The sun broke over the horizon in the east, the jagged mountains delaying its arrival for a few minutes longer, the sky blue long before the glowing ball of light the colour heralded. Light filtered through the window of the room, and as morning came, I was gently awoken by the sweet song of the Second Place-san.
Literally -- the boy was loudly singing to himself as he packed his bag.
Groggily, I rose in my futon, and looked around.
This isn't our apartment...
After a moment, my brain activated, and I remembered where I was -- and why a wild Second Place-san was prancing around my room. Groaning, I pulled the futon cover back over my head, buying myself a few more precious minutes of solitude and darkness. Nevertheless, the sound permeated my sanctuary; there was no escape.
It is far too early in the morning for this.
Eventually, I was faced with the stark reality that staying within my futon was not, in fact, a viable long-term option. Sighing, I emerged from my cocoon, and began drearily getting ready myself. The other boys in the room were scattered all about as though a typhoon had struck overnight; unlike fallen debris, however, the assorted lumps of human were beginning to stir.
With light streaming through, I walked over to the window of the room, pulled the curtain aside, and took a peek outside.
The view took my breath away.
The ryokan was situated near Nakatsugawa, or so I'd been able to gather from the information posted in the lobby. The previous evening, it had been too dark to make out any details from the bath -- but now, I could see the view in all its glory. The mountains were on full display, an admixture of orange and green peeking out from under the blanket of snow still remaining from the previous night's storm. The sky remained a misty grey, but in combination with the mountains, it rendered the whole view somehow all the more romantic -- clouds wisped around the peaks, thin strands of cotton decorating their ashen crowns. The trees in front of the ryokan, just outside the window, had hoarfrost coating their branches -- and yet, most of the leaves had not yet fallen, the white snow mixing with the remaining greenery to create an almost unearthly sight.
I checked my phone. It was still quite early... I probably had time for another bath.
The wayward thought cheered me enough to temporarily render Second Place-san's assault on my ears futile. It wasn't that he was a bad singer; far from it. He was just loud.
Suddenly, a pillow flew across the room at lightning speeds, and smacked Second Place-san right in the face.
"Can it, blondie," Maeda growled, sitting up from inside his futon. "Some of us are trying to sleep."
"Hah! Nonsense, Maeda-san!" Second Place-san retorted, the pillow falling away to the floor. "All go-getters are early risers! If you wish to win the woman of your dreams, you must rise with the sun! Push beyond your limits: shine like the morning glow of dawn!"
To my absolute astonishment, instead of doing the obvious thing and lashing out at the buffoon, Maeda's face suddenly looked... chastened.
"You're... you're right. I'm sorry, Love-Sensei."
"Love-Sensei? What the hell happened while I was gone last night?!" I found myself saying out loud in sheer incredulity.
"A-hahahahahaha! I have simply granted the boon of bountifulness unto Maeda-san here! Tell me, will you also take up the mantle, Uesugi Fuutarou?"
"I cannot think of a single thing I would like less in life," I said drily, slowly backing away.
"Nonsense! Join us, and--"
I quickly grabbed my towel and fled the room. Returning to the bath, as I stepped outside I was treated to a stunning vista to which I'd managed to grab only a hint via the bedroom window. Slipping into water, I could feel my spontaneously-accumulated stress slip away.
The cold November breeze, still cooled by the snow coating the ground, whisked over my upper body, strongly contrasted by the warm water in which I soaked. The feeling was surprisingly pleasant, though I felt the need to lower myself further in to shield my shoulders after a while. The view was almost enough that I didn't want to leave the ryokan... but we had plans for the day, and I didn't want to be a source of delay.
Regretfully getting out of the bath and wrapping myself in a towel, I paused for a moment, drinking in the sights one last time with thirsty eyes. As I stood in the entryway, I suddenly heard a voice drifting over from the other side of the partition.
It belonged to one of the quintuplets -- but as to which one, I had no clue.
I guess there's no need to rush after all... if they're only getting in now, we can't be leaving any time soon.
I lingered in the doorway a while longer, breathing in the cool fresh air. While I could hear some kind of conversation, I couldn't really make out the words -- after all, I wasn't about to go stand next to the partition just to eavesdrop. I had more class than that.
Taking a final glance over the mountains, I returned inside to get dressed. As I did so, my ears perked up at a stray word -- "Fuutarou". It narrowed the speaker down to either Miku or Ichika, but given I was devoid of further information, there wasn't really much else to be gleaned. I got dressed in the clothes my father had bought me, and glanced in a mirror as I got ready to head back to the viper's nest that was the hotel room.
It was a pair of black jeans, and an army-green t-shirt with some writing in French on it in yellow letters. I didn't read French, but I'd mentioned it to Yotsuba shortly after it had been forced upon me, and she'd used an app on her phone to figure out what it said -- naturally, she didn't speak French either.
Non, it read at the top. In the middle was a fleur-des-lis, and underneath, je ne regrette rien.
"No, I don't regret anything," I murmured, staring at the shirt. It felt almost like an aspiration, a mantra to repeat to oneself in the depths of the night.
That would be nice, wouldn't it? To be someone who regrets nothing.
