They were standing side by side in the doorway. "Thank you for taking such good care of my son. Who is this beautiful young lady?" Shunta's mother, Loi's Aunt Gina, asked in a lighthearted fashion. The youth was the first to answer, beating Loi to the punch. "She's Maya, Mama! Loi's girlfriend and my second mom! She's so cute and funny, and nice! She even knows how to have an intense pillow fight! It's a little scary...but still really, really fun! Oh! Oh! And, and and! She's a Kekémon MASTER!" Shunta gushed. 

Loi and Maya were pallid save the extensive blushing painted across the apples and ridges of their cheeks. Loi began rapidly waving his hand in front of him - "No, no, no! It's not like that...I mean - she's not my girlfriend! She's with me here because-" Maya interjected quickly, "I'm just the homeowner!" Aunt Gina gently nodded knowingly with a slight grin. She then addressed her son. "Say goodbye to them, Shunta. Be nice." - "Alright, I know Mama..." He paused for a moment and stared at the pair. 

Maya looked down at him as well. After a beat, Shunta was buried in the front of her robes, hugging her tightly. "I'm going to miss you, Maya Onee-chan..." he said, with a sated expression. "I'm going to miss you too, Shunta..." Maya returned, looking down nostalgically.

***

Bright paper lanterns hung with care illuminated the wide festival grounds as distant music swelled between the stalls. Between the throngs of people, Maya wore her violet yukata and central elegant red silk ebi, gilded in the middle. Her amethyst locks of hair were pulled back and pinned tightly in ceremonial style, the highest point of the bun graced by flowering clips. 

"Good luck with Nena, Loi! Go, go L-O-I! G-E-T Nena's heart...yeah!" she cheered merrily at his side. "Hey, would you cut that out already?" he chided. "We're in public, y'know!" he continued, looking over at Maya before she began yelling more encouragement. "Here she comes, see ya later! I'll be watching, teehee~" "Loi!" 

Nena's familiar voice tunneled in from nearby as she stepped into the aisle. Loi honed his eyes on her smiling face and ceremonial garb. Nena was comfortably clad in a pale red yukata with white linings met in the middle by her periwinkle-toned soft silken ebi, bisecting the outfit cleanly. She wore a gentle smile highlighted by her shimmering dark eyes. "Sorry I'm late," she apologized candidly. 

"You look so good in your yukata..." Loi said, eyes flung open. Nena played down the compliment with a semblance of grace through closed eyes. "Really? Thank you! So, without further ado, shall we get going?" she pressed. "Yeah, hehe - sounds like a plan." Loi added gleefully.

Out from the corner of a nearby stall, Maya's surveillance of the young pair had begun in earnest. "I'll bet that he's so nervous right now...hehe..." she whispered to herself between the din of the festival. Her eyes sunk slightly and she gripped her chest. The fabric of the yukata was fine and cool to the touch, but her feelings were bittersweet and almost...morose. 

"What's this feeling? I've never had any like it..." she mused. "Oh no! I lost sight of my targets!" Maya peered out into the shuffling mass of people that populated the strip and caught on a smiling couple she recognized as Loi and Nena. Just when she honed in on them, Nena turned away from Loi and was mouthing something that Maya couldn't hear from her vantage.

"Oh, I just forgot! I have an urgent to do that I need to attend to!" she called back to Loi, who - throughly taken in by her garb and his chance at a "date" - merely chuckled and let her carry on explaining. "I've no time to chat, I really must get going...see ya!" she yelled over the rising crescendo of music. "See ya..." Loi said quietly back, waving disjointedly at her. 

With Nena gone, now there was a festival and a ghost who had ought to enjoy it. Loi sighed, exasperated. "Now, just where is that ghost?" He peered out across the grounds in search of her violet silken yukata. Simultaneously, Maya was restlessly scanning the festival for Nena and Loi again, having lost them easily in the ebb and flow of the crowd. "Oh dear, I'm completely lost...where did they go?" she fretted, with a half frown and mist forming on her brow.

