Getting drunk for a good cause

Now that they finally had gathered all the principal ingredients needed for Dan to make his mochis, Shibani still felt like something was missing... Of course Dan mochis would taste amazing no matter what, but, Dan was almost desperate to get an appearance from Murmur in his dreams, so, Shibani thought that they should try to make the mochis even more special. After some time thinking, here was the idea he needed!! Strawberries!! What best that their sweet taste? Who could resist that? He talked about his idea to Dan, who was not against it but did not want nor have time to go search for it, so Shibani would be on his own – once more. It did not bother him though. If the reward was for Dan's wish and dream to become a reality, then it was worth everything.

Shibani thus left Dan's Dango shop to head out to... Wait... Where should he head out... As he questioned himself the answer straight came to him as he realised that of course Hops should have some that she uses for her drinks at the Rabbit Hole! And Angora would only buy the best strawberries for sure, which could for only be even more tempting for the demonn those sweet, juicy, tasty strawberries.

As he entered the Rabbit Hole, he heard some glass clinging, followed by some glass breaking onto the floor sound. Must be Hops' clumsiness once again. And indeed it was. He quietly came in and asked her if everything was okay and if she may need help, while sitting at the bar and looking over it to try to find her. She explained that she pushed the cocktail glass by mistake with her elbow while she was mixing a new drink and now it was all dirty everywhere and she had to clean it quick but she was already so short on time and she did not know what to do and she did not want to upset Angora by failing in her task and so on and so on. You could see that she was stressed out and about to burn out as tears seemed to want to get out of her eyes. And then... As she was finishing putting the broken glass into the trash – cutting the tip of a finger on the way – she slowly raised from under the bar as she realised the second part of Shibani's question. "Do you need help?" he had said. That, she could not deny. But, before saying that and maybe appearing as a little bit rude, she first asked what was the reason of his presence here. Shibani explained that he was in need of strawberries to make Dan's mochi even more special for the Year of the Bun's celebrations. Hops said that that was perfect because they were not using strawberries much for the drinks and they thus had a lot of leftovers. She hence told Shibani that she would gladly hand the strawberries over to him if in exchange he agreed to help her trying the drinks she creates in attempt to find the perfect new selection for the Year of the Bun's celebrations. She would gladly drink them herself but she would not be able to stand still after a few, even less be able to make any difference between what would taste good or not, so, another palate was very welcome.

It did not even take a second for Shibani to accept. Who would ever say no to free drinks?! And so here it started. Hops made a first drink. The liquid was of a clear light yellow colour with a thick white cream on top, sugar along the glass and, inside, she added some sour candy on a stick. Shibani first ate the candy, the sourness of it made him involuntarily do a weird face, but that was really good and he would have eaten more if he could have. Then, he had a first sip. He did not expect that... The drink looked really good but... The taste was... It was... Perfection!! His palate was in heaven right now! The cream mixed with the liquid underneath had a taste of lemon meringue pie!! You could not even taste the alcohol in it – which was very dangerous but amazing and always really nice for people less keen of alcohol's flavour. It was so good that he drank the rest of it down the next second. Hops seemed very pleased by Shibani's reaction and this first success.
Now up to another drink. This one was more unusual. The main colour was of a galaxy blue but then there was some sort of bright pink trail as well as yellow little dots wanderig here and there. On the border again, sugar, fitting the colours of the drink. Though the first drink had been amazing, the colours of that one had Shibani to be more careful with his first sip. Slowly he went and... The taste was actually good. It tasted like blueberry. He did not have a try yet at the pink and yellow parts though, so this time he decided to take a bigger sip. That is the best thing he could have done. What an explosion of flavours that was into his mouth right now!! If the first drink was heaven then he does not even know how he could qualify this one! The pink trails had a raspberry flavour and the small yellow balls were actually crunchy little balls of a lemon taste which were crackling, popping into his mouth, making a funny little sound if he were to open his mouth as they were in. What an unexpected but nice touch! He finished that second drink and Hops, once again very please of her success, cheerfully went to make another.

It lasted a good hour, if not more, and, after having tried around eight different drinks, Shibani was not seeing very clearly anymore. But, he needed to get these strawberries to Dan. He thanked Hops for all the amazing drinks she had made – except one where she tried to experiment too much adding cheese flavour into it, only then he thought he was going to throw up, and Hops quickly understood that this was clearly not a good idea to go with that one. Hops thanked him in return for being of such a good help to her. She handed over the strawberries to him, carefully packed in a hard plastic box so that he would not crush them in the event that he would fall from the drunkenness.

Shibani headed out the Rabbit Hole, missing a step here and then and missing to fall several times. He was so tired and only wanted one thing right now: to lie down and sleep. But he could not do that until Dan had the strawberries. That was important and urgent that he got them. So Shibani walked his way as best as he could to Dan's Dango shop. When he got there, Dan was startled by all the noise he made. Shibani made some stuff fall and Dan wanted to scold him for that and the the state he was in, but as he was about to open his mouth he then noticed the strawberries that Shibani was dearly holding onto, and he ended just smiling, realising that, if Shibani was so drunk that was because he did his best to help him. Once the strawberries handed over to Dan, Shibani almost fell into his arms. Dan decided to hold him and carry him to the pillow pile at the back of the store. He put him there, added a blanket on top of him and made sure he was comfy before getting back to work on some more mochis.