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5

As you can see, Yui Yuigahama is doing her best.

’Sup! I’m Hachiman! I’m goin’ to Tokyo!

And so I headed straight for Tokyo to get on the Shinkansen.

I woke up earlier than usual so I could leave early. When I saw my parents going off to work, they ended up tasking me with getting souvenirs for them, on top of Komachi’s request.

But, Daddy, these days, minors can’t buy alcohol, even if they’re on an errand for an adult. I know you gave me this money to buy sake, but I’ll just keep it, okay?

It’s not that far from Chiba to Tokyo. In fact, it’s fair to say Chiba is the prefecture closest to Tokyo. In other words, being the prefecture closest to the capital, it’s nearly equal to the capital, so it’s basically the capital, too, isn’t it? Great. Chiba is great.

You can take just one slick rapid-service train to Tokyo station, or there’s also the option of the Chiba Line. Fast. Chiba is fast.

But Tokyo Station doesn’t exactly welcome anyone on the platform for the Sobu rapid service and the Keiyo Line platforms—the Chiba Line rapid service is so deep underground that you’re like, What the hell, are we going to dig for oil? The Keiyo Line in particular is so far away that you can’t even call it Tokyo Station at all… Far. Chiba is far.

And if you’re taking the Shinkansen, Shinagawa is more convenient, even if it is farther away.

Just how much of a boondock is Tokyo, being so far away from Chiba? And Kyoto’s even farther; must really be the middle of nowhere.

I leisurely took the local train from the station closest to my house to Tsudanuma, where I transferred to the Sobu Line rapid service.

I dashed over to transfer to the rapid train leaving right that moment, breathing a sigh when the doors closed behind me. Good thing I made it, I thought in relief, and when I lifted my head, my eyes met another pair that were clear and pale as ice.

“…”

“…”

Neither of us said anything.

With a restless swish of her bluish-black ponytail, she glanced outside.

Saki Kawasaki. I mentally recited the name I’d finally remembered.

Oh yeah, I remember she lived close by. She was on the other side of the highway, so we’d been in different middle school districts, but the closest station to her would be one station over from me. If she was transferring to the rapid service, we’d inevitably end up boarding at the same spot.

“…”

She glanced at me as if checking what was going on with me. Our eyes met again, and she shook me off with a jerk of her head and looked outside.

…The hell?

It was now too late to say hello, but moving elsewhere would have been like admitting she was bothering me and accepting defeat, so I couldn’t move.

In the end, both of us leaned against the doors for the whole thirty minutes until Tokyo Station.

When we got off the platform, I caught sight of students in the Soubu High School uniform here and there in the crowd.

It seemed they’d all arranged to come here together. Feh, they can’t even go to Tokyo on their own! Just like rural kids. Come on here, take a page outta my book. I got to Tokyo alone, you know? At this rate, maybe I’ll chase my dreams in Tokyo and end up getting big, eh?

I went up the stairs that seemed to go on forever and finally came out aboveground. But even so, I was still indoors, so I couldn’t see the sun, blue sky, stars, or the moon… This is the concrete jungle. And this enormous unfeeling city was swarming with people. I was already missing Chiba. I wanna go home.

Swept along by the great flow of people, I aimed for the Shinkansen platform. I was swept along by the crowds so much, I started wondering if someone was going to occasionally scold me from afar for changing.

There were a lot of kids from my school at the entrance to the Shinkansen. Tokyo Station was always crowded to begin with, and it was even more of a noisy, seething morass than usual. Even in this crowded station, I’ll be what I am, a solitary (Hachi)man.

“Hachiman!” A voice called my name from within the group of students. I have hardly any classmates who call me Hachiman. In fact, there’s hardly anyone at all who can correctly call me Hikigaya.

And the only one who would call me by my first name with such affection would be…

“Oh, Hachiman… The township of Kyoto is brimming with such nostalgia! The hometown of my soul! Gafum-gafum.”

…Oh yeah, he calls me Hachiman, too, doesn’t he?

Zaimokuza approached me, clearing his throat with a bizarre noise.

“Do you need something?” I asked.

“Herm, of course I have no business! But the battery on my DS ran out already, so I was looking for a new way to kill time.”

“Is that right? Man, you’ve brought a lot of stuff. Are you gonna hole yourself up in the mountains somewhere?” Looking over, I saw Zaimokuza had a duffel bag on his back filled to bursting. What the hell is in there?

He patted the bag and pushed his glasses up with his middle finger. “Aye. Just for some sword training on Mount Kurama.”

“Mount Kurama, huh? That’s pretty out of the way.” Of course, Mount Kurama is also a popular location, but since it’s kind of far from the city of Kyoto, it’s a difficult place to visit if you’re going to be efficient about going to lots of places.

“Indeed, indeed! Well, ’twas not exactly my decision, but I deem training with Lord Tengu will prove interesting.”

“Are you going all the way to Kibune? Well, whatever you’re gonna be doing, it is easier when you don’t have to decide yourself. Sounds fine to me.”

“Well, I mean. I will also be getting what I desire as well. In this world, one sometimes finds a place he wishes to visit. But more importantly, I would that thou wouldst play along with my story outline and take jabs at it. I’m lonely,” Zaimokuza complained, pouting his lips.

Um, I mean, it’d be a waste of time to take potshots at his cringy, juvenile story outlines, so it’d be best not to touch that. I couldn’t do all that work for free.

“If you get to go where you want to go, then it’s all good, right? You’ve got this opportunity, so go have fun.”

“Indeed. Where shalt thou go, Hachiman?”

“Places and stuff. I haven’t decided yet for the third day.”

“The third day is the free day, is it not? Lermf, you may accompany me to the stores I might wish to visit.”

“I’d be okay with that, but…” Hanging out with Zaimokuza was kinda eh, but I did have some interest in shopping itself. But there was also the matter of the Service Club request on the third day. It’d probably be best to not make any plans. “It’s about time I go to the gate zone to meet up with my class.”

“To the gate zone, all alone! Indeed! Well then, Hachiman. We shall meet again, in Kyoto.”

“Oh, I doubt we’re gonna see each other, though…”

Parting ways with Zaimokuza, I looked for where the other members of my class were likely to be. If I loitered vaguely near the fringes, I would appear to be a part of the group. I looked around for a bit and found a familiar face in a particularly noisy section of the crowd.