Shaking myself from my reverie, I left the mirror behind, and pushed aside the blue cloth covering the entrance to the men's side of the bath. Quickly returning to the room, I found that Maeda and Second Place-san were (thankfully) both gone, though a few of the other boys, whose names I had already forgotten, remained as they packed their bags. I quickly rolled my futon up and stowed it away, then finished closing up my suitcase.
"Oh, uh... hey, you," one of the boys called awkwardly after me as I began to leave the room. "Sorry, I don't know your name."
"All good. What is it?" I asked, glancing back. I think that's the one that threatened to commit homicide last night...?
"A teacher came by while you were out, and said we're supposed to meet in the lobby. Apparently breakfast is free, but we've got to all go together."
Upon hearing the magical, mystical word of wonder ("free"), my face split into a wide grin -- one that I was sure Yotsuba would have called creepy.
"Perfect. Thanks for letting me know," I said.
"Yeah, sure..." the boy trailed off as I left the room, staring at me as I went.
After navigating to the lobby, I found the whole place swarming with teenagers. Large crowds such as these made me moderately uncomfortable, especially when I was by myself. I clutched my suitcase handle a little more tightly, the cool plastic giving me some comfort. Then, I saw a flash of red hair across the room, and my nerves immediately dissipated.
Meandering over to the other side of the lobby, I walked up behind Yotsuba, who was dramatically describing something with her arms, her excited voice rising above the babble of the crowd.
"Hey," I said. "Good morning."
"And then Sasuke-- oh, hey Uesugi-san! How'd you sleep?"
"I was terrified for my life the whole night -- but pretty well, all things considered."
"Eh? Terrified for your life?"
"There were terrifying things happening in that room," I said darkly. "Horrors beyond your imagination."
"That's... pretty chuuni of you, Uesugi-san," Yotsuba said, half-laughing.
"Trust me," I muttered. "There're no delusions here. Just fear."
"Good morning, Uesugi-kun," Itsuki chimed in. "Wasn't the view beautiful from the baths? I loved it -- I wasn't expecting us to already be so high in the mountains!"
"I mean, I couldn't really see anything from the baths last night, but the view this morning was lovely. I've never been to the mountains before, so it was definitely a sight to see."
"You've never been to the mountains before, Fuutarou?" Miku asked quietly from behind Itsuki, and I realized with a start that all five of them were there.
"Ah... yeah," I said, rubbing the back of my head. "This is a first for me."
"Hmmm," Miku said, staring at my face. "I see."
Her gaze made me uncomfortable, and I looked away first. My eyes happened to land on Nino, and she immediately scowled at me.
"I don't want to eat breakfast with this loser," she growled. "If he's eating with us, I'm out."
"I don't have to eat with you, if it'll cause conflict," I said, suddenly feeling awkward. I wasn't sure if I was imagining it... but Nino seemed more hostile than usual. "Don't worry about it."
"Come on, Nino," a quiet voice said from behind me. "Let's just have breakfast. You don't need to be like that."
I turned around and, to my absolute bewilderment, saw that Miku was the one who had spoken up -- she was frowning at Nino, who seemed equally bewildered.
"Miku, why are you standing up for him?" Nino asked, confusion written across her face in giant letters. "You barely know him!"
"...That's true," she replied, still at her usual low volume. "But... Yotsuba and Itsuki do... and I had fun playing cards with him. Why can't he eat with us? It's a camping trip, and we're supposed to have fun."
"It won't be fun for me if he sits with us!"
"Why?"
"Because... because..."
Nino seemed to temporarily be at a loss for words. Her mouth opened and then closed twice... and then she shook her head.
"Fine," she grumbled. "He's taking one corner, though, and I'm taking the other."
On the one hand, I was pleasantly surprised to see how easily Nino had backed down when genuinely pressed; I hadn't expected Miku of all people to stand up for me.
On the other... I had hoped, somewhere deep inside, that the relative warmness Nino had shown me after the situation with Second Place-san would last a little bit longer -- that, perhaps, it would lead to a better relationship. Instead, things seemed right back where they were before. If anything, her attitude was marginally worse.
"So much for Operation Twintail," I muttered under my breath.
Yotsuba, being the closest to me, glanced over when I said that, and an apologetic look crossed her face -- but I waved it away. Nino's hatred of me wasn't Yotsuba's fault; I was hardly going to blame her for her sister's actions.
Finally, the doors to the dining hall opened, and we were allowed in. We all sat at a table in the corner; since it was round, Nino's objection regarding the corners was rendered moot. Instead, she contented herself with sitting a third of the circumference away from me so that she would neither have to sit next to me, nor directly across from me -- something which struck me as decidedly petty.
A teacher came by and informed us that we were in group four; there was a buffet, but we would be called up in turn so as to avoid crowding. Seated in between Yotsuba and Itsuki, Ichika was across the table from me, with Nino to her right and Miku to her left.
"Uesugi-san, what's the first thing on our schedule?" Yotsuba asked, leaning on her hand and raising her voice slightly so she could be heard above the hubbub of the dining hall.
"Uh... If I remember correctly, it was orienteering at ten o'clock."
"What even is that?" Itsuki asked, frowning.
"It's an event where you use a map and compass to find various points," I said, frowning. "I would be opposed... but you're allowed to walk, and I don't care about getting a good time."
"Eh?! Uesugi-san, we've gotta shoot for the top!" Yotsuba protested.
"Why?" I groaned. "That sounds like a huge pain. I'd rather just have fun wandering."
