"You look great Serena," called out Mina. Serena was beating a taiko that was shaped like a really stupid-looking goldfish. "If it looks so great, why don't you do it," growled Serena. Mina said Serena was the one who wanted to play a taiko. Serena forced herself to be cheerful and pounded on the goldfish taiko. "Goldfish scooping, goldfish scooping," she called into the crowd. Goldfish scooping is a popular carnival game in Asian countries. You try to scoop a goldfish out of a large tank using a paper "net". The paper tears easily, so it is hard to catch the fish. If you catch one, you get to keep it. Amy, Lita and Mina (who were all wearing yukatas of their Sailor planet colour) were in charge of the goldfish scooping booth. Amy helped one little boy to win a goldfish. (Isn't Amy nice?)

"Hey, obachan", said an older, pushy boy, "you got customers here - we wanna scoop goldfish." "OBACHAN?" repeated Mina [obachan=older lady, "granny"]. Mina secretly tapped the scoops to weaken the paper, then handed them to the boys with a big smile. The bratty kids didn't win any goldfish. ;-)

Serena saw Haruka and Michiru in the crowd and asked them if they'd like to try the Goldfish scooping.

Haruka deftly scooped a goldfish out of the water. She put it in a water bag and gave it to Michiru. Then they left to see the rest of the festival. Serena said that the two of them were good at everything.

"My turn," announced Serena and she knelt down, determined to catch a goldfish. Suddenly, something caught her eye. The reflected image of a familiar object...

Serena turned around quickly, but there was nothing there. "An illusion?" she wondered.

Serena was tired of the goldfish, so she went to find Raye. Raye was watching Maya practice. She told Serena that Miss Tono had been practicing for 3 hours already, even though this was a volunteer performance. Raye said that Miss Tono's performance would make the festival a big success, but she wondered - if someone as talented as Miss Tono needed to practice so much, then how hard would she have to work to be successful herself. Serena said she and Raye would work very hard to make the Tenth Street Festival more popular and successful.

continue...