them all with a smile. "Hey, everyone!"
"Y/N, perfect timing," Mio says. "We were just about to head in."
"I still don't think we should do this whole training camp thing," I admit.
"Ababab!" Ritsu stops me before I can say anything else. "I've already heard it enough from my father. Not from you, too."
"Maybe you should listen-"
"Abababab!"
"Okay..."

"Welcome, everyone." Ui greets us at the door.
"Thanks for having us!" We all greet her simultaneously.
"Sis, they're here!"
"Hi, there!" Yui appears at the top of the stairs, slumped on the floor. "Come on up."
"Slacking as usual," Ritsu says. We take our shoes off and head up to Yui's room.

"Welcome!" We enter Yui's room to find her holding a PlayStation 1 controller. (From what I could tell, it looked like a PlayStation 1 controller. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Season 2, Episode 12 - 2:30) "Let's play some games!"
"Yeah!"
"I'll play!" Mugi and Ritsu accept Yui's offer. As much as I would like to display my skills, I feel that Mugi might obliterate me if I were to face her. Well, that and I can't seem desperate.

"What are we meeting about again?" Azusa asks.
"We're supposed to talk about the training camp," Mio replies, unimpressed.

"So... can you really go to training camp?" Azusa asks skeptically.
"Why?" Yui wonders.
"You're seniors, so..."
"It's just a short break," Ritsu explains.
"Yup." Yui agrees.
"Why am I the only one to get the 'ababab'?" I complain to Ritsu.

"We went to the beach last year and the year before that." She ignored me completely. "So, should we go to the mountains this year?"
"I want to go to the beach again." Yui bickers.
"We can catch fish from streams, and grill them on the spot!" Ritsu says, causing Yui to pause for a moment.
"That sounds yummy."
"See?"
"Now, I'm new to this club, so there's a possibility I don't have the full picture. But to me, it sounds like the last two years weren't exactly 'training camps.'" I say.
"They weren't..." Mio admits shamefully.
"It sounds like they just want to play this year too," Azusa adds.

"By the way, where do you want to go, Azusa?"
"I want to go to the mountains to see Summer Fest."
"What...?" I mutter.

"Is that not a good suggestion, Y/N?"
"No, it's not that..." I pause, taking a moment to collect my thoughts. "Have you ever heard a word for the first time in your life, and then for the next week you hear that word non-stop?"
"All the time!" Ritsu empathizes. "But what does that have to do with anything?"
"The first time I heard about Summer Fest was yesterday, and since then I've heard it two more times. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice."
"We live in a simulation!" Yui exclaims.
"...Getting back on topic, I think Summer Fest is a great suggestion."

"I've always wanted to go to Summer Fest!" Mio says happily.
"Me too!" Azusa gleefully spoke. "I think hearing pro musicians will be a good learning experience for us."
"That settles it," Ritsu declares.

"Summer Fest is a mountain thing?" Yui questions.
"It's held on a mountain," Azusa explains.
"On a mountain..." Yui echoes. "...We won't get eaten, will we?"
"I don't know what you're thinking, but you definitely have the wrong idea." Mio shuts her thought down immediately.

"But how are we going to get tickets?" Ritsu ponders. "Are they still available?"
"Well, fine, I'll give you mine just this once." Sawako flaunts six pieces of paper in front of us all.
"Amazing!" Azusa praises.
"Good job, Sawa-chan!" Ritsu does the same. "Wait, you showed up out of nowhere!"
"Can I have some barley tea too?" Sawako asks Ui.
"O-Okay."

"My first time at Summer Fest..." Mio fantasizes.
"It'll be my first outdoor concert, too," Azusa says.
"Wait, Sawa-chan," Yui interjects. "How many tickets do you have?"
"Six, why?" Sawako has a look of realization and begins to count us all in her head. "It looks like we're one short."
"We're going to have to leave someone behind?" Yui shouts.
"Should we call it off?" Mugi says, causing Mio's face to drop.
"Someone can take my ticket! I don't want to be eaten!"
"This again?" I mumble. "Relax, we're not short a ticket. My sister gave me her ticket yesterday."
"Thank you so much!" Mio shakes my hand vigorously.
"N-no worries."

"I'm sure Summer Fest will be awesome." Mio looks as if she isn't listening to anything that is said.
"You'll lose if you're too relaxed." Sawako grows serious.
"Lose to what?" Mio says in a panicky tone.
"To summer! There's the glaring sun, festering heat, and the summer bugs awaiting their prey! Anyone going to Summer Fest will be fighting all of those! Be ready!"
"Yes!" Mio says like an obedient pupil. It looks like she's the only serious one in the group. Apart from Sawako, obviously.