It was Hayama and his friends.

So then that was definitely my class.

There were auxiliary organizations dotted about here and there, with Hayama’s clique at their core. So I just had to sneak into a spot on the outermost ring. Time to activate my shadow skill. This ability used to grant me the status effect of invisibility, but I must have leveled up or something recently, since it’s been activating additional attacks like people saying, You know, it’s always like he’s suddenly just lurking there. If they’re noticing my existence, my aura must be expanding.

Eventually, it was time.

The loose, wide spread of the group suddenly condensed into neat lines. Roll call was done for each class, and then we went in. Forward march! Is this a sports festival?

At this point, we checked that all our group members were present. That was when I finally got to encounter the people of my own group—Totsuka. Encounters in Space!

“Hachiman!”

This time, it’s the real one… Solace…

“Morning, Totsuka.”

“Yeah, morning, Hachiman.”

Totsuka and I greeted each other and then chatted a bit as all the groups came to stand on the Shinkansen platform. The train we were to board had already arrived. Each class got into the car that had been assigned to them.

The seats on the Shinkansen are arranged in a rather strange way.

There are five seats in each row, divided into three on one side and two on the other. This arrangement makes it difficult to sit in groups of four. If you could just naturally separate into two on either side, it’d be fine, but when you have a group of three and one loner, you’ll have three in seats together with one on the other side of the aisle. Either that, or a human sacrifice will be chosen from the group of three and get stuck caring for them like a dutiful child caring for their aging parents. In the case of the former, the loner will be at ease, left to their own devices, but if they’re paired up with someone, this will make nobody happy. Both will be silent the whole time, and the sacrifice will eventually cave and start talking to the two on the other side of the aisle.

And it’s this, the Shinkansen, which gives rise to such tragedy. Where should I position myself for this field trip, then?

There was me and Totsuka, and Hayama and Tobe.

For this quartet, the correct choice should be to separate into pairs.

But this was a class function. These things have a variety of elements tangling up in complex ways. You watch who sits where first, and the following seating arrangements are based on that. Everyone was fine until they boarded the train and started glancing at one another, wondering where they should sit. In these situations, whoever makes the first move loses the fight.

“Man, I get so excited on the Shinkansen and planes and stuff.” Tobe was looking around as he walked down the aisle of the car buzzing with quiet predeparture conversation.

“I’ve never ridden a plane.”

“This is my first time on the Shinkansen.”

Ooka and Yamato came loudly stomping after Tobe. They’d evidently ended up following him in because they’d been together in the station. The other two boys in Ooka and Yamato’s group followed behind them.

And another foursome was coming down the aisle: Miura, Yuigahama, Ebina, and Kawasaki. The three buddies plus one.

“I want the window seat.” Golden Curls got right to point and stated the seat she wanted.

The brown-haired bun accepted that and adjusted to suit her. “Okay then, I’ll be on the aisle. Where’ll you guys sit?”

When the discussion was turned to them, the short black bob considered a moment, then turned toward the ponytail. “Hmm… Between the window or aisle side…which do you think gets more ass?”

“Basically, anything is fine with… Huh?” Kawasaki froze at the incomprehensible question, and drool was on its way out of Ebina’s mouth.

“Close your mouth, Ebina. Come on.” Miura shoved Ebina’s jaw up, and Yuigahama watched the exchange with a hint of a wry smile. Even on a field trip, the four girls were having the same conversations they always did.

You made some friends. Isn’t that nice, Kawasaki? Big Brother has some feelings about that.

The seating situation was not being resolved, and Hayama could no longer just stand and watch. Without addressing anyone in particular, in his calm and resonant tone, he suggested, “I figure we can just sit wherever. We can switch seats on the way anyway.” Then he took a nearby window seat in a three-seat section right around the middle area.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Tobe followed him, moving to the one beside Hayama.

“Then I get the window,” Miura declared. She spun around the seats so there were two sets of three facing each other, then took the seat opposite Hayama. As expected of Miura. She sat down where she wanted, without asking anyone’s permission. “Come on, Yui, Ebina.” And then, crossing her long legs and leaning back in a luxurious manner, she patted the seat beside her.

How the hell is she doing that? She acts like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

“So Yumiko’s there, and Tobecchi’s there, and, um…,” Yuigahama muttered quietly so people wouldn’t hear as she considered everything.

But before her thoughts could come together, Ebina pushed Yuigahama’s back. “Come on, come on, you sit there, Yui. I’ll be here.”

“Hey, Hina—” Yuigahama was about to complain, but Ebina cut her off, took Kawasaki’s hand, and invited her to sit in front of her.

“You sit across from me, Kawasaki,” she said.

“Oh, I could go somewhere else…” Kawasaki shook her head at the lineup, but when Ebina pulled her by the hand, she acquiesced. She was surprisingly easy to push.

“It’s fine, it’s fine!  ” Ebina beamed as she decided the seating arrangements almost by force. As a result, a sextet was born: Miura, Yuigahama, and Ebina in a line, with Hayama, Tobe, and Kawasaki facing them.

Kawasaki didn’t hide her displeasure at being forced to sit next to Tobe, and she set her elbow on the armrest and her head on her hand like she was about to take a nap. Um, er, Tobe there is a little scared, so it’d be great if you could be a little nicer to him. You’re taking all the rom-com out of this.

Following Hayama’s group’s seating choices, Ooka and Yamato took the four seats on the other side of the aisle together with the other two of their group. Then the rest of the class went to decide their seats.

I was watching to see how things were going down when I felt a timid tug at my sleeve. Totsuka glanced all around, then up at me. “What should we do, Hachiman?”

I averted my eyes in embarrassment under the full force of such a tender look. I took the opportunity to survey the situation in the train car. “Yeah…”

In situations such as these, it’s convention for an isolated loner to go straight for a seat on the fringe and for the others to quarantine them there. Therefore, if someone else got there first, the loner would just have to see how everything shook out and go wherever was open.

Since Hayama had gone right for the center this time, the spaces at the front and back were comparatively empty. “…Well, there’s space up in front, so there, I guess,” I said.

