Kyoko, having celebrated this every year, is really enjoying herself, but Cherry, on the other hand, not really.
"Ugh! Why did this fish net break again?" said Cherry, annoyed at goldfish scooping.
"Having fun?" asked Kyoko, eating her shaved ice.
"What do you expect? I can't even win this king- whatever you call it, sushi game you recommended me."
"It's called kingyo sukui, and maybe you could try other games and see, then. It's quite easy to me, though."
"Easy? I'll just change the game. What's that game with the tiny colorful balloons?"
"That? That's balloon fishing, yo-yo tsuri. Do you want a go? It's harder than kingyo sukui."
"As long as there's no live goldfish, I'm fine."
So she tried the game, while Kyoko went around the festival, looking to refill her now nearly empty bowl of ice shavings.
"Ugh! I still can't win this either and it's getting hot in this dress!" cried Cherry angrily, going to the changing room. In a fit of rage, she just crumpled her yukata and threw it into the box of yukatas. This, of course, didn't went unnoticed.
"Stupid festival! Stupid games! Stupid dress!"
Now she found Kyoko, waiting in line. "What's up? You look highly agitated. And what happened to the yukata?"
"I'm leaving!" she cried out. "And I don't care."
"Alright, before you leave, why not visit the mask stall? There's no games there, there's nothing to lose. Come on, I'll bring you. I'll come back here later when there's less people. This is tiring!"
"Alright then. Last stop before I leave."
They arrived at the desired stall with the masks of their favorite anime characters, mainly Cherry's. "Do you want to try this one on?" asked Kyoko, pointing at Cherry's favorite character.
"Hmm... Okay." she put it on, looking at Kyoko.
"Kawaii!"
"Yes, don't get too excited."
"Kakigōri, kakigōri!" a man shouted in the distance.
"Alright, that's my shaved ice! Wait here and enjoy yourself, okay?" Kyoko winked and left.
"Guess I'm all alone now..." Cherry took of her mask. "Hey, what's that doll doing on the floor there?"
She picked it up, looking at it. It had the white face of a geisha, a normal wooden doll, but with eyes suddenly glowed a very white shade of pale. "You disrespectful girl." a voice pierced Cherry's mind, realizing that she was in a place with a white floor and white walls as far as the eye could see. Everything was white, even the sky, which she couldn't ever reach.
"Konnichiwa," she saw a little girl in a red and white yukata say.
"Hello. Where are we?"
"The place doesn't matter. Let me bring you to some place else. Hold my hand," she said, extending her hand.
Cherry looked at the little girl, thinking that she was weird, for the little girl had a white face, a weird hairstyle, a red kimono and a little paper fan she held.
"Why do you have such a white face? And the hair?"
"No reason. Come, come with me!"
Cherry held the little girl's hand and the girl brought her around the white world.
"We're here!"
"Where? It still looks the same."
"To you it might as well be." In the white world, it was always the same, but in reality, Cherry, or her body, was guided to a place with few people, in order now to attract attention.
"What am I here for?" asked Cherry.
"Just wear this."
A cloth of white and very light blue appeared and wrapped around Cherry in an instant, folding itself in the way a yukata is folded, but with a few layers of cloth tightly covering her, her hands now hidden underneath. The cloth being as long from her shoulders to her feet, they covered even her legs, tying them up. The cloth was so tight, she couldn't even move her legs to jump, but why would she want to? She just stood there, her mind in a trance. In reality, the cloth was also there, keeping her standing up, not budging.
Then, to add to her yukata encasement was an obi, a red long one, tying around the white cloth at her waist. The cloth ended at her back, in a beautiful bow.
"I feel..."
"Feel what?"
"I'm getting stiff..."
She found it harder to move, as the cloth got tighter, but in real life, it was slowly encasing her, her shoes, pants, shirt and hands all encased by the cloth, into a cylindrical shaped bolster. The bolster in turn, turned into wood, along with all that it covered.
"Yes. All you need left, is to look the part. Hair!" Her hair turned into that of a typical geisha's, exactly like the little girl's. Then, it was let go off and two buns formed at the front and beside of her hair, bounded by two pink ribbons. Her hair was then decorated by a pink sakura flower.
"Face!" Her faced turned white, her lips painted red. In the real world, her head was facing the same changes, but also slowly turning into wood, with her neck shortening. Her facial features were instead being painted on her face, as her face was just only a smooth piece of wood, losing her ears, her ears, eyes, nose and mouth were just painted, along with her reddish pink cheeks. Her hair turned hard wood, glued to the top of her head.
Then, when the real her turned completely into wood, her wooden body was shrunk down to the size of the doll she was holding earlier, now dropped on the floor. Shrunken, she was lying down next to the red doll.
"Let go!" the little girl commanded the cloth, and they let go, releasing Cherry in the white world. Her crop top and denim shorts that she wore disappeared, and were replaced with a white yukata with a red obi.
"I can move again! Who am I?"
As she was able to move in the white world, hands and sleeves were painted onto the doll version of her, completing her. She was now a fully done kokeshi doll.
In the white world however, she was trapped. "You are just a beautiful girl in yukata. You live here, in this white world, in your mind, looking out from your doll body. You can go wherever you like, and do whatever you want to do, so do enjoy yourself here."
"Alright," said Cherry. "Thank you!"
The little girl faded away, and Cherry was left idling in her mind, posing and walking around, not feeling bored at all, being in a doll's body.
"Where is she?" asked Kyoko, looking for Cherry. "Have you seen a girl like..."
"No, I haven't," everybody said.
"Oh well, guess she must have left, then."
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