~

I wake up the following day at a pretty early time and make my way to the bus station. "It doesn't look like anyone's here yet..." I say to myself. Not wanting to stand for the next however long with a rather large bag on my shoulder, I sit down on one of the vacant seats.
"Hey, Y/N!" I hear someone calling me from behind. I turn to see someone wearing a straw hat and goofy sunglasses jogging over to me.
"Do I know you?" I ask.
"It's me!" The mysterious stranger removes her hat and glasses to reveal an extremely giddy Yui donning a significant smile.
"Why are you dressed like you're going undercover?."
"What do you mean? I have to be ready for the heat!"
"I didn't notice you at all with that hat and sunglasses."
"Really?" Yui thinks to herself. "I wonder if I can fool the others when they get here."
"Why would you want to do that?"

"Why not?"
"...I can't argue with that."

"I've noticed you're missing something," Yui tells me.
"I am?" I search myself and go through a mental checklist. "What is it?"
"Nope, I've got everything here."
"Bud!"
"Ah." It all clicks. "The poor dog can't even handle fireworks. There's no way he could survive a festival with deafening music being played twenty-four-seven."
"Aw..." Yui pouts.
"It can't be helped."

"What about you?" I say. "How will you fair without Giita?"
"As much as it pains me to leave Giita behind, I've left him at the house with Ui..." I can tell Yui is ready to sprint back to her house at any moment. Maybe I shouldn't have brought Giita up.
"Hey, I'm sure Giita will be fine. He's in Ui's competent hands." I say this in an attempt to calm her down.
"You're... You're right. I trust Ui more than I trust myself sometimes." That's understandable.

After a short silence, I decide to stand up and make my way to the vending machines for a drink. Yui follows behind me.
"Is that Azusa?" Yui says to herself as I reach for my drink. I pick it up and search in the direction Yui points.
"So it is. Let's go over to her." I say.
"Wait!" Yui stops me. "Don't tell Azusa I'm here!"
"Why?" Yui puts her hat and glasses back on, causing me to sigh. "I see no point in this," I mumble and walk over to Azusa.

"Y/N!" She calls. "Are you the first one here?"
"I... Yes, I am." I can't believe I'm following through with this.
"The others will need to be here soon," She starts. "The bus will arrive soon." I check the time on my watch.
"You're right." 
"To be honest, I'm most worried about Yui," Azusa admits.
"Heh..." I sigh. "You don't need to worry about her." I look in Yui's direction to see her giving me a thumbs up.
"What do you mean?" Curious, Azusa draws her attention to where I am looking, however before Yui's cover is blown, we hear a voice behind us.

"Azusa! Y/N!" We turn to see Mugi walking up to us.
"Good morning." We say to her.
"Good morning!"
"Are you the only two here?"
"Yeah, we are," I answer. Azusa looks confused and goes to turn around again but is quickly interrupted by another distant voice.
"Morning!" Ritsu and Mio are making their way toward us.
"It looks like Yui and Sawako are the only ones left to arrive," Mio says.

"Did you have trouble sleeping, Mio?" Azusa asks. Wondering what she was talking about, I scan Mio's face. She's right. There are large bags under her eyes.
"She was up all night thinking about what bands she wanted to see," Ritsu explains to us.
"There are so many bands I want to see!" Mio pulls out a piece of paper and scans over the names.
"And there are a lot of stages," Azusa says.

We continue speaking for a while before an engine cuts us off. "The bus is here..."
"I'll call Yui!" Azusa pulls out her phone.
"You don't need to. Yui's over there." The group looks to where I was pointing to see Yui taking off her hat and glasses and waving at us.
"Good morning!" She shouts.

"Tell us when you're here!" Azusa scolds her.
"I was wondering when you'd notice me." Yui taps her index fingers together.
"Were you an accomplice, Y/N?"
"I tried to tell her there was no point. She wouldn't listen."
"Oh, well. At least she's here." Azusa aggression softens.

"So we're only missing one more," Mio speaks.
"Hey, everyone..." A raspy voice comes out of nowhere, causing us all to jump back in fear. Mio especially.
"What's wrong, Sawa-chan!" Yui asks.
"I went to a concert last night, and then stayed up all night drinking. Then I came here without any sleep. Tee hee!" She poses strangely.
"That's not cute," Ritsu tells her.
"It's irresponsible more than anything," I chip in.
"Why did you do that if you knew we are leaving today?"
"You were the one who told us to 'be ready.'" Azusa takes her turn to criticize Sawako.
"I get it, I get it. I was stupid. Now let's hurry up or the bus will leave."

~

"I feel sick..." Yui mumbles groggily.
"Me too..." Sawako says.
"But you're just hungover."
"Because I am a rock."
"What? I don't get it."
"Are you all right?" Mugi asks the two of them.
"You get carsick easily?" Azusa asks.

"Try and get some sleep," I advise. Saying this causes Azusa and Mugi to look at me curiously. "My sister gets carsick as well. I have years of experience. And extremely close calls..."
"I don't think I can sleep." Yui moans.
"Well, then..." I reach into my bag and take out one of the countless bottles of water I have for Summer Fest. "Drink up. It's best to stay hydrated." I pass the bottle to Yui.
"I don't think I can."
"Can you try?" I plead. She shakes her head.
"Azusa, do it for me." Azusa's attention, however, was drawn by Mio.
"Azusa's not listening," I say.
"Eh? Then Mugi-"
"I want yakisoba! Yakisoba!" Mugi yells.
"Y/N..."
"I'm on the opposite aisle. I can't reach even if I wanted to." I pass Yui the bottle and she reluctantly and weakly grabs it and takes a sip.

