In her world-crossing journey, Kino had arrived at a large town which in spite of how prosperous it looks, the citizens of it seems to be rather depressed overall. Asking around the town for some info, it turns out that a festival that the town hold every year even since the founding might need to be cancelled this year, which has greatly saddened the inhabitants. Curious about what might have lead to the cancelling of the festival, Kino books a meeting with the town's mayor to find out what is the reason. The mayor explains to Kino that a main part of the festival has been a large parade balloon that would give the town good fortune, but this year they cannot get a parade balloon going for this year's festival, which would defeat the point of all of it. Kino finds it all unfortunate but really has no idea how they can help the town in this situation. But the mayor tells Kino that she is just the right kind of person to help them out.

Kino is starting to feel bit off. Like her body is starting to freeze up and becoming... lighter? The mayor explains to Kino that in truth, they haven't had a proper parade balloon for the longest time. That is because they have found a method to turn people INTO parade balloons in the spirit of things. This has been going for the longest time but this year, the ingredients that have been used to create the concoction haven't been the same as it has been in the past. As such, the organizers are not sure that the concoction might do to the person taking it, and as such no one in the town has been willing to take it this year. But since Kino is a stranger to this place, this means that the mayor has no problem using her as a last solution by spiking her drink with the concoction. Kino tries to reach out for her gun, but is unable to draw it out. Her arms have become all rubbery which has cause Kino to lose her ability to move her fingers. The same can be said for the rest of her body as she feels like she cannot move her body at all. She tries to object with words, but her mouth is starting to morph into a frozen smile, with her only being able to give out faint muffles through it. The mayor offers Kino one last apology for roping her into this, but it is for the betterment of this town as Kino's vision starts to blur out...

Few days later, the festival is at full swing. The citizens of the town are cheerfully celebrating this annual event as they have always done. But this time, the main attraction of the event was the giant ballooned body of Kino made to be the parade balloon of this year. Most of the citizens don't know who the person flown this year is, but they are happy that the festival is going all the same. The festival is slated to be going for the entire week, meaning that Kino is stuck being the town's large balloon for the duration of all that. Still, there is a way to revert her back to normal, right? That has to be seen after everything's over. In the meanwhile, all that Kino can think of in her current state is how wonderful of a feeling being this large icon of the town really is and how massive and squeaky her body is. Though that could be all due to the concoction messing with her mind.

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A story-illustration collab with  ToyoRai involving Kino turned into a parade balloon. Illustration by me; story by them.