How We Met Again

Chapter 24: Of Fear and Friendship

"Uesugi-san... I don't think that's very stable."

As I clung to the branch of the large tree, straddling it between my legs and wrapping my arms around it in an attempt to maintain my fragile balance, I could see what she meant. Both with regards to the paper lantern I was trying to hang from the bough, and also my own ability to defy gravity.

"Just... one more pull," I gritted my teeth, wrapping the thick cord along the rough tree bark one more time. "It'll stay once I tie it."

"Ok... If you say so."

Yotsuba surreptitiously positioned herself next to the branch, something I noticed only as I finished layering the cord, and then tying it off. The paper lantern, unlit, dangled and rotated, the cord twisting and coiling, before slowly releasing the built up potential energy and reversing the direction of its spin.

Sighing in relief, I sat up on the bough, and wiped my brow.

"I think that's the last one, Yotsuba. It's just the signs left, right?"

"Uh-huh," she nodded, studying the list on her phone which we'd made weeks before. The brightness of the screen illuminated her entire face from below, giving it an eerie, ethereal look -- not that I could see much of her face, anyways. Having already changed into her costume for the evening, her face was wrapped in bandages, leaving only one eye and her mouth exposed, as well as a fraction of her left cheek.

Scooching my way back to the trunk of the tree, I steadied myself, and then slowly swung my leg over the bough so as to not transfer the angular momentum into my torso -- I had no desire to go flipping over in the other direction. I then took a deep breath, and lowered myself. My upper-body strength was about as terrible as the rest of my physique, but I had enough to at least support my body for the second or two it took for me to reach a hanging position below the branch, and then drop the remaining half-metre to the ground. I crouched as I landed, and then shook my head.

"Why am I the one climbing trees, again? You're much more physically adept."

"Why thank you, Uesugi-san! I'm the one who has the list, though, and if my phone locks, I would need to come down again to unlock it every single time."

I grumbled, but unfortunately it was a sound argument -- short of her giving me the passcode to her phone, this was the best solution.

"Anyways," I said, brushing off the small bits of bark and greenery that had gotten on my shirt and pants while tree-climbing. "Let's go over the list one last time."

"Sure, sure. Here."

Yotsuba handed me her phone, and I scrolled through the list we'd made together over several sessions in the school library.

"Shrine talismans?"

"Check."

"Creepy music near the entrance?"

"A teacher is running that, so check."

"Uh... oh, shoot, did we forget the eye-lights?" I asked, scratching my head.

"No, I put those in first," Yotsuba said, a smug look barely visible on her face in the harsh light of the phone screen. We'd planned to hide LEDs in various places in the forest off to the sides of the trail, positioned to look like red eyes in the darkness. "They'll definitely get a fright from that."

"Good, good," I grinned. "Paper lanterns are 'check' as well since we just need to light them, so... as we thought, just the signs left."

"Do you have them?"

I scoffed. "Of course I have them. This isn't amateur hour."

"Actually, we aren't getting paid, so I think it i--"