Yotsuba stuck her tongue out at me, and I just laughed.
"Group four!"
Simultaneously, we all scraped our chairs back, and stood up to get food. As we made our way into the line, I heard a rumbling sound next to me. Glancing over, I saw that Itsuki's face was bright red, her hands over her belly.
"I... I'm hungry!" she said, embarrassment flooding her cheeks with crimson. "Sue me!"
"I'm not judging you," I shrugged. "I'm hungry too. We didn't really have much to eat yesterday."
"That's true! Ooh, look Uesugi-kun, they have pancakes!"
We each grabbed food to put on our plate, Itsuki taking a generous helping of everything, and then returned to our table. The food was mediocre, even by the standards of my poor man's palette. Itsuki seemed rather disappointed, though she still finished every scrap on her plate. Nino was loudly complaining that she could have cooked better food at home -- which, as my tongue could now attest, was absolutely true.
It was still rude, though. The ryokan employees could probably hear her.
After breakfast was done, Nino once again departed with a call of 'I'm not sitting with this loser on the bus,' going to sit with her friends. The rest of us boarded the same bus after loading our suitcases into the hungry stomach of the beast. In doing so, the sisters unfortunately got a glimpse of my undersized baggage -- but none of them particularly seemed to care.
I need to stop worrying about these sorts of things so much. Seriously.
The bus ride to the camp grounds was mostly uneventful -- we had only been about an hour away under normal circumstances anyways when the teachers had decided to pull over. I noticed that Ichika was being a bit quieter than usual, but I chalked it up to the events of the previous night. She was most likely just tired -- she seemed perfectly friendly, after all; perhaps even more so than usual.
Miku, on the other hand, retreated entirely into her shell as soon as we got on the bus. She threw on her headphones, sat across the aisle from us, and spent the entire ride typing on her phone. At one point, I looked over, and saw that she was staring intently down at it, her brow furrowed with concentration.
Then, to my astonishment, her face split into a smile. After a few moments of practically grinning at her phone, Miku glanced up, then looked over at me, and the smile vanished immediately. She pouted, and looked directly away from me. Then, she began typing on her phone again.
I do not understand this woman.
After about an hour of duelling Ichika at cards (and sweeping Yotsuba and Itsuki aside like flies), the bus finally pulled into the camping grounds, deep in the heart of the Kiso mountains. The snow had mostly melted where we were, though the heights of the mountains were still coated in white. We disembarked from the bus, and were sorted once again into rooms.
For some godforsaken reason, they decided to go with the same groups as from the ryokan -- which explained how they'd come up with them so quickly the night before. Upon grabbing my bag and joining my group, I was immediately subjected to the rantings and ravings of Second Place-san, as well as Maeda's grumpy demeanour. The other three boys seemed tolerable, if a little... boorish at times.
I quickly came to the decision that I would spend as little time in my room as humanly possible.
After putting my bag down, I pulled out my phone and wrote an email to Yotsuba.
<Done putting my stuff away. Should I come find you?>
I sent it, but the email looked different from the usual -- the text seemed greyed out. Frowning, my eyes scanned the screen... and then I winced.
There was no cellphone reception. The email hadn't even sent.
So this is what it's like out in the boonies...
Grimacing, I shoved my phone back into my pocket, and decided that I would just find Yotsuba the good old fashioned way; i.e., I would simply look for her. Leaving my room, I wandered the hallways until I returned to the central area: a large room with a spacious first floor, and a wooden interior balcony surrounding on three sides. The inside was entirely constructed from thick wooden logs, giving the place a very rustic feel.
I spotted Yotsuba sitting in a comfy-looking armchair in one of the corners, near a fireplace with Ichika. There were just the two chairs, and therefore no chair for me -- so I just wandered over, and raised my hand in greeting. Ichika spotted me first, and raised her hand in return, a smile crossing her face. Yotsuba leaned all the way back in the chair to look up at me, and she grinned, her eyes closing.
"Welcome back, Uesugi-san! Are you ready?"
"To get lost?" I asked, circling and then sitting on the armrest of the chair next to Yotsuba, lifting one leg and settling it on my knee. "I was born ready."
"Yeah, great positivi-- wait, no! Uesugi-san, we won't get lost! We're gonna shoot for the top and win this thing!"
"In that case, I leave things in your hands, navigator Yotsuba," I said, bowing my head to her.
"Shi shi shi! Don't worry, Uesugi-san! I've got this!" she grinned again, rubbing her finger under her nose smugly.
"You seem quite confident, Yotsuba-chan," Ichika teased. "Don't forget that you have two unathletic people on your team. Even if you know where to go... big sis might still beat you there!"
"Eh... that's a good point. B-but! We'll still make it!" Yotsuba said, suddenly eyeing me up with a slightly nervous look on her face. "We definitely won't let you win, Ichika!"
"Look, I warned you," I shrugged. "The other unathletic person is Itsuki, I'm guessing?"
"Yeah," Yotsuba said. "It's teams of three, so she asked me if we could all go together last night. Oh-- wait, I should have asked if you were ok with it! I'm sorry, Uesugi-san!"
"It's fine with me -- Itsuki is more athletic than me, so any slow-down she causes us will just be a perturbation on top of whatever I cause."