With Mio and Mugi yelling behind me, I slip in my earphones. This is going to be a long ride.

~

Our first bus ride ended, so we had to hop off and wait at the bus depot for the next bus to arrive. While we were waiting, we decided to have a small bite to eat.
"I can see concerts from dawn to dusk..." Mio smiles euphorically.
"You're gonna be really tense the whole time..." Ritsu said with a smirk like she's seen it before.
"Still, though... This is the happiest I've seen Mio." I say. "She must adore music a lot."
"She does," Ritsu answers for her. "Perhaps even more than all of us combined. Going to Summer Fest is like a dream come true for her."

"It sure is exciting!" Yui shouts.
"You're eating ice cream!" Ritsu points out.
"There's a lot of yummy-looking food, and they even have a souvenir shop! This service area has everything!"
"I thought you were feeling sick." Azusa looks stunned at Yui's fast recovery.
"I got better! You should try this too." Yui hands Azusa her ice cream. "It's soft-served ice cream with Highland concentrated milk."
"Thanks." Azusa take a bite.
"Did the lady at the counter tell you that?" I joke. Yui laughs nervously.

"Break time is almost over," Mugi informs us.
"But I haven't bought any souvenirs yet," Yui complains.
"This isn't our destination," Azusa tells her.
"She's right. We're not eating yakisoba here." Mugi says in determination.
"What's Mugi's fascination with yakisoba?" I whisper to Ritsu, to which she shrugs in response.

~

"S-so many people..." We were standing in a crowd, barely able to hear anyone over the noise from the crowd.
"There are already so many people."  Mio looks slightly unnerved.
"Are you okay?" It hasn't started yet." Ritsu tells her.

"There sure are a lot." Azusa
"Do you think there are more than 300,000,000 people here?" Yui asks.
"I-I hope not..." I reply.
"That's more than the entire population of Japan," Azusa informs.

"Okay, guys!" A voice attracts all of our attention. "No more being slow from here on!"
"You were the slowest one around!" Yui retorted.
"You were totally useless with your hangover," Ritsu adds.
"I've gotten rid of my old self from yesterday," Sawako responds. 

"There's the entrance!" Sawako points to the large sign, reading Summer Rock Festival. "It's a war zone beyond that point!"
"You're exaggerating." Ritsu is beginning to get fed up with Sawako's antics. Mio, however, is listening intently.
"The wristband we exchanged the tickets for earlier is the passport to this music festival. You can't re-enter if you lose it, so be careful. Let's go to the campground before we enter. We need to go save a sleeping spot for tonight." We all do as Sawako says and follow her to the campgrounds. But as we get closer, the crowds become denser and denser.

'It's fine...' I tell myself. 'It's fine! This is tolerable. Just breathe.'

"Crap, we were too late!" Sawako mutters. "All the flat ground's been taken. We've got no choice but to use the sloped ground."
"But won't the blood rush to our head while we sleep?" Thankfully, Yui's peculiar remark cleared my head a bit.
"You can sleep with your head uphill," Ritsu explains.

~

After securing the final stake into the dirt I stand up to admire my work. I smile to myself. "New record."
"Wow, you're pretty good at that!" Yui says.
"I used to go camping with my grandad. Though, I stopped when I got into high school." I frown to myself. "I should go again. Maybe I should invite him sometime this summer when I'm not studying... Sorry. I was talking to myself. Anyway, what are you doing here? I thought you were helping Sawako with the other tents." There wasn't enough space where the girls set up their tents, so I had to move a bit farther away from them.
"Sawako is setting up one of the tents herself. Mio, Azusa, and Mugi set up the other. There wasn't much for me to do, so I came to check how you were doing."
"What about Ritsu?"
"Ricchan was double-checking all of the stuff we needed, like water and whatnot."
"Living the easy life, huh?"
"If I were to set up the tent, I'd drive the pointy thing into my finger," Yui admits.
"You mean the stake? I can't exactly refute that..." I chuckle.

"Well, if it isn't my diligent student!" A familiar voice exclaimed behind me. "Where's your partner in crime? Has he been replaced?"
"Mr. Miyazaki?" I say shocked. "What are you doing here?"
"Shows how much you've been listening in my class. I said I come here every year!"
"Oh," I mumble. "How did it not cross my mind that you'd be here?"
"I hope the reason is because you've been too busy studying that you forgot, right?" He laughs. 

"So where's Taichi?"
"He didn't come. And even if he did, his mom would probably drag him back and force him to study."
"Ah. I remember meeting his mother last culture festival. She asked about his grades, and she... Well, let's just say I wouldn't be surprised if