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Heads bobbed up, flowing from their seats like a current. Like a river, populated by streams of broad-shouldered parents keeping an eye on their children. Of white water, grandparents following suit. Of gleeful elementary school faces, thronging together and shouting in celebration, like fish following that same current.
Beside her, Kanade sat up a bit, her head lifting to gaze towards the Wonder Stage as a gentle smile graced her own features.
Mafuyu followed suit, her face unsure of what to do.
“That was a good show,” Kanade hummed, her smile radiating far more warmth than the setting sun had been, just minutes prior. “I’m glad we were able to make it before dark.”
Though, not quite as warmly as the show they’d just attended, of course. Otori-san’s troupe was unrivaled in that regard. Every performance that they had delivered, at least in Mafuyu’s presence, at was nothing short of blindingly bright. Full to the brim of a kindness and passion for the craft, worn on each and every one of their costumes’ sleeves.
A warmth, one that, just for a moment or two, had distracted Mafuyu from the icy, creeping fear of the past week’s events. Just for a short while.
She hummed in quiet agreement with Kanade, lowering her gaze to her hands, folded neatly in her lap.
A short while that… she couldn’t say she would mind extending. Just for a bit longer.
Wordlessly, Kanade seemed to understand. The crowd was still taking its time dispersing from the seats. The cries and cheers of children grew fainter, but remained in earshot.
A hand, almost weightlessly gentle, brushed against Mafuyu’s knuckles. It rested atop her own, a timid, curious smile surely just beyond her sight.
“I wonder…” Kanade murmured, much clearer above the fading echoes of the rest of the audience, now mostly departed, “where they get ideas for shows like these?”
The two of them stood up, together. Mafuyu blinked a grateful nod towards Kanade, whom she made sure to help steady herself.
“Funnily enough, this past spring… Mochizuki-san ended up formally introducing me to—”
“ASAHINA-SENPAAAAAAAAIII!!!!”
Otori-san’s cheerful cry shattered the lull of the venue around them, comically on-cue as always.
Swiftly, Mafuyu lifted her head up. As would be expected of her, in public. Her, a second-year who…
Wasn’t in school. Hadn’t been in school, not since that last Thursday. As, that was the day that She had—
Mafuyu blinked.
She hoped that she was smiling. Truthfully, she couldn’t tell if she was anymore.
The two of them shuffled a bit closer, their steps drowned out by a crashing KER-THUMP!!!!
“A-Asahina-senpai!” Otori-san gasped again, upon bounding up to the two of them, five rows of seats down from the stage she’d catapulted herself down from. “You’re here!?”
Mafuyu blinked again. She was pretty sure she had her school-smile on now. She hoped she did, anyways.
“Otori-san,” automatically, she replied. The long stretch of silence she’d sat in prior sent a strange feeling into her throat, upon talking once more. “Hello.”
The younger girl’s brows knitted briefly, a strange, strangled sort of frightened squeal choking itself back down, before she spoke once more.
Why did she make those sounds, Mafuyu wondered?
“Y-you…”
Again, Otori-san paused. She pursed her lips. Then, a kind smile, though still smaller than her usual ones, lit up her features.
“Asahina-senpai, I- I really hope you enjoyed the show! We worked extra super-duper wonda-hard on it!!!” she cheered. “I didn’t realize that you…”
As though her brain had finally caught up to her bubbling, rapid words, Otori-san’s eyes widened.
“Kanade-chan!!!” she squealed, that grin on her face growing into a signature beam. “You BOTH watched the show?!”
Despite wincing a bit at the girl’s volume, Kanade giggled softly at Otori-san’s realization.
“Hehe… Hello Otori-san,” nodding, she hummed. “Yes, we were lucky enough to attend the last one, before we would have to end our visit to the park today.”
As Otori-san’s beam grew doubly as bright, Kanade was able to finish her thought from before.
“Mochizuki-san ended up introducing Mizuki and I to Otori-san,” she hummed, nodding to the first-year. “She and Mizuki were able to help me pick out that bouquet, actually. The one that Mizuki had me send a picture of later that night.”
