KOF Extras

Christmas Vacation in Cannes (Part 2)

After having a hearty lunch of steak and fries, and as if that wasn't enough, they even ordered themselves some Croque Madame as well. They were just that hungry.
Meiten seemed more energetic now too, even having a smile as he walked alongside the two of them to leave the cafe, holding their coffee to-go.
"The food here is good," Shun remarked as he got into the car.
"Yeah, it had good reviews," Shingo said. "It's a good thing I looked up a list of good places online."
"Can we go to the funfair tomorrow?" Meiten asked, poking at Shingo's shoulder from the back.
Shingo nodded. "Sure, why not. They have snacks, rides, stuff like that. But make sure you don't wander off. You don't even have a phone." He frowned as he started the car. "Why don't you have one anyway?"
Meiten shrugged. "Don't want one."
"It's not something you should want, it's something you need," Shingo added. "Anyway, you guys wanna go anywhere else or do you want to go to go back to the chalet?"
"Chalet," Meiten yawned. "I'm still tired after the flight."
"You slept the whole time, how are you still tired?" Shun sighed. "But yeah, I'm tired too."
Shingo nodded. "Yeah, I should catch up on some sleep too. Then tonight, we can go for dinner."
They returned to their chalet and Meiten fell asleep as soon as he stepped in. Shun had to help Shingo bring him over to his room and get him settled in bed.
"You wanna share with this guy or separate room?" Shingo asked.
Shun shook his head. "I'll take a separate room. Been sharing with him all my life."
Shingo snorted and clapped his back. "You wanna sleep too?"
Shun shrugged. "Not really, but I am a bit sleepy."
"You better go," Shingo pushed him towards his room. "Here, this is your room. Get some rest."
"Alright," Shun yawned before entering his room.
Shingo retreated into the third room and left the door open a crack before plopping onto the bed, not even bothering to change before conking out.

23 December
The three of them sat on a bench and nibbled on some bubble waffles as a second breakfast before going to the Fête Foraine de Noël. The three of them had already had a hearty breakfast of tartines, chocolate danishes, crepes.
"So I got us tickets for the Ghost Train, the Pirate Ship, and the roller coaster," Shingo excitedly began.
Shun gulped. "Ro... Roller coaster?"
"Yes?" Shingo nodded.
"I'm scared," Shun shuddered.
Meiten comfortingly rubbed his back. "Shun-chan..."
"Come on, it will be fun," Shingo grinned. "We'll be with you the whole time, okay? You can hold my hand."
Shun couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Thanks, Shingo-niichan."
"Dawwwww!" Shingo put an arm around Shun and gave him a squeeze. "You guys are adorable."
They finished their waffles and decided to go for the ghost train first. It was spooky, with a story of some legendary train that crashed a hundred years ago but awakened every end of the year to rock again.
Meiten was surprisingly fascinated by the story, so was Shun. Shingo enjoyed himself too, taking pictures of the attractions and whatnot. They even took a selfie together and sent it to Benimaru as proof that he was doing well on holiday. The blond had been messaging him nonstop ever since he arrived in Cannes.
As soon as the ride was over, Meiten dragged Shingo to the toilet since he badly needed to go. Shun was laughing at their heels, but didn't say anything.
"How are things with Isla?" Shingo asked while they waited with Isla.
Shun snorted. "Believe it or not, she's celebrating Christmas with the Ikari Warriors."
This was some surprising piece of information. "Oh, that's... unexpected..." Shingo said.
"Nah, not really, she kept in touch with Heidern and he invited her over," Shun shrugged. "I think it's pretty sweet." He took his phone out and showed him a picture of Isla with Leona, Ralf, and Clark, all three of them wearing Christmas hats while Heidern stood in the background.
"That's actually kinda cute," Shingo chuckled. He noticed Meiten was taking forever and went to his stall. Shingo rapped on the door. "Meiten, you done in there?"
"Almost!" Meiten called back.
Shun turned to Shingo with a smile. "Are we going to the bazaar? I heard there's one in this festival."
Shingo shrugged. "I think there's time. We're scheduled to go for the pirate ship in one and a half hours."
Meiten flushed the toilet and walked out before making a beeline for the sink. The three of them walked out and made a beeline for the festival bazaar.

