On The Side Of The Pitch With You

Sengoku Era III

"By sneaking into the banquet for cherry blossom viewing held by Nobunaga, we will have another chance to MixiMax with him." Wondeba muttered. "How to sneak in was our biggest problem, but..."

"As dancers, no one will be wary of us and we'll get close to Nobunaga, right?" Fei continued with a smile.

Nishiki grinned, putting his hands together. "What a wonderful idea!"

"Alright, everyone! Time to change!" Wondeba yelled. "Disguise yourselves as cute dancers and make contact with Nobunaga! Also known as, the Great Dancer Strategy!"

"I'm getting all revved up!"

"We're really doing this?!"

"Seriously?!"

As the commotion ensued, Tsurugi only realized his scarf was no longer on him when he spotted it in his friend's hands.

A flash of red made everyone go silent. Before they knew it, both Wondeba and Nishiki were tied up with their mouths gagged.

"Mmph?!"

"'Why would you stay up when you have an important mission to complete', they say. 'Catch up late and I'll kick you out the window', they say." Her glare was murderous to say the least. "Here I am, finally trying to get some sleep like you asked, and yet... here you all are, making all this racket this late into the night."

She tugged the scarf back as hard as she could, causing the two to spin like tops. The dizziness made them both pass out and all the others took it as cue for them to head back to sleep.

~~~~~

In the morning, after Tenma and Fei returned from buying ingredients for breakfast, Wondeba explained the plan. He had sent Shindou out to train in an unused field while the rest of them will come up with a dance that'll distract Nobunaga as he's blasted by the MixiMax gun.

Nishiki suggested a dance from the modern timeline, which was then met with Wondeba's challenge that the dance from his own time isn't inferior. The rest of them ignored their nonexistent sense of rhythm, Fei warning them that if they tried anything too new, it would change the timeline. And so, Aoi suggested the Bon Dance.

They went to the small space behind the temple to practice. As Aoi tried to teach it to them, Tasuke came by and asked if they'd like him to get his sister. And so, within a few hours, they all managed to get the steps down, aside Nishiki, who was stuck in his own world of dance.

"Huh? Tsurugi isn't here."

"He left for somewhere a few minutes ago."

"Ran away, did he. Hey, Kimiko―" Midori turned to find the blonde who was beside her was also gone. "She escaped too?!"

On the front side of the temple, the younger girl chuckled. "Sorry, everyone. But dancing's not my forte."

She spotted her friend headed for where Shindou was supposed to be at and followed. Soon, she found him seated on a rock and leaning against a tree, hidden from the field's view.

She smiled as she approached him. "Mind if I join you?"

His eyes stayed closed, but he acknowledged her presence. "There's no name on the grass."

"That's true." She took her seat directly in front of him, folding her arms on his knees. "Then?"

That was when he opened them. "Then what?"

"What do you think you'll do if you're not going to dance?"

"Stay on the sidelines."

"Funny. I was thinking of doing the exact same thing." Her head peeked around the tree when she heard a new voice. "Oh? Okatsu-san and Shindou-san."