The chapter image is of Ena, Yotsuba, and Miura standing with happy open mouths. Ena and Yotsuba are in yukata, while Miura is wearing regular clothes. Ena has her hair in tails, starting below her ears. Yotsuba's top tails are decced with cartoon rabbit heads.
Jumbo is in his yukata, looking rather displeased. He's standing in front of the three. After a silence, he asks if Asagi is, indeed coming to the fireworks show. Yotsuba answers that she is... with her friend. The cicadas sound off. Jumbo crouches down — and here we see that he's wearing geta — and LEAPS into the air, yelling "'What the heck is that?!" (Original word or phrase welcome.) Yotsuba thinks this is funny, and urges him to do it again. He does. Yotsuba repeats what he said. The other girls are just confused.
Jumbo tells Koiwai that you can't count on kids. Koiwai advises him to stop using them to do his dirty work. Jumbo starts to cry over how it's gone wrong. Yotsuba cheerily tells him not to, as he's an adult. Jumbo remarks that he wasn't supposed to be taking the shrimps to the show. Miura retorts that it's more like Jumbo is needlessly large. He notices her, and pats her head as he asks what that cheeky thing is: a boy or a girl. She angrily answers that she's a girl, and asks if he's even homo sapiens, which he yells back that he is. Yotsuba brought her instead of Asagi, but Jumbo says she couldn't take her place. Miura gets it.
(Remember that while they were in each other's presence before, (see 8: "Yotsuba & Drawing"), they apparently were not introduced to each other.)
Jumbo says that the fireworks show has been cancelled because of the rain, but (Mr. Koiwai? Yotsuba?) says it's nice out. Miura tells Ena that the big guy's creepy, and that they should tell Asagi. She shoots him a knowing look. Jumbo urges everyone into his car (looks more like a minivan). Ena says he's a nice guy, Miura says he could be, and Yotsuba yells "Fireworks! Fireworks!".
I guess they found a parking space a fair distance from the matsuri grounds, because now they're walking there. The vast crowd of people briefly mesmerizes Yotsuba. She points out the large amount, and Koiwai tells her not to let go of his hand, because they'll never see each other again if she gets lost. She rogers that, and says she won't get lost.
Upon arriving, the excitement is palpable. Yotsuba gets caught up and runs for the booths. Koiwai, after an ineffective "Hey! Wait!" and remarking that he just told her not to let go, has everyone hide and watch.
At the cotton candy booth, Yotsuba asks if the cotton candy is a cloud. The man says she's right, and tells her that it rains when a lot of them are in one place. Thanks to what I can either assume is a similarity in Japanese words or an amazing leap of logic, she figures that that's why they call it cotton candy, and the man again says she's right. She turns to ask her dad if she can get some...
..only he's not there. In fact, neither are Jumbo, Ena, or Miura!
They're hiding behind a banner for beer, and people are looking at them. Ena asks why they're hiding. Koiwai is trying to let her feel fear at being lost in a situation where he can just pop out and be there if something goes wrong, so maybe she won't do that again and put herself in danger when he actually has no idea where she is.
We'll just see how well that works.
Yotsuba looks around. Her father's words come back to her:
If you get lost, we'll never see each other again!She faced those words with confidence then, but now they seemed a very real and terrifying prospect. Her solution? Yell her own name a couple of times. This brings them out of hiding. Koiwai tells her it's dangerous to go alone, and to take this to wander off like that. She squeezes her daddy's hand, and warns Ena and Miura to be careful, too. She's still recovering from her fright, though, so she calls Miura "Fuuka". (Does she do this in Japanese?)
Jumbo lays out a blanket for sitting on while watching fireworks. Yotsuba sits down while he's still adjusting it. Time to go to the booths! Koiwai places payment responsibilities for the kids on Jumbo. They start listing things. Yakisoba
. Takoyaki. Goldfish. (Not the snack that smiles back.) A yo-yo. (Balloon-type.) Jumbo is worried about paying for all three, but Ena remarks that he's so generous, and Miura says they should tell Asagi, so he says he'll get them 10 20 of whatever they want.
The girls synchronsume takoyaki, then yakisoba, then cotton candy. And they're still eating takoyaki when Miura wonders what to get next. Jumbo remarks that the eat a lot. Yotsuba notices the goldfish-catching booth, so they go try that. Yotsuba tries it, but her scooper keeps breaking. Miura got two, Ena got one, and Yotsuba... has none. The man running the booth offers her one, but she doesn't need his pity.
Next, the yo-yo balloon catching game. Ena looks intense, but not as much as Yotsuba. But again, the paper on the line keeps breaking. After multiple failures, Jumbo says he'll teach her the secret, but she has to listen. Apparently, part of it is that the ones she was selecting to go after were too big. Also, I guess the rubber band was in the water. Jumbo selects one for her, and she goes for it. He tells her to go slowly, and not to let the paper get wet. TA-DAAAA! All of them got one. Yotsuba starts playing with hers, but it soon slips and splats against the ground. This upsets her, but Miura offers hers, and she apparently accepts.
Miura tries the ring toss (Ena's looking intense again; also, one of the prizes is a Nekoko Neko), but gets a consolation prize (a lollipop?). Ena does the shooting gallery, but leans too far over the table and falls on the other side.
They also have shaved ice.
Yotsuba is stuffed and tired, and falls asleep... until a firework goes off, making her wonder if they're under attack. Ena says it's started! She watches one fly up... and burst into color! She's amazed at this. Miura remarks about them being more powerful up close, and Ena says you can feel the sound. Yotsuba realizes that these are the fireworks that they've been talking about; it's her first time seeing that kind. She says "Boom" or whatever it really is. Koiwai reflects on the number of firsts she's had since moving there.
Yotsuba compares the fireworks to flowers, and asks why you would need florists when you have something like that. Jumbo is shocked.
On pages 180 and 181, we get an over-the-shoulder shot of Yotsuba watching the fireworks. She's shaded in monochrome, but the fireworks themselves are red and yellow on those pages.
She asks her dad if he's watching, which he is. She asks the other kids (though she calls them Asagi and Fuuka this time) if they're watching; they are. She remarks on one last firework:
It flew up!
It bloomed!
The next page has the three kids in the lower right corner of an otherwise-blank page. The next page has them holding their arms up underneath a "TO BE CONTINUED..." notice. There's also a tilted exclamation point at the top. They're still holding their arms up on the copyright page.
Then there's an ad for the manga Angel Dust. Next, one for the DVD collection Azumanga Daioh: Class Album. Then one for the magazine Newtype USA. And one for Full Metal Panic Overload!. And the last ad, one for caps shaped like Puchu, Menchi, and Saizo. The last page is a survey form, which I have not filled out.
On the back cover, Yotsuba plays the recorder while the policewoman from chapter 18 points ahead. The text refers to the events of 17, 18, 20, & 21.
Next time: chapter 22!