There were lots of food, souvenirs too. Shingo got some for Benimaru, some for the Yagamis, and even a few for Kyo. Maybe he had grown out of the 'worshipping Kyo' phase, especially when he realised that it was Benimaru that was looking out for him more. Even the Yagamis.
Shingo paid for the things he bought and turned to where he left Shun'ei and Meiten and nearly felt his heart stopped when he found them nowhere. It made him panic, the two of them were placed in his care and now he had lost them.
Wait.
Shingo took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. He didn't even turn away from them for that long, the two of them had to be somewhere around. Shingo looked about, his eyes frantically scanning the crowd for either one of them.
At last, Shingo spotted a headful of green hair and elbowed his way towards it. He grabbed Shun'ei by the shoulders and yanked the boy towards him.
"Shingo-niichan?" Shun called, looking confused. "What's up?"
"Please don't wander off like that," Shingo shook the boy's shoulders.
Shun realised that he had left Shingo's side and had wandered into the crowd. He quickly bowed. "Sorry. I didn't realise."
Shingo sighed and gave him a hug before grabbing his arm. "Now to look for Meiten."
"He was just here," Shun remarked, looking around. "Meiten!"
Shingo looked about too, still holding onto Shun's arm. To his dismay, Meiten was nowhere to be seen. It didn't help that he was small in size too, much shorter than Shun and himself.
"Can you try calling him?" Shingo asked the younger man.
Shun frowned and shook his head. "No, he doesn't have a phone."
Shingo groaned. "Oh come on!"
That information somehow made him panic even further. For a moment, he was briefly reminded of how his family once lost Rieko at a bazaar just like this back when they went for a holiday in Okinawa. Shingo didn't properly remember the place or the when it had happened, just that it had happened. She was a little girl at the time, and he remember his parents being so worried for Rieko.
Shingo was just as devastated at the time, especially when seeing his parents in that condition. But somehow, they found her quietly sitting at a stall. Apparently, she was smart enough to reach out to the nearest adult, who happened to be a family selling tanghulu, and they took care of her and advised her to sit tight so that she would be easier to spot. Not to mention that they had given her a few sticks of tanghulu on the house since she was both adorable and lost.
Shingo was quite close to Rieko at the time too, of course this was all before she started looking down on him for being clumsy. She started ganging up with her older sister to shame him just because of how clumsy he was sometimes. At some point, Shingo even wished that she had permanently stayed gone from when they lost her at the time.
But that wasn't the case for Meiten. The poor boy had done nothing wrong to him. In fact, both he and Shun had looked up to him, even wishing that he actually had brothers instead of sisters. He would protect them just as much as he would protect his sisters if the need ever arises.
Shingo held onto his scalp and shook his head as if he was trying to clear his head after being punched in the face during a KOF tournament. He looked about and found Shun standing at a stall, frantically trying to ask the vendor if he has seen a young boy running about with a bolster. He couldn't speak Frenxh, and the shop keeper had trouble understanding English.
Shingo immediately stepped up, grabbed onto Shun's arm again, and used his phone to translate his sentence into French before translating the reply he received from the vendor.
"He went this way, he was with a tall burly man with long blond hair," the lady said. Shingo looked at her to see her speaking fast French and pointing to the direction of where the man had supposedly taken Meiten.
Shingo frowned slightly before speaking into his phone. "Was this man dressed in red?"
The shopkeeper heard the translation and nodded vigorously. "Oui! Oui!"
Shingo didn't need translate that statement. He thanked the shopkeeper and grabbed onto Shun's arm again to drag him off.
"What did she say?" Shun asked.
"She said that Rugal is up to his stupid Christmas tricks again," Shingo grimaced.
Shun looked at him in surprise. "She literally said that?"
Shingo shook his head, bringing Shun in front of him so that they can better find their way through the crowd of people. "No, but he did something like this before, and I suspect that he would do something like this again. First, he got Bao. Now, he took Meiten."
"But why?" Shun frowned, not sure what Rugal would want with Meiten. "Is he planning something... sinister?"
"Nah. He likes to lead us around on these stupid treasure hunts," Shingo shrugged. "Apparently, it's his way of having fun on Christmas."
"By kidnapping children?"
"No, by messing with us. Meiten's safe, don't worry about that, but I ain't got no time to play around with his tricks. We're catching him!"
Shun seemed to be onboard with that, even cheerfully making a gesture of determination that was popular in Japan. Shingo quickly stopped him since it was seen quite offensive in many parts of Europe, unlike how it was positively seen in Japan.
It was the Italian salute.

I know these guys speak Japanese, but they seem to be perfectly proficient in English as well (let's just assume that) and that's why they speak in English to the vendors since they can't speak French. As we all know, English serves as a lingua franca between countries.