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

When I started forward, Totsuka just followed without asking anything. He was so pure, I could see him getting dragged into some criminal activity at the drop of a hat. I have to protect him… With that secret imperative in my heart, I headed toward a set of three seats at the front.

The very front was occupied, unsurprisingly, so I chose a row a little farther back from that. I put my things on the overhead rack. I didn’t have much in the way of baggage, so there was a lot of space left over.

Well, it wasn’t much more work to lift up two bags instead of one. “Here.” When I reached out to Totsuka to lift his bag up, too, he looked puzzled but curious. Timidly, his hand crept forward and took mine.

It’s so soft and small and smooth…

“No, not that, your bag…”

That’s not what I meant; this isn’t a handshake. Aw man, it’s so smooth and soft.

“…Oh. S-sorry!” Realizing his mistake, Totsuka jerked his hand away from me. Looking down at the floor with his face bright red, he quietly said “Thank you…” and handed over his bag.

I took it and put it up on the overhead rack. I was about ready to scoop him up, too, while I was at it. I wanna take him home~.  

Totsuka was still embarrassed about his mistake as I ushered him to the window seat, and then I sat down, too.

Right then, the departure melody rang.

What a nice day for a trip!

Suddenly, I opened my eyes.

It seemed I’d fallen straight to sleep in my seat, maybe because I’d left the house earlier than usual. “Hnn!” I stretched and heard a giggle beside me, in the aisle seat.

“You sleep too much.”

“Ack! You startled me…” I jumped in my seat at the unexpected voice.

“What’s with that reaction…? Sooo rude…” Yuigahama glared at me with a pouting, grumpy expression.

“Uh, I mean, you’re gonna startle anyone if you talk to them right when they wake up…” It’s embarrassing when people see you sleeping, so please don’t, seriously. I instinctively wiped my mouth to make sure I wasn’t drooling.

The gesture must have been funny to her, as she cackled. “It’s fine, it’s fine! Your mouth was closed, and you slept really quietly.”

Fine, then. Actually, it’s not. It’s embarrassing.

Wait, why is she sitting here? It was decided long ago that Totsuka would be by my side… Looking for Totsuka, I found him snoozing beside me on the window side. But my yelp must have woken him up. He moaned quietly and rubbed his eyes a little.

Ngh! Damn it! I should have softly slid a ring onto the ring finger on his left hand while he was asleep, and then once he woke up and rubbed his eyes, he’d notice it, and I’d propose. What a waste of my strategy titled “Once she awakens…the diamond is forever.” Hachiman Hikigaya has made the mistake of his life! I’ve lost my chance at marriage!

Totsuka yawned modestly behind his hand, then blinked as he took in the situation. “…Sorry, I fell asleep.”

“Oh, no, it’s totally fine. I don’t mind if you sleep a bit longer. Once we arrive, I’ll wake you up. Oh, do you wanna use my shoulder?” If you like, my elbow or arm is fine, too.

“I—I don’t need that! You can nap, Hachiman. I’ll make sure to get you up.”

Ha-ha-ha, he’s cute enough to get a lot of things up.

It was starting to feel like, Are me and Totsuka gonna sleep or not? Or we could just sleep together? Yuigahama breathed an exasperated sigh. “Come on, the both of you are sleeping too much. This field trip has just started; if you’re already tired, what’re you gonna do for the rest of the trip?”

“Yeah, we have to enjoy this more.” Totsuka roused himself with a nod. True, it was still just the first day. It was too early to be getting tired and falling asleep.

So I thought, but Yuigahama seemed a little tired already herself. “Anyway, what’s going on with you? Did something happen over there?” I asked.

Her shoulders slumped. “About that… Yumiko and Hayato are basically no different from normal… Kawasaki’s been in a bad mood, and Tobecchi’s been scared of her this whole time, so it feels like the conversation just isn’t happening.”

“I see… What about Ebina?”

“Same as always… In fact, she seems so excited about the trip, she’s worse than usual.”

Okay, when you put it that way, I basically get what’s going on.

It was a disaster for Tobe. Kawasaki probably didn’t care much for his loud personality, and Tobe was too wimpy to handle Kawasaki and her delinquent-esque tendencies. What’s more, Ebina’s inner citadel was a Death Star–level fortress. Without the power of the Force, Tobe was never gonna break in there.

So in all likelihood, nothing much was going to happen on the Shinkansen, since initial positioning had gone wrong. Even if the environment was unusual, if the players were in ideal positions, in the end, nothing would change. What we needed to coordinate was not the environment but the relationships in it.

“It would be nice if they could have some time alone together,” said Yuigahama.

“But with just the two of them, I doubt anything would happen.”

“Yeah…”

Totsuka, hearing our conversation, clapped his hands. “Oh! Are you talking about Tobe?”

“Huh? You know, too, Sai-chan?” Yuigahama asked him with surprise.

“Yeah. He told us about his crush during summer vacation, in Chiba Village.”

“Oh, he did? Well, he came to talk to us about it the other day, so we’re hoping the two of them hit it off. If anything comes up, could you help, too, Sai-chan?”

“If I can. I hope it works out,” Totsuka said with a smile.

But this problem was rather a thorny one.

I wasn’t the type to go out of my way to wish for others’ happiness, but I wasn’t enough of a jerk to hope for their unhappiness, either. I may have wished a little suffering on certain jerks, but I didn’t feel that much for Tobe.

But looking over at Yuigahama beside me, hmming as she racked her brain, it occurred to me that maybe I had to come up with something, too. I folded my arms, pondering over the matter, when Totsuka let out a tiny “Ah!”

“Did you think of something?” I asked.

He pointed out the window. “Hachiman, look! It’s Mount Fuji!”

“Huh, we’ve already come pretty far. Where is it?”

“You can’t really see it from your seat, can you?” Pretty much glued to the window, Totsuka beckoned me. Guess that meant I should come closer. Taking him up on his word, I leaned in toward the window.

His face was really close. He twisted around awkwardly in the tiny space in an attempt to get as close to the window as possible, his face turned away from Mount Fuji so that his eyes were just giving it a sidelong glance. He sighed because of the cramped position, clouding the glass for an instant.

