35 - A certain form of cultural festival (Patreon)

RAW

With several encouragement from Hiuri, I managed to regain my composure.

“You don't have to feel that depressed. Didn’t you say the prize was too small?"
“Since we made it that far, wouldn’t you want to clear it?”

That said, we proceed through the school festival in a peaceful atmosphere.

“Hmm, then, next is this place.”
“...Aah.”

The classroom Hiuri stopped at is a haunted house.
I can hear screams coming from inside, so this is probably a proper haunted house...

“Hiuri isn't really the type to be scared of ghosts or anything, right?”
“Isn’t Kazuki-kun the same? You were calm when we played at the arcade before."

I get this information from the dream but, Hiuri has a tolerance for fear. It seems she isn’t the type to be scared of something just because she doesn't know what it is.
Gun shooting, which is my specialty, has genres such as ghosts and zombies, as well as a certain amount of surprise mechanisms, so I won’t get surprised just by haunted houses at this point.

With the two of us like that, I don't think we will have much fun if we enter the haunted house of the cultural festival...

“Since we’re here anyway, let’s go in. We have to take a look.”
“Well, I guess.”

Certainly, it is not good to make assumptions before entering.

Hiuri and I enter the haunted house together. The boy at the reception desk looks at me as if he is about to kill me, so I move while desperately trying not to make eye contact with him.

...

“That was surprising.”
“Yes, it was properly surprising.”

We came out of the haunted house with this impression.

After all, the wall fell down in the middle of that.
Apparently it was an accident, and they apologized saying that wasn’t how it was supposed to move... I think it would definitely be a hit if they incorporate that mechanism though...

That was the only point that surprised me and Hiuri throughout the entire thing. The rest is only about the costumes and interior design, so I don’t think we were able to enjoy the haunted house the way it was supposed to be enjoyed.

“I wonder if I did something bad to those people.”
“That’s what I said from the beginning. We enjoyed it though, so it’s fine.”

It was like a special date. As you’d expect, I wouldn't go to a ruin on a date though...

“I guess a haunted house doesn't suit us.”
“That’s true, but wouldn't it be fine if it was something more authentic?”

I've never been to an amusement park, so I've never experienced a real haunted house run by real staff.
Since I can't materialize the attractions of an amusement park inside the dream, it might be a good idea to go there once.

“Now, let's go around the places we haven't been yet.”
“Yeah let’s go...”

We both look into the pamphlet we spread out.
Perhaps it was a preparation issue, but overall there are a lot of programs about food. It might be good for Hiuri, but... no, in a sense, she wants to eat more than she usually eats, so she might be stressed out.

Other than those, there is...

“Stage presentation?”
“There's going to be a play and a band. Seems like there's also going to be a presentation by the wind ensemble club.”

The stage presentations are performed by clubs and volunteers that form groups. There doesn't seem to be any class-based performance.

The stage presentation is something that happens in only a moment, so compared to other projects, it has a lot of enthusiasm. In the first place, people who want to perform on stage are doing so by their own choice. So their level of motivation is different.

“Do you want to go see it?”
“Yes. The next one is... seems like a volunteer band. They’re first years... how do you read this?”

The band's name is also on the pamphlet, but... it's written in a language I don't know at all. It's a mixture of alphabet-like letters and Arabic letters, and I don't think such a language exists on Earth, but I wonder what language it is.

“Bright...?”
“Eh, how do you read it like that?”
“Somehow.”

It's a floaty feeling, but I felt like that’s how it read.

“Then let’s go check the answer.”

...

[Hello! We are Bright!]

Stage presentation.
The special language band came on stage and introduced themselves. It looks like my prediction was correct.

“It really is read as Bright...”
“It's just a coincidence.”

It might be a coincidence, but I wonder how I was able to read it.
It's like the word just popped into my head as if it was a senator from somewhere, but I don't know the cause. It's supposed to be a language I've never seen before...

“Oh, isn’t this Hiu and boyfriend-kun?”

When I turned to the direction of the voice, Hayashi-san was there. Wasn’t she working as a staff member in Hiuri's class until just a while ago...

“Actually, the one in the very front is my younger brother.”
“Eh, Hayashi-san, you have a younger brother?”
“That’s right.”

Still, she doesn't really feel like... um... a big sister.
The child standing over there seems to be dependable, perhaps he grew up to be a dependable child by learning from her older sister’s bad examples?

I feel like it's not wrong.

“Then what about that child with white hair? There wasn't anyone with hair like that at our school, right?”
“Ah~... she's a bit of a special child. She doesn't have any relatives, so she lives at our home.”

A girl who looks younger than us is playing a keyboard behind Hayashi-san's brother.
The other band members are also people I've never seen before at school.

“I thought the programs were only from inside the school?”
“It’s fine as long as you have permission, you know. Some years ago, they even had guests over.”

Hiuri answered my doubts.

“That child said she wanted to come to school, so my younger brother did his best. So I decided I had to come see him too.”
“Heeh...”

When she says things like that, Hayashi-san immediately seems like a nice older sister.
It’s not like she's on bad terms with her younger brother, so she might actually be a good older sister. She’s just too excitable.

“Are we also going to be standing there next year?”
“What can I even do?”

I don't have time to practice special skills.

Actually, I can't practice in the dream. It's like I can do anything I imagine, no matter what I try to do over there, it will only turn out the way I want it to be.
If I try to fail, I'll end up failing exactly as I expected, as a result, I can’t practice. Therefore, any type of practice that uses the body has to be done in real life.

“They’re pretty good huh.”
“I was surprised too. I wonder when those kids started practicing.”

The gymnasium resounds with applause.
What started with that applause was a gentle song. How should I put it, it was kind of romantic.

“...I'll go to the front, you two can stay together okay~.”

Hayashi-san noticed something and moved closer to the stage.

As I was wondering what was going on, something suddenly touched my right hand.
When I looked there, I saw Hiuri's hand.

“Hiuri?”
“What is it?”

Hiuri is so close to me that my heart is pounding a bit.
This distance is common in the dream, but it's a distance I never had in real life...

“...”
“...”

I wasn’t able to hold Hiuri's hand.

――――

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