Broki-chan places Kioko on the couch gently before pacing around the room nervously. It doesn't take more than a few minutes before Kioko slowly opens her eyes and sits up, confused. She looks around the room as Broki-chan approaches, slightly startling her as he says, "Hey Kioko, are you okay?"

  "Yeah, I think so," said Kioko

  "Yeah, yeah, cut the chit-chat. What do you know about the key?" said Monika as she rolled her eyes.

  "So, if you don't mind me asking, what did you mean by that cryptic message about fate and how it's in my hands?" said Broki-chan.

  "I said what now? I'm sorry, Broki-chan, but I don't remember saying anything like that to you," said Kioko as she tilted her head out of confusion.

  "Oh yeah, sure, a likely story. What about the boiler room and the key, huh? What do you know about them?"

  "Oh well, do be fair, you passed out right after; what about that key you gave me? What do you know about it?"

  "A key? I'm sorry, but what are you talking about, Broki-chan? I don't understand. I don't remember giving you a key at all."

  "Oh, I see. You're probably in shock or something."

  "Uh-huh, sure, y'know, I can't help but feel like something isn't adding up, Broki-chan. Kioko would have to remember anything about the key or the boiler room; it just seems mighty convenient to me", said Monika in a somewhat annoyed tone.

  Whilst Monika is speaking, Kioko looks around the room before asking, "Hey Broki-chan, where are we?"

  Broki-chan looks at her and replies, "Oh, we're in Sakura's old house. I didn't really know where to take you after you fainted, so I just took you here."

  "Oh, I see. Since I'm fine now, should we go? I just have a bit of a bad feeling about this place."

  "No, yeah, we probably should. It's getting pretty late."

  Broki-chan opens the door as Kioko gets up and walks out of the door. He follows her before shutting the door behind him as Monika phases through the wall. Kioko goes to walk away before turning back to Broki-chan with a wave as she says, "Goodbye, Yami- Broki-chan, I'll see you tomorrow. I'm going to go home". Broki-chan waves back as he replies, "Yeah, right. See you later, Kioko". They both walk in separate directions before Broki-chan eventually makes it back to the school, with Monika following closely.

  He heads towards the school's costume shed, opens the door and walks through. He shuts the door and lays down on his makeshift bed, eventually drifting off to sleep. Broki-chan wakes up the next day, slightly groggy, and opens the door, only to find Miyoko waiting for him. She was wearing a different outfit than usual, with several layers of warm attire and a small backpack. Miyoko notices him and smiles at him as she says, "Hey, Broki, are you ready to go to Snowfest?".

  Broki-chan rubs his eyes as he replies, somewhat confused, "What- Snowfest?- Oh right, Snowfest, yeah, I'm ready". Miyoko's smile widens as she holds Broki-chan and walks him to presumably Snowfest. Whilst they're walking, Miyoko lets go of Broki-chan's hand and begins rummaging through her backpack before she takes out a steam bun. She hands it over to Broki-chan as she says, "I hope you like Nikumans; I made some extra because I thought you'd be hungry". Broki-chan takes the food as he says, "Why thank you, Miyoko". He eats it fairly quickly, albeit struggling to force his mask up to eat it.

  Miyoko notices this and asks Broki-chan in a confused tone, "So why don't you take the mask off? I think it might be easier to eat it; I'm just saying". Broki-chan lets out a defeated sigh as he says, "Yeah, I wish I could, but I can't."

  "You can't? How come?"

  "I just physically can't move it. At most, I can move it just enough to eat food, but it's usually not this bad. It is probably because of the cold. It's harder to move it in the cold right now, and it feels like the entire thing is stuck to my face."

  "Oh, okay... oh! Here's the ticket booth."

  Miyoko points towards a ticket stand that is blocking off the street as she lines up with Broki-chan. They have to wait for only a few minutes before they're let into the festival. It was a winter wonderland of sorts with an almost whimsical aura around it. To the left and right of Broki-chan were several hundred different stalls. There was also a large futuristic statue that matched the snow and was surrounded by a frozen lake in the centre of Snowfest. Broki-chan was in awe at the scene, only able to say the word "wow" before Miyoko pulled him closer, and they began walking. Whilst they're walking, Miyoko looks at him with a smile as she says, "We should stay on this side of the festival for now, slower foot traffic and all".

