[b]Kotori Shirohane - Warakuma Central Shrine | Wednesday, July 13 2015[/b]

Kotori felt some measure of relief when she sat down on the bench - a brief respite was quite welcome after the unexpected excitement that the whole festival visit had turned out to be. As such, she didn't really mind the silence that came between Rui and her as they enjoyed their festival meals - it was almost comfortable, in a way. Of course, with all the sounds and voices that came with such a festival, it wasn't really like there was such a thing as silence anyway. But either way, she enjoyed the opportunity to just relax and catch her breath before they would head back into the crowd once more.

Not long after, they would find themselves visiting a number of amusement stands as they made their way through the festival grounds - Kotori even participated in a few; if mostly after a quick encouragement from Rui who, in turn, seemed quite at ease with the variety of tasks the games presented. As they did, time just seemed to fly - for before long, a reminder was announced about the firework displayed beginning soon. This being the highlight of the festival, there was no way they were going to miss it - and as such, they found another bench which offered a good view of the night sky; neither too close for comfort nor too far to miss even a single sight of the fireworks.

Throughout the display, Kotori had to keep herself from jumping several times when some of the more quietly rising fireworks suddenly exploded with a thunderous boom; their sparkling light spreading illuminating the festival ground for brief flashes at a time. Still, she did enjoy the whole event and all throughout the display even had a small smile upon her lips as she kept her eyes fixed on the various glowing trails that streaked heavenwards before bursting into brilliant displays of colour.

As the firework display came to an end, so too did the festival itself start to wind down. With the main highlight of the evening now in the past, the crowds were starting to visibly thin; even though the day's warmth still lingered as the evening slowly began to give way to night. Upon closer inspection, Rui and Kotori realised that they had, in fact, pretty much completed a whole round through the festival - and with how things were slowly coming to a close, decided to call it a night as well. Needless to say, Kotori's attempts at protesting whether Rui really needed to walk with her when it might not be along his way were summarily rejected. The fact that she didn't make all to many attempts was probably just down to how late it was getting.

A little while - Kotori was a bit surprised that the way back somehow seemed almost shorter even though she'd been in quite a hurry the first time around - the two arrived in front of the Shirohane Flowershop. As the time for parting came, Kotori thanked Rui - both for spending the evening with her and subsequently walking her home. She was about to also mumble and apology for probably not having been the most interesting company that he could have visited the festival with - but before she could, Rui instead wished her a good night. [color=green]"Ah, uhm, yes, good night to you too, Shinichi-san,"[/color] she said, giving a small bow as she did. A brief rummage through her handbag later, she unlocked the door; taking a moment to glance back - and give a small wave when she saw Rui still waiting for her to actually get home before he too would be on his way.

[color=green]"I'm home,"[/color] Kotori announced when she stepped into the living room - only to find her smiling mother already sitting there with two cups of tea before her; the steam still rising up from them. Unsurprisingly, it would only be after Kotori had told the whole tale of her evening before she would actually be able to head to bed for the night. Of course, Kotori had skipped the occasional detail in her retelling - chief among them being the conversation that she'd had with Rui about her fears for her own future.

It would be a long time before Kotori finally managed to get to sleep. In the quiet dark, she tried to make sense of her own thoughts on the matter - which proved oddly difficult whenever her mind seemed to insist on reminding her of some particularly embarrassing moment of the evening in excrutiating detail.