Mafuyu recalled such, but couldn’t say that she remembered all too vividly.
Those weeks, the ones after Mizuki had imparted that initial wisdom upon her, had been so brisk. So cold, like a whirling, windy blizzard.
She hummed with interest, though. She had to. She was in front of a classmate.
“Ah, I see. That’s great to hear!” she made sure to reply, still hoping that a smile was plastered upon her face. “Thank you for assisting Kanade with that, Otori-san. And thank you for the lovely show! We enjoyed it very much.”
Again, Otori-san seemed to choke back a frightened shriek, her lip wobbling briefly. She grinned, just as fast as the noise had been snuffed out, and seemed to really mean it. When did she not?
“Really?! You really really did?”
It was hard for Mafuyu not to. The production sure seemed to mean a lot to its actors. There was no way that that boundless joy wouldn’t spread itself to the audience.
“Yes, I did,” she hummed. “I’m very glad we were able to watch you perform, it’s been so long since the last time we were here for a show, after all.”
The memory of Wonderlands×Showtime’s performance at Shibuya Festa fluttered to the forefront of Mafuyu’s mind. With it, it brought a wave of warmth that glowed through her chest.
Otori-san gasped a bit, seemingly in awe of… something. Mafuyu wasn’t quite sure.
She was still smiling, surely! She felt the warmth spread.
“UWAAAAAAH!!! I’m suuuuper glad you two made it then!!!”
And then, like clockwork…
An exuberant, “WANDAHOOOOOI!!!” filled the empty stage, the girl’s head flinging back as her arms flew into the air. Just as she always did.
A giggle, one that she wasn’t quite sure where it came from, bubbled from Mafuyu’s chest. Beside her, Kanade’s flinches were growing weaker.
It made sense, Otori-san could be considered her polar opposite, in all but their heights.
Though… perhaps there was more in common between them.
That would have to be noted at a later date, though. Faint, calculated footsteps were approaching from just above.
“Oya? What’s gotten you so excited, Emu-kun?” a wry, much more composed voice called from the stage.
With a blink, Mafuyu found her gaze meeting that of one Kamishiro Rui’s; a sharp, golden stare of intrigue.
“RUI-KUUUUN,” Otori-san cheered, whirling around with a quick, powerful hop, her costume’s skirt bouncing with her. “LOOK LOOK LOOK!!!”
Kamishiro-san’s gaze softened as he seemed to recognize the remaining audience members before his troupe-mate. He stepped just a bit faster, waving kindly as he did.
“Fufufu… You’ll be waking the whole rest of the park up at this rate, Emu-kun!” he chided gently.
Seemingly in reply, Otori-san snatched up the hands of the girls beside her, tugging them up, past the rows of seats in front of them. Closer to the stage.
Carefully, not unlike that of a gangly-looking cat, clambering down from a shelf, Kamishiro-san met the three of them at the base of the stage. Despite the quiet nature of his descent, it wasn’t any more graceful than Otori-san’s had been, just a minute or two prior.
“Asahina-san! And… Yoisaki-san, was it?” he greeted kindly. “It was a pleasure to see the two of you attending our last show of the night!”
A subtle dip of a bow punctuated his sentence, that wry smile of his glowing not unlike how Otori-san’s own grins would flare just a bit brighter, upon meeting Mafuyu’s gaze.
“The pleasure was ours, Kamishiro-san,” she hummed back in reply, feeling the slightest bit less nervous about whether or not she was still smiling.
For a myriad of reasons, really.
The two of them had enjoyed the show, Kanade especially. The moment that the story had captured her full attention, her eyes had lit up with that brilliant ultramarine hue that always overtook them when something truly remarkable inspired her.
Mafuyu had grown quite familiar with it, within the past few days, you see.
“We were very lucky to catch it when we did,” Kanade concurred, a small spark of that same fervent inspiration glinting in her guarded gaze. “Are… you all closing up right now?”
“Indeed, we were just—” Kamishiro-san attempted to begin.