Maya locked on a smiling Nena carrying on, but couldn't make out Loi by her side. "Hey, Maya!" he called toward her, diverting her gaze. "Huh? I thought you and Nena, but you...you're here and she's there - what's going on?" Maya fumbled. "Nena said something urgent came up...so she left." Loi pursed his lips and sighed deeply. He knitted his eyebrows. Maya raised her arms to comfort him, but held back as a show of respect.

"So...are we going home, then?" she asked awkwardly, unsure of herself. "Nah," Loi coughed. "Let's just enjoy the festival together. Besides, it would be a waste to have you looking so lovely in your yukata just to walk home, right? It looks very cute on you." he continued, sort of taken aback by his newfound confidence, looking away slightly.

Maya paused, blushing and smiling. "Okay...you take the lead, you dashing gentleman, you..." she coquettishly ribbed. "How about some food?" Loi posed the question as he carefully lead her by hand through the masses to a steaming takoyaki stand. "Takoyaki? Fooooood!" Maya gasped, visibly overjoyed. She was instantly overcome by hunger. 

An equally happy elderly man behind the stall placed two lines of takoyaki on skewers into a container and offered them to the pair. "Here, for the lovely couple on their hot festival date! You two look great together, and don't worry - it's on me. Oh, to be young again." Loi forked the food over to Maya who began laughing gently and blowing on the meal, without a word. He wore a crimson tint across his also smiling face.

Maya dug into the takoyaki carefully as a satisfied grin drew across her otherwise calm countenance. She beamed. "Takoyaki...it's crispy on the outside, yet supple and mushy on the inside...I like the flavor!" The complementative commentary devolved into a rhythmic low chanting. "Takoyaki..." Maya's eyes began to take on a crazed look, bewitched by the sudden influx of multi-textured deliciousness. 

"Maya?" Loi tapped her shoulder. "Need I remind you, I'm kinda on a tight budget, so you'll have settle down with the cravings...I know they're great, though." She floated her hand into his and pulled him into a hug. "Thank you, Loi! Thank you for this wonderful treat!" Maya pulled away just as quickly, realizing her action. Her confidence also astonished her, getting so bold.

"One cotton candy, please!" Maya sung out toward a nearby stall as Loi's face dropped. "Maya! The budget!" he strained and held up a circled finger and thumb, the cultural symbol that was commonplace for frugality. Maya had already begun devouring the sweet. "Nom, nom, nom - this is heaven!" she said, between rapid bites. Loi looked at the stall hand with dismay and the other man simply smiled and nodded, returning the budgetary hand gesture. "On the house!" he called over. 

What kind of luck was this? Loi had never been to a festival where he didn't have to pay for something ever since the age of ten - which seemed aeons away now. Maya ran around the festival gathering treats, however...and soon Loi's luck and budget ran out completely. "I'm flat broke!" he lamented, watching a moth depart from the inside of his wallet where his currency should be. "I love festivals! Woo!" Maya yelled, still between bites of one meal or another.

The harsh realities of a date crept in. "I regret it...I never should have brought her along...good bye, money..." Loi moped quietly. "I'm really enjoying this! Thank you thank you, Thank you, Loi!" Maya cheered, with a vibrant smile and raised hands tucked within her silken yukata. His monologue halted and he made an about face with a fierce blush. "Good for you." he said, as the sky grew bright from the flashes of numerous fireworks now exploding overhead. He simmered and simpered in the moment, abreast a beautiful lady - a ghost lady, but still - one he didn't have a chance to stand abreast of otherwise. 

"So beautiful..." Maya exclaimed, eyes toward the skies. She lowered them and in a flash a faint form of another woman in a silken yukata appeared just ahead of the pair. Maya blinked a few times and she was gone. "What's wrong?" Loi asked, seeing her disconcerting blinking. "Can I help?" Maya shrugged. "Oh, it's nothing, probably an after image of something." Up above the couple, a large chrysanthemum firework cracked the sky wide open in a torrential rumble, flaming particulate jettisoned out in all directions - quite a sight to behold.

Had she just witnessed another ghost?