"Great! Oh, it's almost ten -- we're supposed to meet outside."
I frowned. Somehow, I kept missing instructions from the teachers.
This could be a problem -- I don't want to miss any of the events we had planned due to staff incompetence.
I slipped off Yotsuba's armrest, and Yotsuba jumped to her feet. Ichika was a bit slower to rise, looking longingly back down at the comfortable looking armchair. As we left the lodge, I saw her stifle a yawn. Yotsuba bounded away as she spotted Itsuki sitting on some wooden steps across an open stone plaza, and I glanced over at Ichika.
"How late did you end up staying up to practice that script?" I asked quietly.
She smiled at me, her mouth still partially covered by her hand. "Later than I should have, probably. Silly me -- I forgot how competitive Yotsuba can be when it comes to physical activities. I had some coffee with breakfast though -- maybe I can get some at lunch too."
I frowned at the thought of coffee -- the stuff was far too bitter for me, despite its concentration-enhancing properties. Also, I had the distinct feeling that if I started drinking it, I would almost certainly develop a dependency on it.
"My, what's with the disapproving look, Fuutarou-kun?" Ichika asked, her tone turning teasing. "Are you trying to say you'd rather I was asleep? All... helpless?"
"I have no idea what you're trying to say," I growled, rolling my eyes.
"If you say so," she smirked, before sauntering away, her hands clasped behind her back over her sweater which, as ever, was wrapped around her waist.
I frowned, watching her walk away. It was just her usual teasing... but after seeing her honest side the previous night, it somehow rung false. Like it was a front she was putting up.
I suppose liars have to lie to protect themselves, I mused to myself.
"U-e-su-gi-saaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"
My head snapped to the right at the call of my voice, and I saw Yotsuba hopping on the spot, waving with both arms. I snorted, and made my way down the short steps from the lodge to the plaza, crossing to meet with Yotsuba and Itsuki. As soon as I reached them, a loud whistle blasted out across the open area, and we all turned to see that our gym teacher was standing at the entrance to the lodge in a blue tracksuit and wearing a giant pair of sunglasses -- each of the lenses was about the size of his face, placed in giant foam frames. They were only staying on his face through sheer willpower and determination.
"Alright, listen up kids!" he yelled. "It's time for orienteering! Gather 'round, gather 'round! Now, during this eve-- Hey, Nakano! Take off your headphones! This event is not optional. Anyways, what was I saying...? Oh, right! Orienteering! As you've already been informed, this event takes place in groups of three, and we'll be using it as a fun group activity to get to know the campgrounds! So... get in your groups!"
Itsuki, Yotsuba and I were already together, so we just didn't move. Across the way, I could see Nino with two girls I didn't recognize, one with shoulder-length blond hair; the other's hair was long and black. Ichika and Miku were together, as well as a girl that I thought might have been the one who'd shared a room with them the previous night.
"Everyone in groups? Yes? Good. Chiezui-sensei will now come around with the first instruction sheet, as well as a compass for each group. Please don't look at the page until I say so."
A short woman with equally short brown hair who was presumably Chiezui-sensei began going from group to group, giving each a compass and a piece of paper stuffed together into a sealable plastic bag. When she arrived at us, she simply handed us the bag without saying much.
"We'll do our best, sensei!" Yotsuba said, thumping her closed fist to her chest.
"Hmm? Oh. Right. Good luck," the teacher said absent-mindedly, walking away. It was blatantly obvious that she desperately did not want to be participating -- which, on the one hand, I could empathize with, but on the other hand, struck me as being a bit of a spoilsport. After she'd finished distributing the bags, the gym teacher cleared his throat, and then resumed his bellowing.
"Right! Each of you has a location written on a piece of paper, as well as our starting location's latitude and longitude. On the back of your piece of paper, there is also a number, which is the group you're part of. Navigate to the location you're given, and there will be a sheet posted there with further instructions! Alright, that's everything, so--"
Another teacher came up behind him, and whispered in his ear.
"EH?! I forgot something? Nonsense, my explanation was perfe-- oh, wait, right. At each of the locations, there's a symbol written on the piece of paper. On the sheet you were given, there are five squares. Fill in the squares with the characters, and then navigate back here. There will be an official timer going. Let's start... NOW!"
Immediately, Yotsuba pulled open the bag, and pulled out both the paper and the compass. Tossing me the compass, she opened the paper.
"Alright team, let's rock and roll! We're group number four! Uhh... we're... uh, uh, Uesugi-san! I... don't know how to read these!"
"Pass 'em here," I sighed. She handed me the page, and I scrutinized it.
"Alright, looks like we need to head about one minute of latitude north, and about twenty-five seconds of latitude to the west."
"Eh?! How can you travel a distance, and have it be time?"
"Latitude and longitude are divided into subdivisions called minutes and seconds," Itsuki piped up, cutting across before I could answer. "As you might expect, there are sixty seconds to a minute, and sixty minutes to a degree."
I stared at Itsuki in shock, and she frowned back at me. "What? I do consider myself to be somewhat proficient at science, Uesugi-kun."
"Nothing, I was just impressed," I replied, shaking my head. "Anyways, uh... that's how it is."
"Ok, so we just need to go... one of those minute things to the north, and then... uh... just under half of one to the west, right? How far is that in real numbers?"
"That, I don't remember," I said, scratching the back of my head.
