Then they woke up the next morning, all of the three girls had only one thought.
Finally, the holidays had arrived.
Miyona and Haruka had decided to use this choice to have a longer visit to town and show Sakuya many more places.
Besides theier first shopping tour, they hadn't actually gone to the town, only to the supermarket at the edge of it, then they needed to do some grocery shopping, because they were to busy with school.
Now, they finally had time for it.
After eating a quick breakfast and getting ready, they set off.
Miyona and Haruka had planned a tour around the town for Sakuya, so once they went down the hill and arrived at the edge of the town, they proceeded to walk, instead of taking the underground, as they did last time.
"First, we will show you the monument of the school founder, afterwards we will visit the biggest shrine in town, then go to the restaurant we there at last time and end it with a stroll through the smaller streets of the city and on the way besides the river, which flowed though the city.", Haruka explained theier plan exited.
Sakuya was just as excited as her, her eyes glowing already because of the excitement and happiness.
Miyona needed to chuckle upon seeing her two friends like that.
They walked through the small alleys and the less often used streets.
Once again, Sakuya was amazed by everything she saw, even normal things, like a cat laying in the sun or the front window of a store selling sweets, thought it wasn't as bad as the first time and it made Haruka and Miyona chuckle a lot, which made Sakuya smile as well.
After a walk of half an hour, they arrived at the plaza with the monument, which was theier destination.
It wasn't that far from the edge of town, so normally one could walk ther leisurely in just fifteen minutes, but the girls had needed longer, because of Sakuya, who looked at everything in amazement, often stopping in the middle of the street to take a closer look.
The monument stood in the middle of the plaza, and there some benches to sit on, on the side of the plaza as well.
The monument itself wasn't anything that spectacular at all.
It was a white stone colum, around two meters high, which had the schools coat of arms, the date of the schools founding and a single line of words engraved in it.
The coat of arms consisted of a book, on top of which a katana, a Japanese sword, and a bell were laying.
"The book stands for wisdom and a thirst for knowledge, the katana for strength and bravery and the bell for the blessing of the gods.", Haruka explained.
On the way to the monument, they had passed by a small flowershop and buyed a bouquet of yellow vetches, which they layed down in front of the monument.
In the town, it had just somehow become a custom, to bring some flowers to the monument then visiting it, so most people did so, including the three of them.
Some other bouquets were also laying there.
Sakuya saw colorful tulips, pink roses and some wildflowers.
Someone had even broken a branch from a blooming cherry tree, laying it down there.
For a second, Sakuya felt a sting in her chest, as she looked at it, but it was gone again so fast, that she believed it to have been her imagination.
Other thoughts had already occupied her mind.
How do I know all of these flowers?, she wondered.
Thought she had gotten used to knowing or being able to do things she had no memory of, she still always wondered, her thoughts always accompanied by a small longing and the hope, that her missing memorys would return soon.
After the monument, they went to the biggest shrine in town, which was a shrine of Tenman Daijizai Tenjin, the god of studying and academics.
It was in the middle of the town, so they took the underground and rode it for three stations.
Despite being called underground, most of the railways were above ground, allowing it passengers to enjoy the view over the city during the ride.
"Since the whole town was originally build around the school, it is only natural for the biggest shrine to be one there the students could pray for good grades.", Haruka explained on the way to the shrine.
Once they arrived at the station, they needed to walk for five more minutes before standing in front of the entrance of the shrine.
The shrine itself was on a small hill, with some stone stairs leading upwards.
Together, the girls passed through the Tori's and went up the stairs on the right side of them, making sure to stay out of the middle, which was the path reserved for the gods.
Once they arrived at the top of the hill, they went to the Temizuya on theier right side, which was a big water pavilion.
There, each of them took a wooden ladle and filled it with water, befor first giving a bit of water from it in theier left hand and then in theier right hand.
Then, they used some of the water to wash theier mouths, spitting it out in the designated area once finished.
At last, they emptied the ladle above their left hand, washing the handle of the ladle as well.
Only then did they go to pray.