Oh-ho, so this is Mount Fuji… And my Mount Fuji is getting close, too…

As I feared the eruption of my own personal Mount Fuji, I felt a tug on my shoulder. “Oh! I wanna see, too!” Yuigahama laid her arm over top of me, from my shoulders across my back. A chill ran down my spine. The sudden touch was startling. The smell of her lightly applied perfume hung in the air after her.

Illegal contact?! That’s a foul…

But I lacked the presence of mind to shake her off or evade her, so I had no choice but to freeze in that position.

“…”

The scenery must have entranced her; she went silent for a good while. All I heard was her quiet breathing.

“Ohhh, Mount Fuji is so prettyyy. Hup.” After a nice long view, Yuigahama seemed satisfied, as she finally moved away from my back and sat down in her own seat. “Thanks, Hikki.”

“…Uh-huh,” I replied calmly, but frankly, my heart was still pounding as if I’d been running a race.

Why does she do things like this? Listen. This innocent behavior kinda…makes a lot of boys get the wrong idea, and these mistakes can be fatal, you know? If you understand, please refrain from the following: body touching, sitting in his seat during break or after school, and borrowing something you forgot from him.

I could feel my face turning red, so I turned to Yuigahama to lecture her and maybe distract her attention. “Listen…”

“Oh, I’m gonna head back now.” Before the words were even fully out of her mouth, she’d hopped out of her seat and scampered off.

She ran away… This was frustrating, irritating, annoying, a little disappointing, and at the same time, also a bit of a relief. I couldn’t quite sort out all the feelings, so I breathed them out in a soft sigh.

Which was when I heard a little bird speak from my arms. “U-um…are you done, Hachiman…?”

Looking over, I saw Totsuka was still in his earlier position, like I was basically holding him down. His eyes were moist; it must have been uncomfortable.

“S-sorry!” I swiftly collapsed into my own seat and slammed my back on the armrest. “Urk…”

“A-are you okay, Hachiman?!”

“Yeah, I’m fine, I’m fine.”

I waved one hand lightly to tell Totsuka all was well as I rubbed my back with my other one. A strange warmth still remained there, not so much painful as just a little uncomfortably tingly.

 

 

 

 

By Shinkansen, it was a little over two hours from Tokyo.

When we got off at Kyoto Station, I felt the chill as we headed to the bus stop. Fall nights were cold in Kyoto. At this time of year, it would get even colder.

Since Kyoto is a basin, geographically, the summers are hot, and the winters are cold. Put it another way, and you might also say the sharp differences in temperature bring out the seasonal beauty of the area.

In the spring, faint-pink cherry blossoms bloom on the mountain ridge, while the verdant riverbed by the Kamo River is cool in the summer. In the autumn, red falling leaves color the mountain, and in winter, snow flurries dance in the clear sky and blanket the mountains.

This was near the end of fall, around the time when you would soon be catching glimpses of snow.

Apparently, the plan for the day was to head straight to Kiyomizu-dera Temple.

Each class got into a bus.

Even here, the seating arrangement was similar to how it had been on the Shinkansen. Hayama and Tobe sat together, with Miura and Yuigahama in their row. Behind them were the Ooka and Yamato pair, and Kawasaki and Ebina together. The takeaway here was that me and Totsuka were sitting together.

But even on this bus, it seemed like Tobe and Ebina weren’t getting anywhere. Not only was there less freedom in seating on the bus than there had been on the Shinkansen, we were also very close to Kiyomizu-dera Temple. With some effort, we could have walked, so on a bus, it hardly took any time at all.

We drove down the road out of the urban area, turned, and eventually reached a hill. Our bus stopped in a big parking lot crowded with other tour buses. From here, we would climb up Sannen Hill to Kiyomizu-dera Temple.

Though the autumn leaves weren’t at peak season, there were still plenty of tourists. The whole Kiyomizu-dera Temple area is one of the most popular spots in Kyoto, so it was packed.

We took a group photo with the Nio gates in the background. Unfortunately, this was a scripted, unskippable event. Everyone huddled together with their best friends while the lone wolves had to question the reason for their existence.

There are three main strategies for positioning.

The first is the outranging style.

This one is easy, so you could call it a style suited to beginners. But its simplicity gives it great power. You stand about 1.5 persons away from your classmates and take advantage of the distance to inflict damage with 100 percent accuracy. Mostly to your parents when they see the graduation album. And also to yourself when you look back on it in the future. I recommend getting rid of your graduation albums and commemorative photos as soon as possible—but if you go for a half-assed method of disposal like just tossing it in the garbage at your house, then your mom will find it and save it without telling her son, and tragedy will strike in more ways than one. This style is risky.

The second method is guerrilla style.

For this technique, you mingle among your merry classmates, contort your mouth into something unnaturally wide, and with your cheeks cracking under the pressure of your dead smile, you pretend you’re a part of this. This is a pretty excellent form of camouflage that prevents loners from being identified in the photo, but there will be an emotional toll before and after taking the photo, as well as the possibility of aftereffects; after the battle is over, you might get comments like The group photo is the only time he ever approached us (lol).

The third technique is inside fighting.

You deliberately place yourself closer to your classmates for extreme close-quarters combat. The result is that you’ll be in someone’s shadow, or someone else will come in front of you and cut you out of the picture. You won’t be obscured from the photo entirely—you’ll be about half there—so it’ll be a passable memory, and it won’t make your mom worry to see it. You won’t be properly in the photo, but some forms of beauty aren’t reflected in photographs. However, if the photographer is a real go-getter, they’ll helpfully call, Oh, there’s someone in front of you, so move a bit farther apart, so you need to be wary of that.

On this occasion, I chose the inside fight and looked for a nice spot. Hmm, right now, somewhere behind a burly guy like Yamato should be good. Pushing my way through my classmates, I entered Yamato’s shadow and positioned myself so as to be slightly obscured by the person in front of me.

The shutter snapped a few times. Once I’d survived the group photo without incident, now we would all be touring together as a class.

I went up the stone steps and through the gate and found an impressive five-story pagoda. A sigh slipped out of me at the sight of the Kyoto cityscape.

The visitors’ entrance of Kiyomizu-dera Temple was already swarming with tourists and students who had gone in before us. It would take a little while before we could get in… Multiple classes were still waiting at the group entrance.