"A minute is about 1.8 kilometres, a second is about 32 metres," Itsuki said, grabbing the compass out of my hand. "So... that means we need to go... um..."
"We need to go 1.8 kilometres to the north, and around eight hundred metres to the west," I confirmed. "Though where we go from here..."
"Ah! Uesugi-san, turn over the paper!"
I flipped the paper over, and blinked. On the back was what appeared to be a detailed topographical map of the area.
"Well, that's helpful," I said, blinking. "Ah, the lodge is marked here... and apparently there are some cliffs to the east. Seems dangerous. We're supposed to go north-by-northwest... that would put us... here."
I pointed to a particular spot on the map, which was labelled "playground". Yotsuba let out a cheer, and then the three of us began to walk (well, speed-walk, really) towards the spot listed on the map. Yotsuba kept jogging ahead, and then coming back to us -- it was obvious that she was desperate to go faster.
"Come on, guys," she whined, pouting slightly. "We'll never get first place if we don't hurry!"
Putting aside the fact that her pouting face, which I saw only rarely, was adorable, I had to shake my head.
"If we go too fast, Itsuki and I won't be able to finish the circuit," I pointed out. "This is the fastest thing in the long run."
"I... I guess that's true..." Yotsuba said mopily, and she dropped back to join us again.
"Cheer up," I said, patting her on the shoulder. "We've got science-expert Itsuki with us, we'll be fine."
"Why do I feel like you're making fun of me, Uesugi-kun?" Itsuki muttered from behind us.
"Huh?" I said, glancing back, my hand still on Yotsuba's shoulder. "Itsuki, I'm shocked -- I would never do such a thing."
"See, now I am certain that you're making fun of me."
"My, such cynicism from one so young!"
"We're the same age!"
"That simply exacerbates the problem," I fired back smugly. Turning back to face the way I was walking, I saw that Yotsuba's ears were slightly red. Frowning, I withdrew my hand from her shoulder, and looked back down at the map.
"There should be a bridge to our left..."
Looking up again, I saw that there was, indeed, a footbridge to our left -- a rickety affair, essentially just a sequence of planks held in place by thick ropes. The bridge ran over a small creek, only about ankle-deep. The bridge was wide enough for one person at a time, and so we crossed single-file.
The three of us had at this point entered the woods, following a dirt trail with shrubbery on either side marking the path. Occasionally, a branch would have a small orange flag tied to it to mark the way; but mostly, the trail was clear. We walked alongside the creek, its happy babbling providing a gentle backdrop to the hike. The trees all about us were mostly oak, as well as a few beeches. There were occasional patches of snow remaining in the shady parts of the woods, but for the most part it was shaping up to be a pleasant day -- the sunlight filtering through the still-present foliage left dappled patterns on the ground which shifted as the tree branches swayed in the gentle wind.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Itsuki said from the back. "It's so calm."
"I agree," I said, looking up at the trees towering over us. "I feel... strangely at peace."
Suddenly, I felt my foot strike a tree root which had slithered its way onto the path; it wasn't raised enough to catch my foot entirely, but it was enough to make me stumble. Given I'd been looking up at the canopy above, I'd not been paying attention to where my feet were going. As my face plummeted towards the ground, a single, strangely detached thought went through my mind.
Well. That was idiotic of me.
I closed my eyes in the face of the coming impact, my hands coming up to catch myself at a glacial pace -- but they weren't needed. I felt an arm slide across my chest, allaying my motion and preventing my impact with the forest floor. As I came to a stop, I felt five fingers splayed out across my chest, maximizing the surface area of contact.
"Uesugi-san! Are you ok?!"
I opened a single eye to see that my face was about two feet away from the ground; Yotsuba had heard me as I'd begun to fall, swung around, and had managed to catch me in the nick of time. She was at an awkward angle, though -- she'd essentially only managed to get one arm under me, using her upper-body strength to keep me in place. She was holding my entire body weight with the one hand, her arm running past my shoulder.
The fact she was capable of supporting me with one arm, despite the fact it was at a clearly uncomfortable angle... for the first time, it really dawned on me just how physically strong Yotsuba was.
She finished turning, and put her other hand under my shoulder, stabilizing me and using the opportunity to adjust her hand slightly. As she gently lowered me, I put my hands down to the ground, and then pulled up my legs so that I was hunched over; I was then able to stand on my own, Yotsuba's hands hesitated a moment before retreating from my chest, the pressure of her touch leaving behind a faint sensation of loss.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, inspecting my dirt-covered hands with mild disdain. "Thanks for the save. Those were some good reflexes."
"Shi shi shi! What can I say, I'm speedy!" Yotsuba said, winking at me. Then, she turned forward again, and pointed dramatically.
"Anyways, forward maaaaarch!"
It took us about thirty minutes in total to reach the end of the trail; when we did, the woods finally opened up into a large clearing with a children's playground in the middle. On the far side was a small parking lot, presumably for families with small children who didn't want to hike for half an hour through the woods just for their kids to play. There were a few cars parked there, as well as some children running around on the play structure. In the nearby sandpit, there was a large bendy plastic pole embedded in the ground, with a large flag attached to the end; it was a square shape, split along the diagonal. Half of it was white, the other half was orange. Standing next to the pole was one of our teachers, who was on his phone.
