Roadtrip // Kubokai

Disaster

The storm lasted surprisingly not for long. It stopped only after an hour. The strange man was never seen again, which was a relieve for the boys. The last thing they needed right then was someone creepy to be following them. When the rain was lightly drizzling again Kuboyasu decided to go. Their destination was near, so there was no reason to wait any longer. 

Hidden far from any city, between forests there was a small village. Kaidou was interested in visiting this place because of a small festival. This year the village was celebrating a fiftieth anniversary or rebuilding the village's temple after it got almost burned entirely. It was such an important moment in history that they organized an entire festival just to celebrate it. 

When the boys arrived, it was supposed to be a day of the festival, but there were still no decorations or actually anything. 

"I thought by now people would organize something" Kuboyasu said as he shut the car door.

"Maybe we looked at the wrong date?" Kaidou wasn't sure if that could be true. He very carefully planned staying in this village. It was almost impossible that he made such a big mistake.

"Where gonna figure it out later. Let's check in for now"

With that being said, the boys entered a small hotel. It was cheap and had some questionable reviews, but it was the only hotel in the village.

"We're very sorry" the receptionist was constantly bowing "I see you have a reservation, but the rooms are already occupied. It must be a mistake of our system. I'm sorry again, but someone has already booked those rooms this morning.

"There's no way!" Kaidou was getting nervous. Kuboyasu noticed it and put his hand on Shun's shoulder. It helped "Aren't there any rooms available?"

"I'm afraid not" the middle-aged woman looked through her computer "Because of the festival, we have a lot of tourists in our town"

The explanation was clear and understandable. They were tourists as well, and their only interest in this village was that festival.

"But" she spoke again "there is a chance somebody will leave soon. If you just want to wait in our lobby..." 

"What do you mean there's a chance?" Aren looked at her confused. The women looked even more curious. 

"We had everything ready for today's festival, but this terrible storm just came out of nowhere and we had to quickly hide everything from rain and wind and the rest... got completely demolished. The festival needed to be cancelled. Not totally of course, but it'll take a few more days to  put everything together again" she sighed, truly disappointed "So, do you want to wait?"

The boys exchanged looks. Would they want to stay an unknown amount of time and pay for more nights in the hotel just to see a festival they weren't related to in any way. That's when the woman came up with a brilliant idea. 

"I know it may sound inappropriate and unprofessional but... what if I let you stay at my house, and in exchange you'll help fix everything for the festival" she smiled brightly. She knew exactly what she was doing. With the same smile she was convincing customers to book the most expensive rooms for years. This time she really cared about the decision "Please, this is a small town with not a lot of people living here. Most of young people born here move out the second they find an opportunity to. Every young and strong person ready to help save the festival means a lot to us"

It seemed like this one event was the most important thing that was about to happen in years. Public transportation from this town to anywhere else basically didn't exist. A lot of people were stuck here for most of their lives. The boys were aware of it, and they agreeably thought it would be a shame to just leave them like this.