8 Cultural Festival Part 3

"How should we go about finding the others?" Yuri asked.

"Well…" Shujinkou took a moment to remember what the girls' plans for today were. "Considering that Sayori has a lot of places to eat at and Monika was acting weird about her class's event, it would probably be best to look for Natsuki first. She should be at Carnival Games."

Yuri silently nodded her head in agreement and followed Shujinkou to the school's entrance. He opened the doors and the two were greeted with an assortment of carnival games. Ball and Bucket Toss, Whac-A-Mole, Fishing; there was almost every game imaginable available for students to play. But even though there were many fun activities to play outside, the Carnival Games section of the school was almost completely empty.

"Where is everyone?" Shujinkou wondered aloud.

"Perhaps there is an event somewhere else in the school that is stealing attention away from here," Yuri suggested.

"Maybe," Shujinkou replied, wondering what kind of event could make the Carnival Games section of the festival to resemble a ghost town. "I wonder if that means Natsuki is no longer around."

Suddenly, the two heard very familiar sounding cry of anger and cautiously followed it to its source. They turned around a corner and found an enraged Natsuki aim an assault rifle at a small target among a series of larger targets. She pulled the trigger and watched a small metallic pellet fly past her intended target, causing even more anger to build up inside her.

"Maybe its best not to approach her right now," Shujinkou nervously thought, staring at the rifle she was holding. He then noticed that Natsuki wasn't the only one that was annoyed; the student managing the game looked as if he was running out of patience.

"Can't you just aim for one of the easier targets?" he complained.

"Stop trying to rush me!" Natsuki snapped. "It's messing up my aim!"

"But you're going to make me miss the big event," the operator sighed.

Shujinkou wondered what the student was referring to when he mentioned the "big event", but just like yesterday, he didn't have much time to think as his train of thought was interrupted by another one of Natsuki's anger-induced cries. Curious to why she's had no luck shooting down the target she wanted, Shujinkou quietly walked closer to Natsuki and watched her fail to hit the target once more.

"That's it!" Shujinkou said aloud.

Natsuki immediately turned around and was surprised to find Shujinkou and Yuri standing behind her.

"What are you guys doing here?" she asked, lowering her rifle.

"We were just looking for you," Shujinkou replied, keeping his eyes trained the rifle. He knew that if he made her mad now, it would not end well for him.

"What for? You got nothing better to do?" Natsuki replied.

"What makes you say that?" Shujinkou asked.

"Your face just screams 'I have no idea what I should do,'" Natsuki pointed out.

At that very moment, two questions made an entrance inside Shujinkou head. #1: Did his face really give away the fact that he had no idea what to do and #2: Why was she only making an observation regarding him? In the end, he decided it was better not dwell on those two questions and move on.

"So how are you doing on this game?" Shujinkou asked.

"F-Fine!" Natsuki quickly stuttered. "I just need people to stop rushing me so I can win."

"Face it. You just suck," the operator said, very annoyed that he's being held up. Shujinkou expected Natsuki to snap at that blunt comment but, to his absolute surprise, she instead stared at her gun wearing an expression that mixed frustration and disappointment into one.

"I bet she can make the next shot," Shujinkou responded. Natsuki looked up at Shujinkou and was surprised by the confident smile on his face.

"Just take aim," Shujinkou instructed. Natsuki did as she was told, wondering what Shujinkou had in mind until she felt his left hand gently latch onto hers.

"W-What are you doing?!" she snapped, swatting his hand away.

"Sorry," Shujinkou nervously apologized. "I was just trying to help you hold the gun and aim better."

"What are you talking about?" Natsuki asked, skeptical about his true intentions.

"It's just that you kind of hold the rifle wrong and you don't aim the gun correctly and I was just trying to help," Shujinkou explained. Natsuki continued to stare at him and then looked down at her hands. She then looked back at Shujinkou before quickly averting her gaze.

"Fine," Natsuki conceded. "But only because it will help."