Otori-san still seemed quite eager to talk to them, after all.
“Yep! This was our last show of the night!!” She twirled on her heel to briefly grin at her troupe-mate. A silly sort of grin.
“I was riiiight, Rui-kun!!” she declared with glee. “Tonight IS a lucky night!”
A knowing glance brushed over Mafuyu for a moment.
“Oh, I never doubted you for a second, Emu-kun. Believe me!”
A much louder, cackling sort of giggle tore from the tiny girl’s chest. It reminded Mafuyu of the bells on the costume that she wore, wreathed by the glow of the setting sun.
“Ehehehe, I know!” she cried, twirling again. She tended to do that a lot when expressing such joy, Mafuyu had noticed. “Butbutbut- it’s still super WANDAHOI!!! that it all came true!”
“OI!!!” boomed from backstage. Though, with how loud the exclamation was, Mafuyu would’ve been easily fooled into thinking it had come from right above the four of them. “YOU TWO!!!”
Loud, pounding footsteps followed.
“Fufufu…” Kamishiro-san snickered once more. “Perhaps… I wasn’t entirely accurate with that accusation of mine.”
“WHAT HAPPENED TO CLEANING UP?!”
Otori-san snickered knowingly as well.
“You wouldn’t be waking up the park, dearest Emu-kun,” he specified. “You would merely be heralding the one who does.”
Another “OI?!?” tore through the air above them, just at the edge of the stage. Although Kanade didn’t flinch this time, she seemed a bit frazzled and confused.
“What are you two blabbering about down here?” a boy that Mafuyu recognized as Tenma Tsukasa, the loud Kamiyama High second year that had accompanied herself and her classmates from 2-D on their Kyoto trip.
“Tsukasa-kun, look!” Otori-san chirped excitedly, pointing at the two remaining audience members before the troupe.
Well, three fourths of the troupe, that is. That quiet girl with the powerful singing voice was nowhere in sight.
A… well.
Some sort of strangled sound erupted from Tenma-san.
“You’re SLANDERING ME?! In front of two ESTEEMED GUESTS?!”
Kamishiro-kun snickered for the third time that evening.
“Fufufu… I wouldn’t say it’s slander, not in the slightest,” he insisted. “I was merely commenting on your… innate knack for drawing eyes to yourself. That’s all!~”
“Oh no no NO you were NOT!” the boy barked back. “I HEARD what you were SAYING Rui! And I am NOT that loud! The only thing that me speaking at a REASONABLE VOLUME would wake up would be NeneRobo!”
Seemingly under the impression that it would strengthen his argument in some way, Tenma-san then proceeded to hop down from the stage. The impact of which then graced Mafuyu with likely the loudest sound of shoes BOOMING down onto a sidewalk’s pavement.
Had she been not only less tired, but in less need of absurd distractions like this, Mafuyu was sure that the action would have annoyed her.
“[116 dB. The sound of a jackhammer.]” droned a robotic, albeit slightly feminine, voice from backstage.
“OI!!!” Tenma-san shouted once more, whirling around to shake a fist towards the origin of the voice. “WHY ARE YOU STILL DOING THAT?!”
“She’s doing it because of how loud you’re being, moron,” snapped a voice that Mafuyu was pretty sure belonged to the fourth and final member of the troupe. The quiet girl who sang earlier.
Tenma-san squawked some sort of flimsy rebuttal, but Mafuyu didn’t quite catch what he said in particular.
The soft, yet pointed, gasp of recognition that fluttered from the girl was much more intriguing. Much more attention-capturing.
Well, Mafuyu didn’t know this person all that well. Distantly, she recalled a… Kusanagi-san, was it? Was that the “NENE-CHAN!!!” that Otori-san spoke so highly about with Hoshino-san on occasion?
Regardless, this Kusanagi-san seemed to be following her troupe-mates, making her way down to the ground in front of the stage.
Not quite as clumsily, though. Her faint, yet frenzied footsteps grew quieter with distance. She must have been taking the stairs down.
Down to… the rest of them.
There would be six people standing there, soon.