As I was quietly standing in line with my mind in outer space, someone called out to me.

“Hikki.” Yuigahama had left the line to come up to my side.

“What’s going on? Stand in line like you’re supposed to, or you’ll lose your spot. That’s life.”

“You’re being dramatic… And, like, this line isn’t gonna be moving for a while. More importantly, I found something that looks interesting, so let’s head over there for a bit.”

“Later.” I don’t have an aptitude for multitasking. I’m the type who wants to finish the thing in front of me first. Or maybe I just prefer to get unpleasant things over with.


Yuigahama hmph’d at me with a little glare, expressing her displeasure. “…Did you forget our job?”

“I’d prefer to forget about work when I’m on a trip, at least…”

But of course, my earnest wish would not reach her. Yuigahama grabbed me by the blazer. “I’ve already invited Tobecchi and Hina, so hurry up!”

She tugged my sleeve and me to a smallish temple not so far from the visitors’ entrance.

It was right there when we went in through the main gates, but it doesn’t have the visual punch of the main temple, so we must have ignored it. It was simply unremarkable. Or maybe it was that Kyoto has so many temples and shrines, you have to make a big bang if you want to leave an impression.

The one peculiarity about this one was the extremely cheerful middle-aged man trying to usher tourists in.

Womb tour, it was called. Ostensibly, going through this temple building in the darkness conferred some kind of blessing.

As Yuigahama had said, Ebina and Tobe were already there, nodding along to the guy’s explanation. By the way, Miura and Hayama were there, too.

“What are they doing here, too?” I asked quietly so they couldn’t hear.

Yuigahama leaned in to put her mouth close to my ear. “If I just called the two of them over, it’d be kinda weird.”

“Well, I guess…” It was true if we put them alone together, they’d end up hyperconscious of it. Tobe would get nervous, too, and worst of all, it would put Ebina on guard.

“Come on, come on, let’s go,” Yuigahama urged me, so I took off my shoes and paid a hundred yen.

They’re charging for this?

I peered down the stairs to see it was indeed dark. If a dungeon in an RPG world existed in reality, it might be something like this.

“’Kay then, you go first, Yumiko, Hayato,” Yuigahama suggested. “And we’ll go last.”

“We don’t have much time, so it’s probably best to just go in pretty much one after another,” Hayama replied very sensibly. Well, we’d sneaked out of line, so that was fair reasoning… Well, fair enough. If logic actually mattered, he’d have said something like Let’s go through here later so we can take our time, though… It was an ill-conceived response for him, but it seemed nobody particularly cared.

“Yeah, I suppose so,” Ebina agreed.

Oh no, it’s like I’m the only one thinking so much about what Hayama says! How embarrassing!

“But it’ll be over quick anyway, so no worries. Right, Ebina? And, Hayato?” said Tobe. Ebina folded her arms pensively as Tobe combed back his overlong hair with a grin.

“Yeah, but it’s best if we could get back early,” Hayama replied with a strained smile as Miura took his arm.

“’Kay, we’ll go first. Let’s get going, Hayato. This looks pretty cool,” Miura said, stepping down the stairs with Hayama.

“Oh man, the darkness makes it way more exciting!”

“Hmm… Oh! It’s so dark… Maybe Hayama and Hikitani should be going in together…”

Leaving those rather unsettling remarks behind them, Tobe and Ebina headed down into the womb tour, too.

Phew… I’m glad Hayama and I are far apart…

“Okay, Hikki, let’s go, too.”

“Yeah.”

We went down the stairs and turned a corner into even deeper darkness. A few more steps forward, and all the light was gone.

I couldn’t pull my hand away from the handrail, which was shaped like prayer beads. If I let go now, I’d probably lose not only my sense of distance but my sense of direction, too.

Whether my eyes were open or shut, it was still just as dark. Such is the abyss. Tottering along, testing the ground with each step, I probably would have looked like a penguin if anyone had seen me.

Now that my visual stimuli were gone, my other senses sharpened in an attempt to make up for it.

I could hear Miura and the others talking a few steps ahead. Miura was muttering incoherently over and over, which somehow sounded like a prayer, and it was scarier than it ought to have been. “…Oh crap, it’s dark, it’s dark, it’s dark, oh crap, it’s dark, oh crap.”

“Pretty intense, huh?” I could hear Hayama mutter, maybe just being polite, or maybe as an honest impression.

“Whoa, it’s so dark! Man, this is wild! It’s nuts! This is dark as you can get, dude!” Tobe continued to blather on in excitement as if to encourage himself.

In response, he got a noncommittal “Ditto.” I wondered if this was a Pokémon talking at first, but that was probably Ebina.

My hearing wasn’t the only thing that got sharper.

My sense of touch was similarly being honed. In the darkness, I proceeded by feel.

The air was tranquil. Since I’d taken off my shoes, I shivered from the cold afflicting my feet. But the temperature wasn’t the only thing that sent a momentary shudder running through me. It was genuine fear. Things you can’t see, can’t understand, can’t grasp, can’t figure out—they all lead to fear and anxiety.

With all these unfamiliar sensations, I shuffled along, groping at each one of the large beads that made up the railing. Suddenly, my hand landed on something warm. A little surprised, I stopped. Then something lightly bumped into me.

“Ack! Oh, sorry. I can’t see at all.” The owner of the voice was Yuigahama. Unable to see, she patted my back and arms to make sure of where I was.

“Oh, sorry. It’s so dark, I kinda got confused, too…” Well, we were in complete darkness. It was unavoidable. The blind darkness makes you uneasy, so you grab at someone’s clothes or hands as a sort of emergency measure. I wasn’t going to question it. It’s okay, I’ve held hands with Komachi very recently, and I’m n-not thinking about it, not at all, I’m totally fine.

“You’ve been quiet this whole time, Hikki, so I thought you might have gotten lost.”

“I do that on a regular basis.” It’s racked me up a lot of EXP. And I’ve got super-high-speed and mental defense for going home early, too.

When I gave her that blasé response, I could hear hesitant laughter in the darkness, some sort of snicker or wry chuckle.

I took that as my signal to start moving forward again. The pull against my blazer remained, even as I continued on my way.

The path turned again and again, and then something leaped out of the blackness filling my vision.

