What's under Kamiyama-san's paper bag? - 31 Chapter 29
What’s under Kamiyama-san’s paper bag?
Chapter 29 Arai is worried.
We arrived at the inn run by Kamiyama’s uncle and were led by him to a single room. It was a Japanese-style room divided by sliding doors, formerly a guest room but now used as a storage room.
Kamiyama’s uncle mentioned that he doesn’t treat us as paying guests, so we shouldn’t complain even if the room is shabby. However, to my surprise, the room was quite clean. I silently expressed my gratitude to Kamiyama’s uncle.
Afterwards, we were treated to a delicious dinner by Uncle and his wife, and then we returned to our room. During the meal, when Uncle tried to talk about Kamiyama’s past, there was a playful moment where Kamiyama broke a teacup with her grip strength, causing a large amount of sweat to pour out. But Aunt didn’t get flustered and calmly dealt with the situation, as if wiping away spilt miso soup. Seeing her handling the situation with a smile, I could somewhat imagine what Kamiyama was like in the past, and it brought a smile to my face.
After finishing the meal and returning to the room, I was about to lie down with a cushion as a pillow when Arai took something out of her bag.
“Ta-da! I brought fireworks! Shall we all do it now?”
Upon seeing the fireworks, Harusame’s eyes sparkled like a puppy’s.
“I want to, I want to! Kamiyama-san, can we use the backyard?”
“Um… I think it should be fine…”
“Yay, then let’s go quickly! Oh, and A-chan, come with us too!”
Saying that, Harusame grabbed her life-size magical girl panel and headed out of the room.
Fireworks, huh.
Come to think of it, how many years has it been since I last did fireworks? I felt a little excited, but something in the current conversation was bothering me.
The three girls started preparing to leave the room.
I tried to figure out the source of the uneasiness I felt earlier. Fireworks… Harusame… Kamiyama-san… Arai… A-chan…
Before long, I realized the nature of the uneasiness and hurriedly stood up. Just as Harusame was about to leave the room, I grabbed her shoulder and called out to her.
“Wait a minute, Harusame. A-chan will stay here.”
Harusame became annoyed at being stopped suddenly.
“What’s the matter, Kominato? Are you excluding A-chan from our group?”
I slowly shook my head and looked into Harusame’s eyes as I spoke.
“No, that’s not it. I don’t know how to put it into words… but A-chan… she’s… um… sensitive to combustible materials. I think she might not be comfortable with fireworks.”
Harusame looked at me and A-chan alternately with a startled expression, then sadly leaned against the wall.
A gentle breeze blew in from the sea, carrying the scent of the tide to the veranda. We decided to do fireworks on the inn’s veranda. We prepared a bucket of water, spread out the fireworks that Arai had brought, and just as I thought we should start, I noticed that Arai had a serious expression on his face.
I called out to Arai with concern, “What’s wrong? You look so serious.”
Arai, still resting his right hand on his chin, turned towards me and answered, “Kominato, do you think one bucket is enough?”
“Huh? There are only four of us, so I think one should be enough,” I replied.
“No, that’s not what I meant… Kominato, do you have your mobile phone with you?”
Why would we need a cell phone to do fireworks? I tapped the pocket where my smartphone was and said to Arai, “I have my phone, but what do we need it for?”
Upon hearing my answer, Arai let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, good… I left mine in the room… With it, we can quickly report to the fire department in case of injuries or a fire.”
“Hold on a second. I don’t think it’ll be that serious.”
I don’t think it will be. Before I could finish saying that, Arai opened hes mouth with a voracious appetite.
“Kominato, it’s better to be prepared. We should also check the evacuation route and have an AED ready. It might be a good idea to prepare helmets with our blood types written on them. Oh, and it would be wise to notify the local fire station in advance. Let’s also greet the neighbors and, just to be safe, write farewell letters, right?”
Writing farewell letters for setting off fireworks… What kind of world is this? I grabbed Arai’s shoulder as he listed off one thing after another, looked into his eyes, and said firmly, “…It’s okay. I will protect everyone… I won’t let anyone die, no matter what!”
Arai was overwhelmed by my seriousness, swallowed hard, and made up her mind.
“…I understand. Our lives… I entrust them to you, Kominato.”
