New to Heartshrine- Kantsumiki festival part 2

So I'm noticing a recurring pattern with this festival… The closer you get to the center of the village, the more crowded the streets get! I bet that if you looked at a sky-view of the village, the activity would look like one giant heartbeat, and it seems to be gradually speeding up in correspondence to the pace of the festival. I've been wandering around for a few hours now, trying various pink noms and just having fun. I even got dragged by a group of kids, that couldn't have been even half my age, into a game of ball in the street. Everyone's so friendly here.

*Dingdingding! Poppop! Winner!*

Hey look games. I like games… What do we got here? I see ring toss, baloon darts, ooh the old hammer strength test! Count me in!

After half an hour of ring tossing and hammer hitting, the spoils were: 5 ramen coupons, 2 small dango plates (which I noshed on immediately, I'm surprisingly hungry today), and a large pink feather-boa that I gave to a little girl running by (cause boas just aren't my style). Next I'll hit up that baloon dart game.

"I'd like to play"
"I'd like to play"
Am I hearing things or did my voice get really feminine? Oh no ok someone else just said the same thing I did… Maybe I should see who it is… Woah… This girl standing next to me right now is really quite pretty. She wore relatively baggy clothing, Orange top, lighter orange over-shirt, blue pants and navy shoes that rose thigh-high. Her green eyes were very intense, but her most defining feature was her vibrant orange hair.

"I'm sorry you two," the man behind the counter said, "My son hasn't come back yet with the next box of prizes, so we're down to our last one for now."

It was a bright pink teddy bear with giant chibi eyes and it held a heart in its paws. Not exactly something I would display in my apartment… "That's alright, this lady here can go for it inste…" I started to say.

"Oh hell no!" She interrupted. "Do you think you'd be better than me? No, we're gonna battle it out to see who gets that prize! Give us all your darts mister."

With that she split the number of darts between us and pulled out a pen. "The darts with little smileys on them are mine and the plain ones are yours. Whoever pops the most baloons wins! And it's Kimi by the way…"

"Excuse me? I asked.

"Yep, Kimi Hikura, remember that cause it's the name of the girl who will beat you in everything! Ready? Go!"

I didn't really know what was going on but I instinctively started throwing the darts at the baloons. *poppoppoppop!* Darts were flying fast, so fast the game guy was pinned to the ground trying not to get hit. And that was it. We both ran out of darts in a matter of seconds and there wasn't a baloon left on the wall. The game guy stood up and counted the number of hits and misses and gave us the final talley. I didn't really care who won but this girl was almost falling over the counter in excitement to hear the outcome… Competitive much?

"Final numbers," the game guy began announcing, "orange-haired girl: 29, Flower-shirt guy: 32."

"Yep, everything…" I mumbled as the game guy handed me the eye-sore of a bear. "You know, I think I saw one or two of my darts cause some of yours to fly off course… It's not really fair that I won, so here, um, you can have the bear…"

"Thanks… But don't start thinking for a second that you'll beat me again anytime soon!" She replied while taking the bear and hugging it.

"I'm sure…" I said with a grin, "Atsuo by the way…"

"The name of the guy who I'll always be ahead of? Glad to know!" Kimi said with an even bigger grin… "Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go revel in my victory."

She started to walk away in the direction I had come from and I called out "but I thought I won this time!"

"I still got the bear didn't I?" she turrned and called back giving me a wink. "See ya!"

"Oh dear…" I mumbled feeling conned, "do you need help inflating more baloons mister?" I figured I'd ask.

"Nah I don't think I'l be reopening again anyway until my son comes back with more prizes, that lazy son of a… erm um anyway, enjoy the rest of the festival!" He said.

And so I headed off once again towards the center of town, ready to have more fun here at the Kantsumiki festival!