Mafuyu was fine with this. She had to be.
If she wasn’t, then Kanade would have to face a crowd of people that neither of them had anticipated running into all on her own.
She couldn’t let that happen.
Gently, Mafuyu nudged Kanade’s wrist. The one that had rested upon her folded hands, just minutes ago.
She pointed her to the left of the stage, where she’d heard Kusanagi-san’s footsteps fade to.
Sure enough, a head of fluffy, muted-olive shaded hair bounced down the steps to the ground.
“Y… Yoisaki-san!” the girl called, a timid smile creeping into her tone.
She and Kanade must have spoken again recently, though Mafuyu couldn’t quite recall when.
No matter. This was a good opportunity for Kanade. She could get away from—
“YOU ABSOLUTELY WERE, THOUGH! YOU WERE TELLING STRANGERS THAT I WAS—”
A wince bit at Kanade as she stepped away from Mafuyu, that kind smile of gratitude she always seemed so eager to show her flashing over her shoulder as she did.
Good. She would be much more comfortable away from—
“I do NOT do that! Emu, tell him I DON’T DO THAT!”
—This commotion.
Ah, speaking of Otori-san.
She’d been a part of that commotion, hadn’t she?
Although she’d missed essentially every word the girl had been saying, Mafuyu had made sure to feign attention paid to her. It would probably be a good idea to start listening now, though, before she asked her something important.
“And!! Um… um umumum… it’s just— I’m really really sosososo glad that you’re here!” she was babbling. “B- because I know that- that a lot of us missed you at school, Asahina-senpai! I know I did!”
Ah, good. Something Mafuyu could infer the context of.
She made certain that she was smiling at Otori-san, an action which drew another choked-back, muffled shriek from the girl.
“B-BUT!! Um- You’re not here to talk about school!! So let- let’s not talk about that anymore! E- ever again!!” she yelped.
Ah.
That- She wasn’t expecting Otori-san to jump from that ship so quickly.
Um. Okay.
Otori-san switched topics, beginning to rehash her ramble about the show. Likely because her whole troupe was present. She could touch on points much more thoroughly than she could while alone, as they could all add their input.
It was a bit funny how familiar that sentiment felt to Mafuyu. In regards to groups of four, working to present a work of art to an unlikely audience.
The group of four before her, however, wasn’t sticking together all that well. Kamishiro-kun shot a knowing, (though very affectionate,) glance at his much more lively troupe-mates before turning and darting over to join Kusanagi-san beside Kanade.
The warmth in his gaze was sickeningly contagious, as a bloom of it found its way into Mafuyu’s chest, just at the sight of how gently he observed Otori-san and Tenma-san’s aimless ramblings.
“BUTBUTBUT!!!” Otori-san was yelping. “It was all okay! Because of the help we got from Mei— M… M-MAKING SURE TO TALK ABOUT IT!!! We realized we could just change the ending!”
“E-Exactly!” Tenma-san followed up, practically shouting a whispered, “Good save!” behind a hand.
Otori-san beamed, going on.
“Yeah!! And- andand- that’s why we’re so proud of it! It’s a really reeeeally important show to us, and it’s extra SUPER WANDAHOI!!! that you especially got to see it, Asahina-senpai!”
That warmth from before grew strained on Mafuyu’s chest. It spread up to her throat, choking at her.
“Ah, I see!” she hummed automatically. As if she were listening to one of her classmates’ stories. “It’s very lucky we were able to make it, then.”
Was she still smiling?
She had to be. She was trying to, so she had to be.
Her mind wandered, picking up the fringes of the conversation to the left of them.
“…Now, Yoisaki-san, you’ll have to excuse me if this is all a little too forthcoming,” Kamishiro-san had begun to ramble as well. “But, you see… I’m a director. And you’re a composer! I would absolutely love to pick your brain, if only a little bit, to understand more about your creative process in regards to what you create! Especially considering what Mizuki has—”
Kusanagi-san snarled out an exaggerated grumble.
“Guh… Rui, can you let me talk to my friend for longer than a single second?!” she huffed, exasperated.
