Kusamonogatari

Vol.3 Chapter 1

草物語

Chapter 57:When the fake is better than the original

After 5 days of traveling we arrived at Port City. Before we entered the gate, I asked Calli something that has been bugging me.

"Dad?"

"What's wrong?" asked Calli

"Aren't you going to disguise yourself like you did before entering Candy Kingdom?"

Calli responded with a smirk on her face, "You'll see it for yourself later."

She then asked the carriage driver, "Can you drop us off at the square and send our luggage to the resort?"

The carriage driver nodded as he watched the road.

The carriage smoothly passed through the checkpoint of the city and dropped us at our resort. We exited the carriage to see everyone wearing costumes and parading in crowds. And in the midst of it I saw a few people wearing the same costume as Calli!!!

"What is this?" I asked Calli

"Welcome to Port city, now let's get you a costume shall we" said Calli

"No, I'm fine with what I'm wearing..."

"Let's join the Harvest Festival parade then, there's a lot of events awaiting us." Calli seemed excited.

I held her hand like clockwork and Calli looked befuddled,"Why are you holding my hand?"

"There's too many people who're wearing the same outfit as you. I don't want to be suddenly following the wrong Calli."

"But I marked you, I know where to find you." Calli responded

"And I don't, so what if you ditch me and run off for a week again?"

Calli looked me in the eyes, she then carried me up so that I sat on top of her shoulders.

"Satisfied?" she asked.

"Put me down! I'm not a kid anymore!" I blushed as I saw people around looking at me.

"Too late, you're not getting down until sundown for trying to be cheeky with me." said Calli

Calli carried me while following the crowds until we reached a big stage in the middle of the square. The host was entertaining the crowd with a megaphone.

"Good day everyone, the next event we are hosting would be an impersonation contest of Death herself! So, all of those that are dressed in Death's getup can join by coming up to the stage! The winner gets a cruise ticket to ɐᴉlɐɹʇsn∀!"

There was quite the number of people with Calli's outfit beginning to go up to the stage. I looked at Calli and came up with an idea.

___________________________________________

"Now we are left with only 3 contestants, we will go through an interview with each contestant before we decide the winner."said the host.

"Starting with contestant number 41, can you tell us your name?" he questioned.

"GUH, the name is Calliope Mori" She seems to be unamused because of the fact that she is competing against people that are trying to impersonate her.

"That's a beautiful name, are there any words that you would like to say to the audience?" The announcer asked.

Calli paused to think for a moment then she spoke "As a matter of fact, I do."

"Ooh, what would that be?" The host gave her the megaphone.

"EDGE! THERE'S NO WAY IM GOING TO LOSE THIS YOU HEAR ME!" Calli declared.

The host was startled by the sudden shouting of contestant 41 and proceeded to take away the megaphone "Hehe, sorry about that, let us continue to our next contestant..."

After the interview, the host moved onto the final segment to determine the winner, "Now that we came to know our contestants, we shall begin the vote. It's easy, just clap your hands and shout their names. The one that received the loudest reaction from the crowd wins. "

"We shall start with contestant 15!" The audience roared and cheered for the contestant.

"Then next is contestant 41! Give her a round of applause!" However the crowd went silent.

Seeing this, Calli took out her scythe from her inventory and knocked its end on the floor, generating a loud bang which startled everyone. "Say my name!"

The crowd was confused by the sudden killing intent they felt and started chanting her name in unison with a trembling voice."Mori..Mori...Mori!"

"You're goddamn right." Calli said.

The host was sweating bullets in response to the situation, he immediately try to pull back the attention to the last contestant. "That was surely a lovely reception, now for contestant number 1, call out her name!"

The entire audience roared unlike before and thus the ranking has been decided. In the end, Calli got second place at a competition to impersonate herself...

After the competition, she sulked all the way even after we reached the resort we're staying at. When we entered the resort, the workers seemed to be hanging decorations all over the place. A stand holding a board came into sight.

I read out the content "Royal Wedding of Noel Shirogane and Shiranui Flare..?"

"They're getting married here???" I yelled unintentionally.