"Sensei! Hello!" Yotsuba called, dashing away from us at high speed to reach the teacher. I glanced at Itsuki, and we both sighed, before breaking into a light jog to catch up with her. When we finally caught up, Yotsuba excitedly showed us the sheet of paper that was pinned to the pole. Under group four, it had a different point of latitude and longitude listed. At the bottom of the page, in giant font, was a five-pointed star.
"Sensei, do we need to get our page stamped or anything?" I asked, holding out our original page.
"Nah, just draw the symbol in one of the boxes," he said, smiling. "Here, I've got a bajillion pens."
That's... not a real number, Sensei.
Itsuki took the pen, grabbed the page from me, and filled in the star. She then handed it back to me, and I turned the map over, noting the longitude and latitude of our current location on the map.
"Let's see... from here we need to go..."
The rest of the orienteering took about two and half more hours. Our next stop had been a set of grills powered by firewood rather than gas, each separated by low brick walls. It was apparently the spot where we would be making curry later in the afternoon. The teacher there had shown us a page pinned to a notice board next to the same orange-and-white flag, along with a warning to only light fires in the grills themselves; all other open fires were prohibited. The symbol was a fire emoji -- I'd learned enough at this point from Raiha and Yotsuba to recognize an 'emoji' when I saw it.
The next first of the next two stops was an old warehouse at the top of a small hill, where the flag was planted outside the front door along with the paper. The second of the two was a strange stone structure in the middle of the woods, which had the flag planted at the top, and a teacher swinging her feet from on high while munching on dried squid. When she had offered some to us, I respectfully declined.
Itsuki took the offer with zero hesitation. She was starting to get quite famished.
Those two stops respectively had a rectangle and a silhouette of the rock formation as their shapes. After writing them down, I had noticed (after getting down from the rock) that our final destination was on the far eastern side of the campground -- which was about as far away from where we were as it was possible to get.
It took us quite a while to get there -- but it was worth it. As we emerged from the woods on the eastern side, we found ourselves on actual wooden steps, with a metal railing in place to keep hikers firmly on the west side of the cliff face that abruptly began a mere three metres out from the woods. After ascending a shallow slope paved in wood, we stepped onto a relatively small, flat platform, and saw the valley at the bottom of the cliffs spread out before us.
After the sudden drop, the valley floor continued to slope away, trees and mossy boulders littering the descent as thickly as hair. On the other side, the mountains sharply rose again, displaying far grander cliffs and far greener grass. In the far distance, the tallest of the mountains soared far above the mere peasantry that were the providers of our present view, their snowy caps granting them the appearance of ashen crowns.
Nevertheless, the centrepiece of the scenery wasn't the faraway mountains -- it was instead the source of a dull roar that had begun to permeate our consciousnesses as we approached through the woods. It was the source of the white clouds flung into the air at such lowly heights as to be accessible to humanity by foot. It was the source of the river flowing off to the south through the valley.
The furious descent of water from stony sky to green earth.
Waterfall.
As I watched the water crash down, throwing spray into the air in a fine mist, I was overwhelmed by the majesty of the sight. Having never been to the mountains before -- I'd read about waterfalls before, of course, but there was just something different about seeing thousands of cubic metres of water crashing to the ground before your very eyes. It was... humbling.
I suddenly felt a tap on my shoulder, and I turned around to see one of our teachers standing there holding a flag. The paper was attached to one of the guard rails; the symbol, appropriately, was a water droplet. The coordinates given were for the original plaza from whence we had originally departed -- and so, with not-inconsiderable regret, we left the viewing platform and plunged back into the woods.
When we finally returned to the lodge, there were already a good number of groups milling around, to Yotsuba's dismay. When we approached the gym teacher and handed him our sheet, he looked it over, gave a nod, and wrote down our names.
"Wh... what place did we come in, sensei?" Yotsuba asked, a barely-held note of hope infiltrating her voice.
"Hmm? Oh, twenty-third," he said dismissively, swiping his finger along some kind of tablet.
"How many groups were there in total?" I asked, wincing slightly.
"Twenty-nine."
I bowed my head deeply towards Yotsuba. "I'm really sorry, Yotsuba. We're really slow."
I half-expected Itsuki to make some kind of remark about not being considered on my level-- but she just bowed her head as well. Yotsuba looked bewildered, looking back and forth between us.
"Eh? G-Guys? What are you doing?!"
"Apologizing...?" I said, frowning slightly from my bowed position.
Yotsuba began shaking her head repeatedly.
"Raise your heads, please! You don't need to apologize! We... we had a lot of fun, didn't we?!"
I looked up at her, and then I could feel myself grinning, an expression which even after all this time felt a bit foreign on my face -- but an expression which accurately expressed the elation I was feeling after seeing the waterfall.
"Yeah, we did. Did you see that thing? It was amazing!"
"Right?" Yotsuba said, a huge smile breaking out onto her face. "I don't think I've ever seen such a big waterfall before!"
As we spoke, the last stragglers made their way back into the plaza, and the gym teacher received their sheets. Then, with all groups accounted for, he cupped his hands around his mouth, and his booming voice radiated outwards to envelop all the groups milling about.
"Good job, everyone made it back safe and sound, and with all five of the marks! Now then, it's time for the next super special mandated activity."
"Lunch?" Itsuki whispered hopefully.
