Let's Go Have Fun! (3)
"We don't have to wait in line."
I didn't understand Bora at first, but it didn't take long for the meaning to land—because she scooped me up and started walking straight for the entrance.
"Uh... uh...?"
Bora, Haru, and I walked into the venue without a single person stopping us. Anyone stuck waiting so patiently in the line beside us would have had every right to protest.
Dazed, I stayed cradled in Bora's arms and drifted inside as if it were the most natural thing in the world. I'd been sure the staff would block us. Instead they opened a path and welcomed us through, while the people around us stared with open envy.
Something this good actually happens?
"How did we get in?"
Curiosity got the better of me, so I asked. I'd been certain we would have to line up, and walking in unchallenged, as if we belonged here, made no sense no matter how I turned it over.
"One of the companies sponsoring this event is ours."
Bora pointed to a poster covered in official sponsor marks as she said it. Just as she claimed, our Starlight Guild emblem was painted there huge—far larger than any of the other companies'. We must have put up a great deal of money. Enough, anyway, for them to play favorites by logo size.
After that she walked over to a staff member and came back with something in her hands: a lanyard with a badge hanging from it. Enormous letters were printed across the badge.
"Don't lose it, okay?"
Smiling, Bora looped the lanyard around my neck. The design was so flashy I almost wanted to take it home with me.
"This takes me back~"
"I watched so many shows like this when I was little."
Bora and Haru chatted as they put their own lanyards on. The anime the two of them had grown up with were thoroughly old by now, and nobody watched them anymore. However popular they might have been back then, nothing held up against the years.
Badges on, we stepped back out into a bustle of people rushing every which way. The event was still hours from starting, which was probably why everyone was scrambling to finish the last of the preparations. Every time someone hauled a load past us, another booth sprang into being. Part-timers outnumbered everyone else by a landslide, though here and there I spotted people who looked like actual organizers.
"Whoa!"
I tore around the inside of the venue. Characters from the anime I watched were everywhere, including the one I liked second only to Rumi—a robot that transformed through three whole stages. Every transformation turned gorgeously flashy, and that was half the fun of watching it.
Holding Bora's hand and Haru's, I wandered the venue from end to end. Seeing the booths before they were finished felt new, and I liked it.
Then my eyes lit up. I'd found someone cosplaying as Rumi. The place was full of people dressed as anime characters; they were probably being treated as staff, which was why they'd been let in ahead of everyone else. I scurried over and got my picture taken with the Rumi cosplayer.
I'm keeping this forever. A treasure.
Even after we'd covered a fair stretch of the venue, I still couldn't find a single piece of Rumi merchandise. I felt the energy drain out of me, and all I could do was wilt. Buying Rumi goods was the single biggest reason I'd come, and leaving without them would be like a red-bean bun with no red beans.
I craned and peered at everyone carrying things, just in case someone had Rumi merch in their arms. I turned my head this way and that, searching, and not one person was holding any. Looking around, there still didn't seem to be a booth selling Rumi goods at all.
They haven't set it up yet? That can't be right.
It was probably just that my short legs hadn't carried me far enough. The venue was as wide as a soccer field, and what I'd covered wasn't even a quarter of it. I stamped in place, fighting with everything I had to find Rumi's booth. Once the crowds poured in, buying anything would be next to impossible.
That was when Bora and Haru caught my hands.
"Let's go that way."
Don't tell me they actually found the place selling Rumi merch. They were so much taller than me that hunting for it gave them an enormous advantage.
They kept hold of my hands, and I went along with them. I don't know how far we walked before I found a booth painted with a character I knew by heart. My eyes sparkled. We'd finally reached the place where Rumi was.
The booth was so big I couldn't understand how I'd missed it—nearly twice the size of the others, if I had to guess. Rumi really was amazing, just as I'd always said.
Setup already looked finished. All kinds of goods were lined up on display. If I ask, will they just give them to me? I hesitated, fidgeting in front of the booth, my mouth refusing to open. Asking outright was harder than it looked.
Haru must have caught me like that, because she turned to me.
"Hana, go ask that staff member for the merch you want!"
"R-really? They'll just give it to me if I ask?"
I said it while clinging to Haru's leg. She nodded hard.
"Mm-hmm. Tell them, and you'll get whatever you want!"
"For real?"
"For real~"
With that, Haru set a hand on my back and steered me toward the booth. I had no choice but to go where she led. Even if I tried to stop, she was pushing from behind.
"E-excuse me!"
The staff were already smiling at me, warm and pleased, as if the whole thing had been arranged.
"What can we get you?"
One of them smiled and asked what I wanted. I rolled my eyes this way and that, hemming and hawing, and in the end I opened my mouth.
"One Rumi transformation set, please!"
Naming the thing I'd wanted since before we even left settled my heart. Bora was capturing me on her phone—photo or video, I couldn't tell which—smiling the whole time. I was long past the point of noticing when she pointed a phone at me. It was as natural as breathing, so it barely registered. Every bit of my attention was locked on the Rumi transformation set.
Almost no time passed after I asked before a staff member brought over a box and placed it in my hands.
"Wow..."
A gorgeous ribbon wrapped the box. When I lifted it, the weight was proof enough that there was plenty inside.
"Hah!"
Looking closer, even the box was anything but ordinary. It was identical to the presents Little Magician Rumi handed out to children after she finished off the villains. A box that belonged in the anime was in my hands, and I couldn't hide how thrilled I was.
I set it on the table and yanked the ribbon loose. Once it was undone and I lifted the lid, Rumi's transformation set shone brilliantly inside.
When Rumi transformed out of her ordinary school uniform, she changed into a special outfit, and that outfit was what waited in the box. It was a cut-down version, so there was only a hat and a cape—but even those were gorgeous. I pulled them out and put them on, then took out the magic wand I'd brought from home.
The gauzy cape fluttered on the air every time I moved, and the oversized hat sat perched on my head. Wand raised high, I spun in one big circle and showed everyone my fully transformed self. I had never felt better. To think I could transform this perfectly!
Bora and Haru loved it too, flashing me thumbs-ups—phones still pointed my way, of course. I did want to watch the video of myself later. Seeing me through someone else's eyes would feel completely different.
"Yahoo!"
I ran all over the booth. With the crowds not in yet, there was plenty of room to run, and the place was entirely mine. A few people came to stop me, took one look at the VIP badge around my neck, and turned right back around.
Even that didn't last. Bora's hand put an end to it. Mid-sprint, I was caught.
"You can't get in the staff's way."
She was right. I'd been acting far too much like a little kid. Even now the staff were on the move, working—hauling things, or putting the booth together.
I felt my face go hot and hid behind Bora's leg. I wasn't embarrassed to show this side of myself to Bora and Haru, but the moment I realized strangers had seen the real me, nothing had ever felt more humiliating.
And I'd made it all the way through college, too.