A few days went by and Eguru used almost every second he had to either work out, study or read. He slowly advanced in every aspect and didn't plan on stopping soon. He wasn't allowed to do that.
The festival was about to begin and so, for the last couple of hours he did research about it.
The cherry blossom festival exists to show gratitude to everyone in town and nature itself. It also has become a cultural element due to the fact that all the people in Akuta would be helping to keep the city clean and make it look its best again.
Beginning at exactly 12pm the festival ended exactly 30 days after that. A whole month was spent to make sure Akuta stays in shape. Of course it wasn't like you had to be there all the time. After finishing your part you'd be able to experience all the other things the cherry blossom festival brought with it. Multiple shops, cosplays, exotic foods, mini games, music and so on. In other words - you'd probably have a lot of fun.
But even after contributing your part to the festival it wasn't over yet. Every week the cycle repeats but with different tasks to fulfill. On the first week everyone should help cleaning up the ground from dead plants. flowers and other natural things that weren't needed anymore. Picking up any leftover trash and recycling it was part of it too.
The second week was used to re-design houses, walls and streets using different paint, spray and all kinds of things. Streets would only get a new color-scheme to not make them look like they got stomped on.
After that, the third part of the festival began. Planting new life into the ground and making your own home a comfortable place. And that meant cleaning your house, taking out the trash, taking care of flowers and plants and trimming down grass.
Lastly, the last week of the festival. The remaining days were used to enjoy the rest of the event. You could do whatever you wanted during that time and every activity had a discount of 25-50%.
Just by looking out the window Eguru noticed a lot of people gathering outside wearing different clothes than usual. Everyone had a different fit but they all had the same attributes.
Men wore red, white and black while wore pink instead of red. 'A theme for the festival.' He decided on calling it that.
Meanwhile Verso still didn't look like he'd be able to make it out the next few weeks. It got better but he still wasn't able to walk properly. After taking a few steps he would just break down and his friend had to catch him before hitting the ground. They tried it.
"Just go without me man. I'll give you a bit of money if you want to, I have more than enough anyways. Don't worry about me and enjoy the first two weeks of the festival. I'll join you in the last half." Verzo took out his purse and gave Eguru some money. He sighed. "Alright man but don't complain later on. Thank you for the money tho."
Taking the money he left. "Of course" was the last thing he heard Verzo say before leaving the hotel room. Going down the elevator he stepped out and found the streets full of people. Everyone looked like they were really excited and couldn't wait for the festival to officially begin any longer.
He went alongside the residents and found a huge stage in the middle of Akuta. On top of the stage he saw a bunch of people probably responsible for the event. All of them were busy doing things. Some worked on connecting the speakers and preparing the microphones while others were in charge of decorating the stage.
A few minutes later a woman spoke up. "Thank you all for patiently waiting!" Her voice was full of enthusiasm. "We're happy to announce the seventeenth festival of blossoming in history! I hope all of you are going to have a lot of fun and to all the new people and tourists in town: Welcome. I wish you all the best! Let the event begin!!"
As she finished a small firework was done and everyone was applauding. In just a matter of seconds all the people gathered around Eguru were gone and had their hands full already. He was surprised. In a good way.
Families and friends were working together while strangers did their things alone. It looked like that at least but yet nobody made the expression of not enjoying what they were doing even if they were alone.
Eguru didn't quite know where to start and what to do so he wandered around and spectated the people around him. All of them were busy picking up different kind of things. It also didn't look like there was a lot of garbage spread around town. He didn't really see any leftovers.
Searching for a spot to actually start helping out he walked around for a few minutes before he found a small park only a few people were gathered. Eguru didn't really know why people seemed to enjoy it that much but he gave the first week of the festival a chance.