First they carefully threw some 5-yen coins into the offertory box, and then rang the bell in front of the shrine.
Next, they each bowed twice and clapped their hands twice.
Afterwards, each of them silently prayed.
Sakuya closed her eyes and started with thanking the god for having helped her settle in at school and having let her meet wonderful friends.
Then, she asked him to continued blessing her with a mind that wants to learn and the ability to study quickly.
She also asked him to protect Miyona and Haruka and bless them as well.
After her prayer she bowed down befor the shrine one last time.
The other two also finished theier prayers not long after and together they left the shrine.
Since it was almost lunch afterwards, they went to the restaurant the had been to before and grapped a meal there, wich was absolutely delicious again, before continuing to wander around the town.
They were just casually strolling, with no real destination, but it was a lot of fun for all of them. After passing by a stall that sold Taiyaki, they each buyed one of it and ate it while continuing walking.
On theier way, they passed by an old bookstore,with only a small window as forefront looking more like a normal house except for the wooden board on the door.
Once they entered, they saw, that it seemed almost antique, with some dust flowing in the air, glowing mysteriously in the golden light of the sun that only scattered entered the store through two windows.
The three of them stood in amazement for a moment, enjoying the complete silence in the store, before splitting up to look around.
Sakuya wandered between the shelfs full of old and new books, looking around, without any idea what she liked to read.
Suddenly, she felt as if someone had called her.
She stopped and looked around.
But there was no one and she couldn't hear anything either.
In that moment, she felt it again, as if someone was pulling on a invisible rope tied around her heart, calling her without a sound.
For a moment she thought about it, standing frozen in place, then she decided to follow the call.
Hurriedly, she walked forward, somehow feeling a bit like it was urgent.
The calling leaded her through a labyrinth of bookshelfs, until she stood in front of one, that contained many, old, leather bound, thick books.
Carefully, she let her hand slide over the backs of the books.
Suddenly she felt a light electrocution and quickly pulled back her hand.
As she reached out her hand again and pulled out the book, her fingertips had just slided over, she felt warm inside.
The book was smaller then the others, but still leather bound and adored with a few golden ornaments on the edges.
The leather was worn out, showing that the book had been read many times in the past.
The titel was ,The legends of the gods', but there was no author written on it.
Sakuya opened the book and started browsing through it a bit.
Each chapter was about another Japanese god and some myths related to them.
The sides of the book were also a bit worn out, but it still seemed like it was easy to read and for whatever reason, Sakuya really wanted to read it.
She closed it and decided to go to the counter to buy it.
The counter was on one end of the bookstore, hidden behind some bookshelfs as well.
Behind the counter sat an old man with grey hair, wearing brown pants and a green pullover, sleeping in the chair he was sitting in.
Sakuya cleared her throat and called out to the man softly.
"Sir?", she asked, unsure if he had heard her and if she should even wake him up.
The man instead was awake right away, his deep green eyes looking at her with surprise through his thick glasses with a thin golden frame.
"I didn't expect to still have costumers today. How can I help you?", he then said with a kind smile, after having looked around for a second, the way a person who just had woken up does, to know there they are and what's going on.
"I would like to buy this book.", Sakuya said, while putting down the book on the counter.
The old man reached out to it with his wrinkled hand, taking it for a moment.
After taking a look, the old man said:" You seem to have chosen something rather special here. This book is written in an older Japanese dialect, that's why it's almost impossible to read. Even I myself am unable to read the titel, much less the story, so I don't know what it is about. Do you really want to buy it?", he asked.
She nodded, hundreds of new questions already filling her mind again.
How am I able to read an old and lost dialect?
Why do I think this book is something important?
Just what is going on here?
She wondered and pounded, but couldn't find an answer, just like almost always, leaving her feeling frustrated again.
After she had paid, Miyona and Haruka also came over, each buying a book as well.
Haruka had chosen a love story set in a fantasy world, while Miyona had decided to buy a crime novel.
After the two of them had paid as well, they decided to take theier leave after saying goodbye to the old bookstore owner.
Then, they continued wandering.