It was a light, vague and dimly white. It looked like a stone, illuminated with electric lights.

Arriving before the stone, I could finally see Yuigahama’s face.

“Here, we’re supposed to spin the rock as we make a wish,” she said.

“Huh.” I don’t have any particular wishes. Stable income, a safe household, and sound health, I guess. Wait, that’s actually a lot.

But I felt that wishing for something so practical from gods or Buddhas wasn’t quite right. A lot of the time, you can get those things through your own effort, and if so, I’d be better off wishing for something I couldn’t get.

Especially because when someone or something gives you a gift, that means it can also be taken away.

“Have you decided what you’re gonna wish for?” Yuigahama drowned out my pointless speculation in the darkness.

“Yeah,” I replied. But I hadn’t really made up my mind… Yeah, I guess I’ll just wish for Komachi to pass her entrance exams.

“Okay then, let’s spin it together.” Yuigahama spun the rock around and around like a lazy Susan at a Chinese restaurant. With her eyebrows drawn tight and her eyes closed, she looked very serious.

Once she was done spinning it, she clapped her hands twice, too. You idiot, that’s what you do at a shrine.

“All right, let’s go!” For some reason, she looked really inspired as she pushed me in the back, and we plunged into darkness again.

They must have put that rock for the climax near the end; after a little walking, we could dimly see the entrance. The light leaking down from upstairs was a sight for sore eyes. When the others in front saw the light of day, they breathed sighs of relief, too.

We all climbed the stairs and stretched wide once we made it out.

“What’dja think? Feels like being reborn, doesn’t it?” the guide asked with his Kansai dialect—he asked Tobe, that is.

“Oh, yeah! Man, I feel all fresh! Is that what you mean?”

Whoa, he hasn’t changed one bit since before he went in there.

I looked at the time, but it hadn’t been long. Five minutes or something.

Rebirth doesn’t come that easy. You can go on a trip to India or climb Mount Fuji, but you’re not going to be reborn. And even if you are, it’s not like you can rewrite everything that’s brought you to that point. No matter how you try to change what’s in your mind, if you can’t revise how the people around you see you or undo your past failures, that doesn’t fix anything.

People are history; the time they’ve spent, the experiences they’ve lived form who they are. If you were reborn, you would have to burn all that history and erase it. But that’s functionally impossible. So then you can’t wish for rebirth. You have no choice but to live with the wounds on your shins and the sin on your back.

There are no do-overs in life.

Exactly how many failures had Tobe experienced? If he’d been through as many as I had but could still act that positive anyway, that was something to respect.

But he probably hadn’t.

No, I hoped so… I didn’t want such a glib, shallow guy to have some trauma as the mysterious core of his personality. I didn’t want him to be laughing like an idiot because he had overcome his issues. It would make him almost cool…

“Ah, wait, oh no! Maybe everyone else has gone in already!” Yuigahama said in a panic as she looked over toward the group entrance of Kiyomizu-dera Temple.

“C’mon, we’ve got time, right?” Tobe said, but we didn’t seem to have as much as he figured. Even from a distance, I could see kids in black uniforms starting to move, bit by bit.

“Come on, hurry!” Yuigahama urged us, and we rushed over to merge with the line.

Somehow, we got back before our class entered the main temple. We went in from the group entrance, where attractions like the Daikokuten statue and iron geta were installed inside. So many people were gathered there, even touching one of them would be a challenge.

Go farther in, and there was the Kiyomizu-dera Temple platform. Unsurprisingly, it was the most popular spot in the temple. It wasn’t just students from our school taking pictures there—regular tourists were in the crowd.

“Oh, wow…” Yuigahama breathed a sigh as she touched the railing. The view overlooked the autumn-red mountains and the city of Kyoto. A thousand years ago, what would we have seen beneath us? Kyoto had changed in form, but I bet the invigorating experience of seeing it from these heights has stayed the same.

Kyoto is the city where change and permanence coexist.

I felt like I kind of understood why this city had been chosen for the field trip.

As I lost myself in the scenery, Yuigahama said beside me, “Oh! Hey, let’s take a picture, Hikki, come on!” She quickly popped a compact digital camera out of her pocket. The tiny pink device was very Yuigahama.

“A photo? Gotcha. Lemme have that, then.”

“Huh?” A questioning look on her face, Yuigahama handed her camera over to me.

I backed up a few steps, raised the camera, and captured Yuigahama in the finder. “Say peanuts.” Then I pressed the button, and she rushed to make a low-effort reverse peace sign before the short electronic beep, beep.

“See, you got a good one, thanks to my skills,” I said, returning the camera, and Yuigahama immediately checked the photo. It’s convenient you can see ’em right away on a digital camera, isn’t it? But you know, if this one isn’t good, she’ll make me take another one.

“I did? Oh, it is kinda flattering… Wait, no! And, like, what the heck was that that you said when you took it?!”

“Don’t you know? When us Chibanese take pictures, we always say that…”

“You don’t need to lie about that…”

It wasn’t really a lie. In fact, I kinda wished it’d catch on. Let’s all say peanuts for photos!

“That’s not what I meant! …Let’s take one together! Since we’re both here and all.”

Such a straightforward suggestion was hard to refuse. I figured there was no particular reason to say no to her. I could’ve come up with some facetious excuse about the camera stealing my soul or something, but, well, it was like she said. Since we were there and all. I hadn’t brought my own camera, either, so if I was gonna be in any picture, I had to be in someone else’s.

“Well, I wouldn’t really mind a picture,” I said. “Okay then, I guess I’ll ask someone to take it for us.”

“You don’t need to do that. All we gotta do is this,” she said, coming to stand beside me. Then she turned the lens of the camera toward the two of us and readied to press the shutter button herself. “You have to lean in close, or we might not both fit…” She took a step closer to me and gently hooked her arm around mine. “All right! Cheese!”

I heard the shutter button, then a particularly cheery electronic noise.

My eyes hovered around somewhere in the opposite direction as Yuigahama, and that probably made them look even more rotten than usual. Practically spirit-photography level.

Yuigahama whisked her arm away, and then she took a few light steps back before spinning to face me again. “Thanks.”

“I-it’s not worth thanking me for.”

Yeah, taking a photo is normal.

