Readers familiar with the final chapter will recognize a lot of the same lines, but I decided at almost the last moment to take out a lot of this text and shift it around to other places in the chapter (or just dump it altogether and allude to the same issues in other ways).
After going through the kimono preparation scene in Chapter 37 ("Agonies and Thrills"), I figured that readers would probably get bored reading essentially the same thing with this yukata preparation scene. Also, there was originally going to be a brief interlude during the festival - where Chie and Yousuke would slip away to the aforementioned dark space under the stage - and inadvertently hear Yukiko and Souji in conversation about their relationship. But I thought that that would take away from the overall sweetness of the chapter that I was trying to convey, and I couldn't find the exact right place to make the moment happen. That (ditched) scene is one of the reasons why I thought it important to go into detail about Chie was or was not wearing beneath her yukata.
It would have taken less time for the legendary weaver princess Orihime to fashion an entire wardrobe full of gold-spun yukata than it was just to get Kuma dressed into hers. Part of the problem was that the girl was so naturally fidgety – even as a boy, and as a bear, Kuma had always had trouble standing still – but the other part was that Chie was not very adept at dressing anyone besides herself in the garment. They had almost gotten Kuma all perfectly wound and belted, when Chie realized that she had wrapped the yukata the wrong way, and they had needed to begin all over again.
Luckily, Chie had thought to call Yukiko earlier in the day, knowing that she was going to need help, and the ryokan manager had arrived shortly after Chie had begun the second attempt at Kuma's yukata. Yukiko managed to speed through the dressing like a pro, wrapping, tucking, and tying with an expert's flair, and even managing to carry light conversation while she worked.
“This is a very pretty yukata, Kumada-chan,” Yukiko said with a smile as she finished wrapping the outer belt.
“Thank you, kuma,” the girl replied with a sparkling smile of her own. “Chie-chan said I would look good in blue, so that's what I chose, kuma.” And she lifted the long draping sleeves in presentation.
Yukiko chuckled. “Chie-chan does like to make her opinions known,” she muttered.
Chie looked at her friend, pursing her lips sheepishly. No doubt Yukiko was referring to Chie's compliments, when they were younger, about how good Yukiko looked in the color red, and how Yukiko had quickly taken to adding the color to every part of her wardrobe, from hairbands to dresses to sweaters to earrings. Thankfully, Yukiko no longer held any of that against Chie (if she ever had...Chie had meant the compliment sincerely – Yukiko really did look good in red), forming her own opinions about what looked good on her, and in what way. Of course, Chie noticed that Yukiko still held a fondness for the color red, though if that was from Chie's influence or not, she didn't know.
“But it is a very good color on you,” Yukiko admitted, tilting her head in appraisal.
And it was: the pale blue flower print brought out the shimmer of Kuma's eyes, and the full pinkness of her lips. Highlighted among the blue flowers were little curling gold and silver enhancements, which shone whenever the material moved through the light. And the wide belt – the same kind of white-fading-to-blue color – completed the picture perfectly; Kuma looked like a charmingly real young woman.
Kuma smiled then, and shifted her hair from her shoulders with one hand. She had wanted to leave her hair loose and flowing, though the flaxen tresses were accentuated by a red flower barrette pinned close to one ear, which reminded Chie of the flower that boy-Kuma used to wear with his suit.
“I wanted to be extra pretty today,” the girl explained, “just like Yuki-chan and Chie-chan.” Her eyes sparkled with new interest. “Oh! Will Naoto-chan and Rise-chan be wearing yukata, too?”
Yukiko chuckled. “I don't know if even Kanji-kun could convince Naoto-chan to wear a yukata....”
“What about Rise-chan?” Kuma asked again. “Do you think she'll have a yukata, kuma?”
“I'm sure one of her outfits will be,” Chie replied with a snickering smile.
Yukiko chuckled again, then turned, waving her hand up and down at Chie. “Hey, slowpoke, you've got to get ready, too!”
Chie wrapped her yukata closed with a sheepish smile; she had been helping Kuma dress with her own garment just draped over her shoulders, with only a clingy half-shirt and panties underneath. She picked up the sash that Kanji's mother had given her a few months ago, grateful to have a new piece of clothing worthy of showing it off.
“Did Kanji-kun make these?” Yukiko asked, stepping back while Chie wound the first belt around her waist.
Chie shook her head. “Actually, Ai-chan helped us find 'em.”