Mafuyu didn’t care about this conversation.
The only thing she could really pinpoint any desire for at the moment was to go back over to Kanade. To grab her hand and walk out of the park.
To walk home and to shut the door and lock it and never ever ever have to talk to people ever again, not if she was somewhere that nobody could find her, no matter how hard they looked because surely, surely, if she was able to get away from Her for a weekend, then She couldn’t possibly find where she—
Was she still smiling?
Otori-san was still smiling. She looked concerned, though.
Tenma-san finished his sentence, declaring something about this show bringing them closer together. Something like that. All she could really tell was how passively loud he was. How easily his voice made her ears ring.
It wasn’t his fault, Mafuyu knew that. But it still kept her stuck there, feet frozen to the ground.
She couldn’t tell anymore. She couldn’t tell if she was smiling. She couldn’t form any new words in her mind.
Thankfully, Otori-san was never without something on her mind, as she practically buzzed in place, hands fluttering idly as she met Mafuyu’s gaze.
“OH! Um…” she began, before bursting into a quiet flurry of embarrassed giggles. “Sorry for us talking so much, Asahina-senpai!”
The shine in each of her eyes twinkled knowingly. Like every starry, night sky that Mafuyu had ever witnessed, even the ones she’d long forgotten, was captured in the girl’s gaze.
“Did you like the show, though?”
The question was simple. So simple.
And yet, somehow… Mafuyu found her words catching in her throat at first. The ones that had finally formed.
“I- I did, yes,” she insisted. She shifted her focus more to keeping her voice steady, and less to smiling.
Because, she was, wasn’t she? She was smiling.
“It was very fun!” she went on. “Although, a lot sure did happen! It felt a little hard to follow near the middle, just from how complex it became…”
She was smiling because it was fun. She had fun watching the show.
She had fun watching Kanade’s eyes light up as Wonderlands×Showtime darted and danced and stomped and scrambled across the stage.
She had fun because she was with Kanade. Because she was able to have fun in the first place, her chest so full of the warmth of the setting sun and the girl beside her and her classmate and peers up on stage in front of her.
Didn’t she?
“AH! That was all Rui’s doing!” Tenma-san declared, proudly. Almost as if he was bragging about something he had done, rather than his troupe-mate. “Truly, we’re the luckiest people alive to have him here, directing shows with us!!”
His voice didn’t make her ears ring with its deafening cacophony this time, but…
Why was he so loud? Why was everything so loud today?
“Oh, of course!” she concurred.
She smiled.
She had to smile.
“That’s wonderful, Tenma-san.”
Another barely-stifled shriek from Otori-san broke Mafuyu’s attention.
That shimmering sparkle in her eye had dimmed, though only by a little. It was inquisitive and introspective now, rather than as seeking as it had been before.
If anything, it looked like she had something she wanted to say to Mafuyu. That she needed to say.
The tiny girl chewed at her lower lip, a face that wasn’t quite a frown, but wasn’t quite a smile either, making her expression unreadable.
She turned and looked her troupe-mate in the eye.
Tenma-san stared back.
It was almost as if a conversation was happening, strung along in the air between their unreadable faces by invisible tension.
Mafuyu wasn’t sure if she should smile or not.
A beat of awkward silence passed.
Then another.
A third.
But, on the fourth, Otori-san began to wind up a reply, gasping in a comically serious amount of air.
“UMM… Asahina-senpai!!” she finally gasped back out, hands balling up into fists, held close to her chest. “We’re really reallyreallyREALLY glad you liked the show!!”
Were her hands shaking?
“And- andand… And you’re- you’re always welcome to come here, whenever you’d like, senpai!!! Eeeeeven if you don’t have a ticket! If we see you, we’ll be extra super-duper sure to let you in!!”
Was… that really all she was so worried about declaring?
Mafuyu didn’t… really get it. What the big deal was.
“Ah, thank you, Otori-san!” she chirped, regardless. “That’s very nice of you to offer! Though, the thing is… I wouldn’t want to intrude on all of you like tha—”
“YOU WOULDN’T BE!!!!!!!!”