Looking around, I saw quite a few people here and there lining up to point cameras at themselves and take pictures. It was probably fairly common for modern high school students. There was no need to get dramatic about one commemorative photo. People took pictures together all the time, including ones with both guys and girls. In fact, it seemed that was more common.

I was just thinking too much.

“Hey, Yumiko, Hina! Let’s take a picture, too!” Arms around Miura and Ebina, Yuigahama took a picture of the three of them. It was a nice shot. I could almost see the yay   caption.

“Hayato, you guys join in, too!” Yuigahama called out to Hayama and everyone around him, not far away, and they all shuffled in as a group. Tobe, Ooka, and Yamato all responded to her signal, too.

“Ohhh, yeah, yeah!” said Tobe.

“Oh, sure… But this is a lot of people.” Smiling awkwardly, Hayama looked back at the cluster of classmates around him.

“Oh, so then we could separate into groups…”

Yuigahama’s suggestion must have been lost in the crowd, or Hayama hadn’t heard it, since he walked up to me and tried to give me his camera. “Do you mind?”

“…No,” I replied, accepting it, and then found there was a line of people behind him.

“Like, take my phone, too.”

“Here’s mine, too, Hikitani!”

“And mine!”

“Oh, and mine!”

Hold on a minute here! I only said I’d take Hayama’s camera…and now there’s Miura and Tobe and Ebina and Ooka? Come on! And there’s even more after them!

I was entrusted with a few additional cameras as well, until I accepted it from the very last person with a sigh. “Sorry, Hachiman,” said Totsuka. “Can I ask you to do mine, too?”

“Yeah, just leave it to me!” This is a very singular, irreplaceable photo. I shall put my soul into it and take the greatest photo ever! But that made it sound like my vengeful spirit was gonna be in it. Eugh, what a sad photo.

“…Oh, then, Hikki, sorry. Can you take mine, too…?” A little chagrined, Yuigahama came to hand me her camera, too.

This suggestion had probably been an attempt to get Tobe and Ebina in a photo together… Well, with the whole class present, of course they were. Not to mention that if someone suggests taking a photo with everyone, that’s what’s gonna happen.

When I took her camera, I said, “Gotcha. Well, try again tomorrow.”

“Yeah…” she replied briefly, then returned to the platform railing where everyone else was waiting, and I got ready to take the photo.

Dang, this was a lot of cameras. Almost in the double digits. Wow, it’s kinda like I’m popular!

Actually, why didn’t they just take one picture and attach it to an e-mail or share it on Facebook or something? Isn’t this a time to take advantage of those social media things that I don’t really get?

“Then I’m just gonna snap whatever… Okay, peanuts.” Okay, okay, peanuts, peanuts… I took photo after photo.

The series of shots made me realize how expressive Yuigahama is. Her determination to enjoy the moment with all her might showed up on her face and in her gestures in every photo. It was a good thing the camera had an automatic focus function—otherwise, I felt like a lot of things would be going out of focus.

Miura seemed used to being photographed—though she posed differently in each shot, her expressions were basically consistent.

Hayama was a total natural, just like you’d expect from a guy who’s used to attention, and though he didn’t seem like he was making an effort to pose, the camera was kind to him.

Tobe was also being natural, to put it nicely, but, well, he was definitely Tobe. He was making a lot of the poses you’d see in a fashion magazine. Gaia must have been whispering at him to shine more.

Meanwhile, Ebina was smiling the whole time. I’d gotten used to that expression lately, but there was something vaguely frightening about how it was exactly the same in every photo.

We followed the tour route from the main temple, seeing the sights, and the flow of students continued toward Jishu Shrine.

Jishu Shrine is situated on the grounds of Kiyomizu-dera Temple. It’s quite famous because of its gods of marriage, and it’s a popular spot for visitors to come praying for romantic success. The people who come to visit Kiyomizu-dera Temple will, without a doubt, also come to pray here.

This was all the more true for the students on our field trip. The area around the shrine was full of their chattering and shrieking.

First, we would get the shrine visit done with, and then they would all go excitedly buy their charms and fortunes.

I didn’t intend to buy anything in particular, so I activated my secret technique: just silently trailing behind everyone else. Well, I wouldn’t have minded buying a fortune, but I suspect they’re based around the idea of entertaining others, meaning you’re supposed to show your fortunes off. So I’ve never been in the habit of doing it.

While I vaguely inserted myself into the group and watched how the class was doing, it seemed, unsurprisingly, that the number-one attraction here was the love-fortune rock.

Looking over, I saw lots of girls taking up the challenge. Their friends would secure a route for them, like security guards, so nobody would interrupt them, and then they’d start with something like, Okay, I’m going now.

If you can go from a rock positioned a ways away to arrive at the love-fortune stone with your eyes closed, your love is supposed to come true, kinda like that show where you get a million yen if you can perform some difficult stunt.

Also, if someone helps you with verbal instructions like you do when smashing watermelons blindfolded, then apparently, that means you’ll need that person’s help to fulfill your love.

Looking closely, I saw a woman of marriageable age in a suit and white jacket arrive at the stone to the sound of applause. Our teacher-advisor is so amazing…

As more high school girls waited their turns, boys took furtive glances at them. If the girl they had a crush on was taking the challenge, I was sure they’d work themselves up wondering if the one she liked was him. Uh, actually, I was on the brink of thinking that myself. You’re allowed to have hope—it doesn’t hurt anyone as long as I never put it into action and blow it all up.

Not everyone there had come for such romantic information. Some boys were just watching from afar because they were a bit curious to see. Things like this make you realize how cute boys can be.

But I felt that our dear Tobe, joining the line like it was normal, was just slightly lacking in discretion.

“I’m gonna do it on the first try for sure!” he crowed to the onlookers, and then Ooka and Yamato, who had joined him at the shrine, gave him a wild round of applause to wind him up. Tobe answered with a victory pose, then closed his eyes and, shuffling along like a zombie, headed for the goal.

“Oh man, I’ve got no idea. Huh? Do I just go straight here, actually? How am I doing?” Tobe asked for advice, and Yamato and Ooka amused themselves by giving nonsense answers.

“Straight, straight!”

“Behind you, Tobe!”

“Whaaa—? Behind me?!” Tobe whirled around.