Natsuki quickly took up her initial aiming position and Shujinkou gently grasped her left hand like before, sending a shock throughout her entire body. The feeling of a boy holding her hand and the close contact between them was enough for her cheeks to match the color of her hair. She wasn't the only one who felt uneasy about the situation though. Natsuki's reluctance made Shujinkou realize how close he would have to be to help, something that he had completely missed a few moments earlier.

Taking a deep breath to regain his calm, Shujinkou slowly moved Natsuki's left hand from the magazine of the gun and placed it firmly on the barrel.

"This will help you steady your aim better," Shujinkou explained before leaning in even closer. Natsuki's cheeks grew even pinker once she felt his chest make contact with her back."Now you see those metal pieces jutting up?"

Natsuki silently nodded her head. She didn't have the strength to vocally answer him.

"That's your sights. It's an aiming device used to assist in visually aligning ranged weapons, surveying instruments or optical illumination equipments with the intended target," Shujinkou explained. "If you aim using those, you should be able to hit your intended target."

Natsuki quizzically looked down the gun's sights, wondering if they were actually as helpful as Shujinkou made them sound.

"The secret is aiming your sight at the target," Shujinkou advised. Following his advice, Natsuki aimed the sights at the tiny target she was trying to shoot down. Pulling the trigger, a metallic pellet flew out of the gun's barrel and knocked over the target she aimed at.

"Yes! I did it!" beamed Natsuki. Now Shujinkou was used to seeing Natsuki being brash, blunt, sometimes cranky, and even arrogant at times, but he has never seen her as excited as she was now. It was actually a pleasant surprise.

The moment didn't last however as Natsuki quickly remembered that Shujinkou was still physically close to her.

"You can let go now," Natsuki pouted.

"Huh? Oh right," Shujinkou nervously chuckled, quickly backing away from Natsuki. For successfully hitting the hardest target in the game, the game operator quickly handed Natsuki a stuffed cat and ran towards the school building, leaving the three Literature Club members confused.

"Maybe he's heading to the big event," Shujinkou thought.

"Shujinkou…" Natsuki called.

Shujinkou glanced over to Natsuki and felt a chill flow down his spine as she glared at him. He wondered what he could have done to make her so angry but nothing came to mind. She gritted her teeth and quickly averted her gaze.

"T-Th…" Natsuki muttered.

"Hm?" Shujinkou wondered what she was trying to say. Natsuki looked back at Shujinkou before just as quickly averting her gaze once again.

"I… I guess you're good at something after all," she said bluntly.

"Um, thanks?" Shujinkou replied. He didn't know if that was her way of saying thanks or if she really thought that he wasn't that good at anything. But like before he decided not to dwell on it and move on. Suddenly, a pair of hands appeared from behind and covered his eyes.

"Guess who?" a happy voice asked.

"Sayori," Shujinkou shrugged. The hands released their hold on Shujinkou and Sayori jumped of him with a smile on her face.

"How'd you know?" Sayori asked.

"You've been doing that for so long that at this point I just assume it's you," Shujinkou chuckled in response.

Sayori then took a quick glance around the surrounding area.

"So this place is empty too?" she noted.

"Too?" Natsuki repeated. "There are other places as dead as this place?"

"Mm-hmm. I was looking around for Shujinkou to see if he was having fun and everywhere I looked for him was empty. I didn't understand what was going on until I noticed a really long line in the second year hallway," Sayori explained.

"What was the line for?" Shujinkou wondered aloud.

"I don't know. When I tried to head to the front to check, I got chewed out by everyone in line," Sayori pouted.

"Perhaps this is the 'big event' the operator was referring to," Yuri suggested.

An event so impressive that the entire student body is making it a top priority to attend? The four Literature Club members couldn't help but wonder what it could possibly be.

"Let's check it out!" Sayori suggested. Her fellow club members nodded their heads in agreement and followed Sayori into the school to find out what the "big event" could be.