Oh no. I’ve been entrusted with their lives.
As Arai and I had a conversation that felt like moments before storming the Demon Lord’s castle, Harusame couldn’t wait any longer and called out to us.
“Hey, Kominato, what are you doing? Let’s start already!”
Harusame was waving the fireworks in both hands impatiently.
“Sorry about that. Alright, let’s do it.”
I lit the candle with a lighter borrowed from Kamiyamas’s uncle and stuck it in the ground in the garden. Harusame energetically approached me and brought the fireworks close to the candle. Beautiful sparks erupted from the fireworks in Harusame’s hands.
I, Arai, and even Kamiyama-san followed after Harusame.
Colorful sparks illuminated our faces. The smell of gunpowder heightened the atmosphere of the fireworks. Arai, Harusame, and probably Kamiyama-san, too. Everyone watched the beautiful sparks with smiles on their faces.
On the veranda of a summer night, filled with the fragrance of the sea breeze, we enjoyed the fireworks for a while and laughed out loud multiple times.
Most of the fireworks that Arai had brought were finished, leaving only the grand finale.
I moved away from the veranda and placed the finale firework on the ground. Then, I took out a lighter from my pocket and brought it close to the fuse.
“Stand back a bit! Here we go!”
After igniting the fuse, I hurriedly returned to where everyone was and gazed at the firework. The small flame on the fuse gradually approached the finale firework and was eventually consumed by it. After a moment of silence, a resounding explosion echoed through our chests. A streak of light shot toward the night sky, followed by a burst of a large firework.
Beside me, Kamiyama-san, who had been looking up at the sky, murmured softly.
“It’s beautiful…”
I shifted my gaze from the fireworks to Kamiyama-san. I wondered what expression Kamiyama-san was wearing while watching the fireworks.
In the sky, the remnants of the launched fireworks fluttered and eventually vanished.
“Ah… it’s over, huh? It was really beautiful, Kominato-kun!”
Through the hole in the paper bag, two smiling eyes looked at me. I smiled back in agreement.
The pleasant sea breeze passed between us. The sky was filled with countless stars. Kamiyama-san and I both turned our gaze to the night sky, watching the natural fireworks unfolding above.
After spending a while gazing at the night sky, I turned to everyone and spoke.
“Well, let’s clean up and head back to the room…”
As I said that, I looked towards Kamiyama-san. Then, I noticed a faint haze hovering over the back of Kamiyama-san’s head. Kamiyama-san, noticing my gaze, opened their mouth.
“What’s wrong…? Is there something on my face…?”
“No… Kamiyama-san, something at the back of your head…”
The haze over Kamiyama-san’s back gradually turned into a dense gray smoke. It was smoke, or rather, was it burning?
“Kamiyama-san… Can you turn around for a moment?”
As requested, Kamiyama-san obediently turned around.
And then, I saw it.
From the paper bag that Kamiyama-san was wearing, thick black smoke was billowing up! It seemed that the burnt residue from the fireworks earlier had fallen into the paper bag and unfortunately caught fire.
“Kamiyama-san! Fire! Your head is on fire!”
“…Eh? …Ouch!”
Kamiyama-san panicked and touched the back of their head. I looked around and shouted to Arai.
“Arai! Bring the bucket we used for the fireworks over there!”
“Yes!”
Arai quickly grabbed the bucket that was nearby and handed it to me. I took the bucket from Arai and swung it towards Kamiyama-san.
“Ah, the fireworks and the starry sky were so beautiful… Someday, I want to become one with the universe… Hey, what are you doing, you garbage… Kyaaa!”
Harusame, who hadn’t noticed Kamiyama-san’s predicament, was startled by my sudden action and grabbed my arm, almost losing balance in the process.
As Harusame got entangled in my arm, which I swung forcefully, the bucket flew off in the wrong direction. The bucket drew a beautiful arc in the summer night sky and landed perfectly on Kamiyama-san’s head, water and all.
With the bucket on their head, Kamiyama-san stood still for a moment, and then a faint voice came from inside the bucket.
“Thank you… I want to take a bath… Can you please clean up…?”
“Yeah… Take care… Sorry about that.”
I watched Kamiyama-san, still wearing the bucket, heading towards the bathing area and thought to myself. It must be tough living with a paper bag on their head…