After passing by a small sweets shop, they buyed some mochi with different flavors, such as peach, matcha and red beans.
A bit later they also passed by an antique shop and decided to take a look around, out of curiosity, rather then necessarily.
While walking through the shop and looking around a wild mix of different things, Sakuya noticed a small handmirror, made of silver with decorative ornate carvings, reminding her of vines and flowers.
Then opened, on the upper and lower side would be a small, round mirror, each. It was a old, but still nice, so Sakuya buyed it alongside a simple, a bit older, readinglamp, that could be clipped to the bed and was made from metal.
Miyona found a beautiful seal stamp, with the picture of some waves beneath a star on it.
The shop owner gifted her a white candle alongside it, so that she could use the wax to seal letters with the stamp.
"Do you really need a wax seal in our modern times?", Haruka teased her, as they continued strolling, after leaving the shop.
Miyona replied with a smile:" It may not be necessary, but it looks nice if letters are adorned with it."
With that, they dropped the topic and continued talking about other things.
But suddenly, Haruka stopped, looking around anxiously.
"Miyona, do you know there we are?", she asked her friend.
Miyona also took a closer look at theier surroundings before letting out a „Uh…" and shaking her head.
Sakuya looked at them in silence, a bit confused.
"What's wrong?", she asked.
Her two friends turned around, dejected expressions on theier faces.
"It seems we're lost.", Myiona finally said, forcing a small smile, trying to reassure Sakuya, who just looked at her with round eyes.
Inside the labyrinth of small, similar-looking alleys, they had gotten completely lost, with no signs, maps or other people in sight to ask for the way.
Haruka sighed and said:" No other choice: We must try to find our way by ourselfs."
With that, the three girls turned around and continued walking.
They sometimes turned right and sometimes left, then tried to turn left multiple times in a row, looked around corners, and followed streets, before needing to turn back again.
None of it worked.
A few times they thought the had found the way back, just to end up inside a dead end or another unknown alley.
As the sun started to sink, all of them were exhausted, and so they sat down on a small bench, standing in front of one of the houses for whatever reason.
"I can't walk anymore!", Miyona complained.
Haruka only nodded, to tired to answer.
Sakuyas legs also felt heavy, and she didn't want to take another step forward.
Her head kept nodding forward and her eyes closing, as she tried her hardest not to fall asleep right now.
Suddenly, she heard a creaking sound next to her and opened her eyes once again.
As she looked up, she saw a young woman, who had just stepped out of the door next to the bench, looking down on the three girls, who sat in front of the house.
"What are you doing here at this hour?", she asked them, clearly confused and worried.
"We got lost.", Miyona responded.
"I see. Seems you aren't from here. Do you attend the academy?", she then asked them.
The three girls nodded, a bit hestitant.
The young woman smiled and said:"I can show you the way back. It isn't so far from here.", she offered.
Miyona, Haruka and Sakuya exchanged a glance, then nodded.
They somehow felt that the woman could be trusted and so they gathered theier remaining strength and stood up.
The woman turned around and walked in front of them, the girls following her in the hope that she knew the way back.
After ten minutes of walking through alleys, they stepped out on a bigger road and sudenly saw the edge of the hill with the schoolbuilding not far away from them.
Since sunset had already proceeded, they quickly thanked the woman, who in turn warned them to be more careful next time and take care on the way.
Then, they said goodbye and hurried back the rest of the way to the dormitory.
From afar, they headed the sound of the evening bell, telling them that it was already past eight o'clock' p.m. and they chosen to walk even faster despite theier tiredness, because both Haruka and Miyona knew, that the dormitory head didn't like it if students returned late and there also was the curfew from ten p.m. even during holidays.
None of the girls wanted to receive punishment during theier holidays for having returned late either, so they made sure to be on time.
Exhausted as they were, it took them some time to open the door to theier room, but once int there, they decided to only quickly cook some cup ramen and take a shower.
After eating and changing theier clothes all three went to bed.
For once, all of them fell asleep only seconds later, exhausted from theier trip through the city, but happy about the wonderful day they had had.