【ᴏᴜʀ ʟᴀsᴛ sᴜᴍᴍᴇʀ ᴛᴏɢᴇᴛʜᴇʀ】

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Spirit Festival?" Amane asked. Him and (Y/n) were currently fishing on the river. The spirit girl has her mask off so he could see the grin she send towards his way.

"No. A summer festival held by the spirits." She told him. "The nuance is very different!"

"Nuance?" Amane asked.

"When you were little, I thought you might get scared so I didn't invite you." She said, throwing a stone towards the river. "But tonight, can you sneak out of your house? I want to go with you for a long time..."

"I want to go!" Amane smiled, enthusiastically.

"Then...Meet me at eight at our usual place." (Y/n) told him. For some reason, Amane felt nervous.

"But it's a festival filled with spirits sounds a little unnerving...." Amane said. "...On top of that, it's night time..."

"We used to hang out at night too, right?" (Y/n) pointed out. "So don't worry. On the outside, it's not very different from a human festivals. After all, It suppose to mimic human festivals. And I'll protect you, Amane."

"When you say that, it make me what to squish you in a hug." Amane said, blushing at her choice of words. "Okay, I'll go..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was finally time for the spirit's summer festival. There was a large crowd of spirits gathering around and a lot of stands where out.

Amane stood besides his friend, wearing a black yukata. (Y/n) was wearing a white kimono with sunflower designs, her hair was put on a neat bun with some of her bangs covering her forehead. She was still wearing her fox mask.

"It's true. It's like a human festival." Amane muttered in awe. Walking along side the spirit girl. "Are they disguised as humans?"

"Yes. Impressive, isn't it?" (Y/n) smiled underneat her mask. "I've heard that sometimes even humans unknowingly mix in."

"Like my aunt and her friends." Amane laughed. "I remembered going on a festival with my brother when I was younger. He left me alone there and three hours later, I met a creepy girl who wants my festival tag. I can't remember her name, though."

"Creepy girl?" (Y/n) laughed at this. "Something tells me that you'll meet her again, one day..."

"I hope so..." Amane smiled. "I owe her for giving me company that night."

"Amane." (Y/n) called him. Holding a long white fabric. "Tie this on your wrist. You'll get lost."

The boy nodded and took the end. Both began tying each end on their wrists.

"This is like going on a date!" Amane laughed, his cheeks slightly red at the thought.

"This is a date!" (Y/n) interjected. Amane's face flushed into a deeper shade of red as he stammered.

"E-eh?!"

The two walked around the festival. Watching the fireworks go off. They played a lot of games and ate alot of food.

The two approached a stand, selling cotton candy. Just as the man reached the candy towards them it suddenly flew in the air. Amane giggled.

The two then walked towards a dance performance of a spirit that dressed up as a lion. A huge crowd was forming around the dancing spirit.

Amane tried his best not to laugh when the lion's cape fell off, revealing his naked body. Everyone in the crowd laughed as the spirit ran away.

A group of children suddenly ran around the two. One even shouted and pointed at them. "Ew! A couple!"

"H-hey! W-we're not-!" Amane began to stutter. His face flushed red, (Y/n) laughed at this.

The two explored around the festival again. Amane saw a kid with a fox tail. "That kid has a tail!"

Amane then saw a stall selling masks. He approached the masks on sale with (Y/n) following from behind.

One mask caught his attention, he tried to take it off only for it to move. It was not a mask but an actual spirit.

"I'm sorry!" Amane apologies. He soon ran away from the stall in embarassement. Since the cloth was still tied around their wrists, he pulled (Y/n) along with him.

"Woah that was weird!" (Y/n) laughed at what Amane did. "Are you okay?"

"Don't ever mention that again!" Amane ordered. His cheeks was still tainted pink. "It was embarassing!"

The festival was coming into an end.

"Everyone seems to went all out on their disguised, didn't they?" Amane asked (Y/n). "It's like a mimicking competition! Is it like this every year?"

"Yeah... Every time summer comes..." (Y/n) answered. But then she started frowning. "Amane, I can no longer wait for summer to come around."

Amane noticed her hands clenching, making him stare at her worriedly. He didn't say anything but let her continue.

"When I'm away from you, even though I can't be around crowds, I want to go and see you..." Amane watched as she took off her mask and placed it on Amane's face.

The boy's eyes widened from underneat when she kissed the mask, right where his left cheek was suppose to be. (Y/n) pulled away and smiled. "That mask.... Keep it..."

Amane was glad that he was wearing the mask. He didn't want her to see his tomato red face.

The two continued walking when they heard two children running nearby.

"Wait!" The little girl called out to her friend, she began to stumble. She would have tripped if it wasn't for (Y/n) with her quick to grab the little girl's arm before she could fall.

"Are you okay?" Amane asked the little girl who nodded.

"Thank you!" She bowed respectfully and ran after her friend who was waiting for her.

"Be careful okay!" Amane told her and waved. He the look back towards (Y/n) and his eyes widened in horror.

The hand that grabbed the child has green lights coming off. Her fingers was slowly disappearing. But despite all of that, (Y/n) still held a calm expression.

"That little girl..." Amane whispered in disbelief. "She was a human!"

(Y/n) still didn't say a word. She kept staring at her hand that was slowly disappearing.

"(Y/n)!" Amane screamed. He didn't want this to happen.

"Amane...come here..." (Y/n) smiled, spreading her arms open for a hug. "I can finally touch you..."

The boy was a bit hesistating. But he finally made up his mind, he ran towards her. He could finally touch her.

Amane wrapped his arms around the girl's body in a desperate hug. For the first time, after they met, He could finally feel the warmth of her comforting embrace. For the first time, he could finally feel what it's like to touch her.

The green light keep coming out of (Y/n), light that was shining in the darkness of the night. The light was far more beautiful than any stars he saw on the night sky.

But again, no matter how more beautiful it become, the more (Y/n)'s grip on him loosen. Her body was slowly disappearing.

Amane fell into the ground, holding tightly on (Y/n)'s kimono. He was just now hugging her clothes that was left behind. Amane started crying.

The pain was unbareable. It was something he never felt before. It hurts more than the pain he always felt when his mother beat him.

"I love you..."

Amane heard her voice, whispering through the breeze. This just made him cried harder, clutching unto her kimono.

"Yeah...." Amane saw her mask. He tossed it when he rushed towards to hug her. He picked it up and held it closer to his chest. "I love you too..."

The fox mask was all he has now. It was all he has that will remind him of (Y/n).

Fireflies began to appear around him, all giving off a green light. Similar to the one (Y/n) gave off when she disappeared.

"Amane...Thank you..." Amane saw the spirits among the trees, staring at him. One of those spirits were the one eyed one that he met a years back. "We wanted to be with (Y/n) forever, but..."

"(Y/n) wanted to touch a human..."

"She was finally got to be hugged by a human..."

Amane gave the spirits one last smile. One full of sadness, since he knew that this will be the last time he'll be seeing them.

He walked out of the forest. Still holding (Y/)'s fox mask close to his chest.

◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈

"I knew from that moment on... I won't probably be able to look forward for summer for a long time....

My chest will hurt... My tears will be overflowing...

But this warmth in my hands.... And these summer memories will live on in my heart..."

◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