"Lunch!"
"Yes!" she said, pumping her fist. "Let's go, guys! I'm starving!"
"I'm pretty peckish myself," I admitted. "Let's go eat."
Lunch was outside on a grassy field on the other side of the lodge. Long wooden tables had been set up with benches on either side. As we arrived, a line was already forming at a set of tables to the left with various stations set up; each station had a teacher standing behind it serving food. As we got in line, I suddenly remembered something, and frowned at Itsuki.
"Hey, Itsuki... weren't you on food prep duty? Do you need to be doing anything right now?"
She shook her head distractedly, her focus primarily on the sustenance that was slowly making its way closer and closer to us as we moved closer and closer to it.
"Since the schedule was thrown off, the teachers took care of lunch so we could fully participate in the orienteering. Dinner is curry, but we need to prep the tables and stuff. Oh, tomorrow we need to cook though."
I nodded, processing the new information. Then, a small smirk crossed my face.
"Hey, Itsuki?"
"Hmm?"
"I think you're drooling."
"What?!" she yelped, her hand slapping over her mouth in horror. Then, her eyes narrowed, and she glared at me.
"No, I'm not! Uesugi-kun, you asshole!"
I laughed, and Itsuki huffed and turned away from me. Yotsuba looked back and forth between us, clearly unsure if we were genuinely fighting or not -- so I just smiled at her, and after a moment she hesitatingly smiled back.
"Grub time, grub time! Get yer grub, it's grub time!"
Turning back around to face the teachers, I was struck by the sight of the gym teacher wearing a hot pink apron with a giant red heart in the middle, and text emblazoned above and below which read "Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club" in katakana. As we grabbed our plates, he loaded salad and spiced potatoes onto each, and then pointed to some salad dressing that was on the table as well.
"Help yerselves -- there's plenty!"
The next few stops featured teachers in much milder aprons, and more options: several meat dishes, rice, and also some fish. Since it was all free, I took as much as I wanted at each station. Eventually, after our plates were full, we left the food stops, and went to look for a spot at one of the tables.
"Oh! I think I see Ichika and Miku!" Yotsuba said excitedly, trotting off. We hurried after her, and found ourselves seated with Ichika, Miku, and the girl they had partnered with. As expected, Nino was nowhere to be found.
Her hatred of me really has only intensified, I thought glumly.
"Hey, Uesugi-san!" Yotsuba asked. "What do we have planned for after lunch?"
"Um," I said, putting down my fork, "There's free time after lunch, so we had a hike scheduled... but we kind of did a hike already."
"We can go again!" Yotsuba said, her eyes gleaming. I hesitated a moment, then sighed.
"...Fine."
"Yay!" Yotsuba cheered, grinning. "More sights to see!"
"I'm going to pass on that," Itsuki said, looking up from her plate. "I think after all the walking we already did, I'm going to go lie down for a little bit and rest. I'm pretty tired."
"Suit yourself," I shrugged. Truth be told, I was also fairly tired -- but something in me didn't want to disappoint Yotsuba.
As I spoke, the hairs on the back of my neck prickled, and I recognized the familiar sensation of A-Nakano-Is-Staring-At-Me. Glancing around, I saw that Miku once again had her eyes firmly trained on me -- and then, she looked away as soon as I made eye contact. In the brief moment before she realized I'd spotted her, I was able to get a good look at her face.
Her expression was gloomy.
Perhaps that shouldn't have been a surprise; Miku, after all, often looked gloomy. Nevertheless, I couldn't shake the feeling that she wanted to join us -- but after another moment's thought, that struck me as ludicrous. Though I wasn't terribly close with Miku, I knew enough to be perfectly aware of her aversion to exercise. The idea that she'd want to go on a second hike was just silly.
It must be something else.
After we'd finished our lunches and bid farewell to Yotsuba's sisters (and the other girl, whose name I still didn't know), we set out on the trails, just the two of us. There were still a set of paths that we'd yet to explore, and when we'd been planning our schedule back home, I'd foolishly wanted to use the break after lunch to scout locations for the test of courage.
So, explore we did.
Surrounded by the shady brush and the foliage overhead, we made our way through trail after trail after trail. Occasionally, we would come across points where the trees broke, yielding fantastic vistas. Eventually, we'd covered most of the paths that were in the woods near the lodge; however, there were also trails which were longer still, weaving and twisting their way up to the heights of the mountains.
Yotsuba had pled with me to hike just one, but I declined.
Mostly out of time constraints.
Definitely not because my hamstrings already felt like they were about to storm the Bastille and start learning the subtle art of guillotining for business and pleasure.
Instead, we returned to the lookout where the waterfall connected sky and stone, and stood together shoulder to shoulder at the edge. The narrow wooden boards and the metal railing separated us from the steep drop below, their sturdiness the only thing keeping us elevated. As the water crashed to the earth, throwing up its spray, I felt Yotsuba lean against me. I could feel the pressure of her shoulder against mine, luring in all of my attention. Compared to her, the waterfall was nothing.
"It really is beautiful, isn't it?"
I glanced down at her face, her eyes which were fully transfixed on the distant raging landmark, and her head which was tilted slightly, not quite making contact with my shoulder, yet only centimetres away. My view was partially obstructed by her bow, which playfully waved in the gentle breeze that was the sole remnant of the air thrown out of the way of the churning water. Yotsuba seemed... at peace.