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Broki-chan agrees, and they begin browsing a couple of the stores. They first notice a stall with a variety of soft plush toys and a variety of other winter-themed toys. The vendor smiles at Broki-chan as he walks by. The next store that piqued Broki-chan's interest was a vendor selling fairy floss and coloured popcorn. The store directly next to it was selling warm drinks, which Broki-chan thought about buying before Miyoko dragged him away while pointing at an ice rink. Miyoko looks extremely excited as she squeals, "Broki, look at an ice rink; let's go there". Broki-chan looks at the ice rink as he says, "I don't know, Miyoko, I've never seen or been on an ice rink in my life".

  "C'mon, it'll be fun, Broki."

  "I don't know, I don't even know how to ice skate."

  "I'll teach you. Could you at least try Broki for me?"

  "Fine."

  Miyoko grabs Broki-chan's arm and some ice skates her size, sitting down to put them on, and then she lets go of Broki-chan's arm. Broki-chan looks for some ice skates in his size and grabs them before sitting down next to Miyoko and putting them on. Miyoko finishes tying her shoes and goes out onto the rink, doing some basic skating around the rink. Broki-chan finishes his tying his shoes and follows Miyoko to the ice rink. He begins skating around the rink, speeding up as he goes. As he speeds up, he goes closer to the centre, doing several jumps across the rink. Eventually, he ends with an Axel jump before he glides over Miyoko, saying, "You know this is fun; I should do this ice-skating more often".

  Miyoko looks at him with a surprised look on her face as she says, "damn, I thought you said that you have never been ice skating; when did you get so good?". Broki-chan stops skating completely as he slowly slides around the ice, trying to remember if he's ever been ice skating before a memory comes to his mind.

  He remembers being in this same ice rink, skating around with someone who had his back turned to him. The person was skating around in a frolicking way as Broki-chan skates on their own. In just a few minutes, the silence was interrupted by the person hugging Broki-chan from behind. Their hug becomes tighter as they say, "You know I love you, right?". While Broki-chan remembers, Miyoko notices his silence and skates over to him as she says, "Broki? Broki-chan? Are you there? Hello?". She waves her hands in front of Broki-chan eyes, causing him to snap back to reality as he says, "I don't- I don't know".

  Miyoko looks at the rink and then back at Broki-chan as she asks, "Hey, are you okay?". Broki-chan looks away as he replies, "Yeah, I'm fine". Miyoko gives him a worried look as she replies, "How about we look for a better activity... to get your mind off of things?". Broki-chan continues looking away as he replies with a simple "Sure". They walk off on the ice rink, taking the ice skates off and putting their normal shoes back on. After a few minutes of searching, they find some people building snow sculptures, prompting Miyoko to drag Broki-chan there as she says, "C'mon Broki, we could build a snowman or something". Before Broki-chan can even sit down to help Miyoko build snow sculptures, he notices Monika waving him down quite aggressively.

  Without a second thought, he turns to Miyoko and says, "Hey Miyoko, if you don't mind, I'm going to go to the bathroom". Miyoko looks up at him and says, "Oh, okay, Broki-chan, the toilets are to the left. If you can't find it, come back here; I'll start building this snowman in the meantime". Broki-chan quickly walks away from her, side-eyeing Monika for a second as he makes a subtle motion for her to follow him, which she does. Broki-chan leads her into a portable toilet before he shuts the door behind him, locking it and turning to Monika as he asks, "What's wrong?" Monika gives him a look for a second before replying, "Oh, nothing in particular. I just wanted to ask you a question that has been kind of bugging me for the past couple of days".

  "Uh huh, what is it?"

  "So I just wanted to know if your name is actually Broki-chan or if you're just the mascot Broki-chan."

  "I'm both. Actually, I'm wearing the mascot costume for Broki-chan, but it's actually my name too."

  Monika tilts her head in complete confusion as she asks, "But how is that even- wait a minute?". She moves closer to Broki-chan as if she is examining him before she floats back to her original spot and quietly says, "Oh, you're uh, what's his name? I can't remember, oh well... it should come back to me soon. But if that's the case... How come you're not hanging out with Kioko anymore?"