The two of them – Chie and Kuma – had only just found the new yukata the Saturday prior, on a trip into Okina based on a suggestion from Ebihara Ai, of all people. When Ai had heard from Yousuke that their young friend was looking for a yukata for the festival but had so far had no luck, she had told Chie about a little clothing shop outside the main shopping center, where the proprietors resold irregular and canceled clothing orders at a discount. When Chie had taken Kuma there two days ago, the girl had immediately fallen in love with the blue yukata...and Chie had even found a pretty new yukata for herself. (They had even gotten an extra discount on the clothes for mentioning Ai's name, an extra perk which was much appreciated by Chie's pocketbook.)
Yukiko blinked at the mention of Ai's name, then recovered her smile. “Do you speak with her very often? Ai-chan, I mean.”
Chie shrugged gently, the movement restricted a little by the cut of the yukata's shoulders. “Once in a while. Yousuke's been working with her on festival stuff, so she's kinda been around this past week.”
Yukiko nodded. She seemed to be watching Chie fix the wrap of her sash, but her dark eyes had a faraway look to them that gave the impression of deep, distracted thought. After a long moment, Yukiko pressed her lips together, then asked, “Does she ever...mention Kou-chan...?”
Chie paused, her hands in the middle of smoothing over her belt. She'd told no one about Ai's feelings for Kou, certainly not Yukiko, for fear that her friend might get some weird idea into her head about how Ai was a better fit than Yukiko for anyone, which just plain wasn't true.
“N-Not really,” Chie replied, shaking her head gently. “Mostly, she just talks about...clothes,” she said, which was basically true...save for one very interesting if somewhat off-color discussion about alternate sexual positions. (“If he's a gentleman,” Ai had muttered to her in the otherwise-empty Junes elevator on the same day that she had suggested the shop in Okina, “he won't take it all the time...but you should at least offer the ass.” Then she had glanced down at Chie's posterior with a smirk, adding, “Because it is a very nice ass.”)
Yukiko tilted her head again, this time in an approximation of a shrug. “I was just curious if he was going to be there tonight.”
“Sensei will be there,” Kuma offered helpfully, although the smile that Yukiko gave the girl seemed more conciliatory than actually pleased, which made both Kuma and Chie pause.
“Oh, I know,” Yukiko said softly, patting at the tucked-up fan of her hair. “But, we didn't get much of a chance to talk the last time he was in town. Kou-chan, that is.”
Chie knotted off the tie of her belt and looked at Yukiko with a small, supportive smile. “Do you need me to run interference, or interception?”
Her friend blinked again, then giggled. “Neither,” she told Chie. “If he's there, we'll talk. And if he's not...well, we won't.” She gave a brief sigh, then smiled in a more lively manner, the same pretty smile that Chie had come to love so well. “All right, then!” she said, clapping her hands. “Are we ready?”
Kuma nodded enthusiastically, grabbing her little clutch purse with her Orihime doll dangling from the zipper pull. “Yes, kuma!”
Chie agreed, lifting her own purse from the counter and pulling out her keys. “Yep!” She stepped down onto the concrete step, offering Kuma the more formal geta sandals that she'd wear with the yukata, then poked her toes into her own sandals. Yukiko stepped down last, moving smoothly and expertly in the stride-confining clothes; she could have been wearing just a normal skirt for all the difference her yukata affected her movements.
Chie locked up her apartment and followed Yukiko and Kuma down the steps of her building, holding the handrail to keep her gait steady in the cloppy wooden sandals; the rolling of her balance was not something she was particularly used to. She reflected for a moment that the lives of her ancestors would have been a lot easier if they'd invented sneakers earlier than the Twentieth Century.
They walked to Tatsuhime, Chie and Kuma on either side of Yukiko. Even though it wasn't far to the old town center shopping district, they were still impressed by the volume of the noise coming from the jinja entrance...until they saw the size of the crowd waiting to enter.
“Geez!” Chie exclaimed in disbelief. “Would you look at all those people?!”
There must have been at least four hundred men, women and children standing in little clusters around the torii gate, all chatting and laughing together. Some of them familiar faces from around town, but many were not, dressed in urban fare and traditional clothes alike.
“They must be here to see Rise-chan,” Yukiko said as an aside. She smiled cordially to some people she recognized, but then her eyes lit up with more excitement. “Ah! Dojima-san!” she called with a wave of her hand.
...and then the prose would essentially pick up from where the ladies meet with Dojima and Souji.
I think that the chapter works better as finally written - it's not as slow as the intro here, and I do manage to touch on the Kou bits in another fashion, without Yukiko seeming so wishy-washy about them. I do miss the little exchange with Ai, but maybe I'll save that one for a sequel. :D
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