“There’s no point in turning around if your eyes are closed…,” Hayama muttered with a sigh of exasperation. Laughter rang out around the shrine. How delightful.

As long as they were having fun, Ebina didn’t have to worry about them at all. They really were good friends.

While I blankly watched the three idiots, Yuigahama patted Ebina on the shoulder, probably having similar thoughts. “Isn’t that friendly enough, Hina?”

“Yeah, it is… But you can’t relax until the end,” she said, her face tilted toward the ground. From where I stood, I couldn’t see her eyes past the lenses of her glasses. But the tone of her voice had dropped a little.

You didn’t see Ebina this tense very often, and Yuigahama gave her a questioning look. “Huh? What do you mea—?”

Ebina cut her off by jerking her head up again, clenching a fist and panting through her nose. “You know! I really need them to go as far as they can on this trip!”

Go where, pray tell?

Oh, and Tobe nearly fell on his ass in the end, but Hayama caught him.

After the love-fortune stone, the kids of our class went on to opening up regular fortunes.

“Awww yes!” Miura made her joy plain with a very handsome victory pose.

Peeking at what was in her hands, Yuigahama also called out in surprise. “Whoa, Yumiko!”

“Ooh, you got the ‘great fortune’ one…” Even Ebina came up to her to give her a little applause.

“Man, seriously? But, like, it’s still just a fortune? It’s not like it really matters, y’know?” Miura was talking like this was no big deal, but the way she folded the fortune up neatly and carefully put it in her wallet gave away her pleasure. She was very much a girl in love, and it was cute.

“But actually, y’know…getting the best fortune really kinda sucks, right? ’Cause then it’s all downhill from there!” Tobe teased.

“What was that?” Miura’s glare was no joke.

Yup, she’s scary after all.

Of course, this also frightened Tobe, so he retreated to safer waters. “Uh…great fortune… Don’t see that often…”

Oh, that’s definitely a thing, all right, splashing cold water over someone else’s joy and making people scowl. Back in elementary school, when I went to Nikko on a field trip, I said something similar and made everyone hate me, as usual.

But Tobe’s supposition that your luck tops out when you draw the best fortune isn’t really wrong. Similarly, if you say it’s all downhill afterward, then the opposite is also true.

“Awww. I got bad luck…,” Ebina said sadly.

“But you know, since it’s all uphill from here, that’s actually a good thing!” Tobe casually consoled Ebina for her bad luck. Teasing Miura must have led him to this conclusion.

Huh, he’s really trying at this even without our help, isn’t he?

…All right, guess I’ll give him a hand here. “If you’re gonna tie up a bad fortune, I think higher up is better. Like, you know, the gods are supposed to be able to see it better or something.” It was the most clearly superstitious folk belief thing I could have said, but, well, I had heard something along those lines before.

But my comment was so out of the blue, both Tobe and Ebina were looking all around for the source of the voice. No, it’s not a message from the gods; it’s me. It’s a-me, Wario. Well, not really.

The two of them finally noticed my presence, so I repeated myself. “I hear a high spot’s good. Why don’t you tie it up there for her?” I said with a look at Tobe.

He seemed to understand, reaching out to Ebina. “O-oh, I get it. Hey, let me do it?”

“Th-thanks. Gotta love boys!” Ebina handed her fortune over to Tobe. But she meant it like Gotta love boys (because they’re convenient), which was saddening.

Tobe reached up to the highest spot to tie on the fortune. Watching out of the corner of my eye, I left Jishu Shrine feeling proud of a job well done.

Now we just had to follow the visitors’ route.

We’d wandered along from the inner subtemple to the platform at the main temple to see the view, and from there, the path led on downward to the Otowa Waterfall.

They said its miraculous water was the origin of the name Kiyomizu-dera (pure water) Temple.

Lots of people were lined up in front of its three streams.

The line was long, weaving back and forth in rows divided by partitions. Hey, hey, they’re lining up like it’s Destiny Land. There’s no fast pass here?

I was standing there aghast at the crowd when a violent chop landed on my head. “No going ahead on your own!”

“Uh, today isn’t even the group day, so it’s no big deal, come on…” Rubbing my head, I squinted at Yuigahama, Miura, and the others coming up behind her.

“Oh, there’s some kinda stream here. Three of ’em.”

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

“This is the Otowa Waterfall,” Hayama said carelessly.

Guidebook in hand, Yuigahama hmm’d as she began to read. “Ummm, it says one gives blessings for studies, one for love, and one for long life.”

…I see. So that’s why Miss Hiratsuka’s in line there with an empty two-liter shochu bottle. That’s too much to take home…

Wait, was that true? There was nothing like that written in the explanation at the Otowa Waterfall itself. In fact, the sign even declared rather flatly: ALL THREE BRANCHES ARE THE SAME WATER! You know?

And everyone was lining up without even questioning it. So was I, though.

After about fifteen minutes of waiting, finally, it was our turn. By the way, the teacher got a scolding for taking too much of the romantic-success water.

Each of us grabbed a ladle to scoop some water.

Yuigahama, in front of me, focused on the middle waterfall and reached out with the long ladle to take some water. Bringing it to her lips, she tucked her hair behind her ear and sipped it a couple of times, her white throat moving as she gulped it down.

“Oh, wow. It’s good…,” she said with a sigh as she finished drinking. This water had been famous for ages. The taste had a long history. And it was spring water, too, chilled by the season, so it had to be pleasant.

I reached out to the shelf of clean ladles to take one in hand.

“Here, Hikki.” Yuigahama stopped me, handing me the ladle she’d used instead.

“Uh, that’s… I mean, it’s kinda sorta…”

Yuigahama sometimes had these rather girlish calculated moments, but she could also be sincerely clueless sometimes, so I couldn’t tell for sure.

But this time, it seemed she was handing me the ladle with good intentions.

When she realized the significance of what she was doing, her cheeks flushed. “Uh…”

“Yeah…” Well, that’s what it is.

I picked up one of the sterilized ladles, scooped up some water from the nearby stream, and chugged it down in one go. The cold drink was delicious.

“Y-you don’t need to worry about that …”

…But I will. I mean, if I drank from yours, I wouldn’t know how the water tastes, now, would I?

 



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