Okay, she knew she wasn’t smiling now.
But, she wasn’t sure if the shock on her face at Otori-san’s yelp was placed purposefully, or if it had something to do with the jolt in the back of her throat. If that ache in her heart, when hearing how desperate her poor underclassman was, was the cause of it all.
“EEK!!!” Otori-san ‘eek’ed. “I- I mean um… um… umumum…. it- youuu ummm…”
Beside the two of them, Tenma-san chuckled. It was much quieter, much more heartfelt than the booming laughter that he’d employed during the show. He must have meant it.
“Asahina-san,” he began, warmly, “what Emu means is that…”
Mafuyu looked the boy in his eyes.
Tsukasa, right? That was his name.
“If you ever find yourself struggling to smile… or as though the whole world has it out against you! You’re more than welcome to come here, to the Wonder Stage.”
Had his eyes always been that bright? Their orange hue so ignited in flaming fervor? In passion?
“It’s our mission to make people smile, after all! To cheer them up, whenever they’re in need of joy in their life!”
Had he been looking at her this same way, this whole time?
No, wait.
“Even if it seems as though the whole world doesn’t want you to.”
Something new struck at Mafuyu’s chest.
No, not just her chest. Her eyes. Her everything.
Tsukasa had not always been looking at her like that, no.
But the way that he was now?
The way that he stared right at her, met her on the same ground, as two peers, it…
It was different.
It was different, but not foreign.
It was familiar.
It was like Mafuyu was staring down at her phone, desperate for it to turn back on, as she shivered on Kanade’s bed, still half-drenched in rainwater.
It was like Mafuyu was staring into the bathroom mirror at Ena’s house, meeting her own gaze as she numbly brushed her teeth.
It was like Mafuyu was staring into the mirror in Mizuki’s room, the one that they would always run away from the voice chat to prance around in front of, making some strange joke about—
Mizuki.
They knew Tsukasa, didn’t they? They both went to Kamiyama High.
The look that Mizuki had transfixed her with, as that blissful day of theirs slipped from Mafuyu’s fingers. As the two of them stood on the sidewalk, people hustling and bustling and blurring around in her periphery.
The look that they’d given her, upon telling her that it was okay to run. That it was okay to be selfish, and seek out somewhere to take in another breath, as painful as it might have been.
Why did Tsukasa look at her like that?
Was he? Was he looking at her like that? Because of something like that?
No.
She was close to the solution, but the formula that she had been using hadn’t been quite right.
Tsukasa’s lips shifted a bit, a different light, perhaps to do with the fading sunset’s glow, beginning to illuminate his eyes a bit differently.
It was like he was looking at his reflection. Like he was the one looking in the mirror.
Like he was recognizing something in her.
Mafuyu didn’t know what it was. Mafuyu couldn’t know what it was.
She didn’t know this boy.
She didn’t know anything about his life beyond what she’d heard from Hinomori-san and Momoi-san and Kamishiro-san on their class trip.
She didn’t know just how well they all knew one another. She didn’t even know how well Mizuki knew Kamishiro-san, aside from their shared time in middle school that she’d briefly heard abridged retellings of.
And yet.
This boy seemed to know her.
Perhaps not intimately, but she was familiar to him.
Maybe he saw someone like her when he looked in the mirror, too.
“Even if it seems as though the whole world doesn’t want you to,” rung in the forefront of her mind, louder than any of his howling accusations and retorts had, earlier.
Mafuyu was not a stranger to running, nor was she a stranger to standing in the mirror and reflecting.
She’d finally seen the world she was living in. The one that didn’t want her to need joy in her life. That’s why she was with Kanade now. That’s why she was safe.
So, maybe… she knew him too.
She didn’t know why that glint was in his eye. The one of resigned melancholy, she finally recognized it as. She likely never would. It was none of her business.
But, really, did she need to?
After all, she was smiling now, as she opened her mouth to reply.
Mafuyu was smiling, and she knew that she meant it this time.