I looked back ahead at the waterfall, and released a breath that I hadn't realized I'd been holding.
"Yes... yes it is."
We stayed like that for a long time, her shoulder pressed against mine as we watched nature raging. I didn't want it to end -- but unfortunately, time has a horrid tendency of marching steadily onward, and eventually, we needed to make our way back to the lodge for the second mandatory activity of the day, making curry.
Upon our return, we were separated into pre-determined groups. To my abject horror, I was put with Maeda, Second Place-san, and three girls I didn't know. As we started making plans for how to make the curry, I heard the ringing sound of an axe striking wood, and looked over to see Yotsuba swinging an axe in the distance, chopping logs. The pile of firewood next to her was just getting larger and larger and larger...
She looks like she's having fun.
"Uesugi Fuutarou, do you not agree? Indeed, when making a curry, precise timing is of the utmost importance!"
"Huh?" I said, turning back.
"Curses! Were you not paying attention?"
"I was not," I confirmed.
"Alas," Second Place-san sighed. "I shall have to resume from the beginning."
"Please don't."
"Ahahahaha! Nonsense! Now, when making curry, the first step is to put in..."
I tuned out Second Place-san's rambling and instead looked around at our setup. Maeda had stalked away and was crouched next to our curry station -- what exactly he was doing there, I wasn't sure. Glancing back, I saw that Second Place-san was still going. To my surprise, the girls seemed enraptured by his soliloquy. It was hard to admit, but perhaps it was due to the fact that, despite my feelings about him, Second Place-san had a fairly fair face.
If only his personality would follow suit...
Walking away from the explanation, I crouched down next to Maeda.
"Need any help?"
He glanced up at me, then back down at the base of the grill. There were a few twigs there, but not really enough to start a proper cooking fire.
"Yeah," he said roughly. "Go get some firewood. We ain't starting shit with this."
"Roger," I replied, standing up and making a beeline towards Yotsuba. At this point, her pile of firewood was starting to get absurd. As I approached, her axe slammed deep into a stump, splitting another log in half.
"Hey," I said, raising my hand. "Mind if I take some wood off your hands?"
"Eh? Oh, Uesugi-san! Go ahead -- I'm chopping it for everyone, after all."
"Much obliged," I said, giving a small salute. Then, I picked up a few chopped logs, and brought them back over under my arms.
Geez, these things are kind of heavy.
Returning to Maeda, I dropped the firewood next to him, and then sorted them into a pile. He glanced over at my ill-begotten gains, and then wordlessly grabbed one, and shoved it under the grill. He then took the rest and built them up in the shape of a tipi, before inserting the smaller branches and leaves that had already been present in the grill into the gap, building another smaller tipi underneath.
"What are you doing?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.
"Building the fire," Maeda growled.
"Yeah, but... why the tents?"
He seemed caught by surprise by my question, glancing up at me.
"Don't you nerd types know everything?"
I shook my head. "Nobody knows everything. Besides, I've never been camping before."
"Huuuuuuuh," Maeda pondered, turning back to the logs. "Learn something new every day."
There was a moment's silence, then he poked at the small leaves and twigs he'd put in the centre of the construction.
"That's the tinder. It'll go up hella easy, but it'll also burn hella fast. So, you just want to use it as a starter. It's not good for keeping your fire going."
I just nodded. I'd heard the term before, though I'd never really bothered to investigate what it really involved.
"The next layer is the kindling. It's a bit thicker, and will last a bit longer than the tinder -- but not as long as we need. So, I put the thinner kindling on the inside, so that it would catch from the tinder first. Then, it gets thicker and thicker, until we get to the big logs."
As he spoke, Maeda got more and more enthusiastic with his explanation.
"These big logs are the ones that'll actually do the cooking. They're the fuel logs. Hella hard to burn, but once you really get 'em goin', they'll go for ages -- and they burn hot, so if we need more, we can just add more once they fall down."
I nodded. I hadn't expected such a font of knowledge from the delinquent-looking boy, but I was pleasantly surprised.
"So..." I ventured. "The idea is to light the tinder in the middle so that you have a better chance to get the kindling going, which will last longer, and burn up through the pile until you finally have a strong enough flame to cook?"
"Pretty much," Maeda said, a crooked grin on his face. "Hey, wanna light this shit up?"
"Uh... sure."
Maeda reached up, and grabbed a long lighter off the top of the metal grill, and handed it to me. I looked down and saw that it had a switch for safety. Flicking it off, I extended the elongated tip until it was deep in the tinder... and then I pulled the trigger.
There was a clicking noise, and a spark, and then there was a flame dancing at the end of the lighter. For a moment, it just flickered in place, illuminating the interior of the wooden tipi... and then the tinder lit, and I withdrew the lighter to see that the flames had begun to spread, dancing along the small twigs and leaves, devouring them in its ravenous waltz.
"Nice," Maeda grinned. "Now we wait, and hope."
The fire began to spread further, and before long the tinder was close to being consumed. We both waited with bated breath -- and then the kindling began to burn, and Maeda's manic grin got even bigger.
"Aw yeah, things are going smooth," he laughed. "Now, let's see..."
The fire spread along the kindling more slowly, but the flames almost felt like they had more weight to them; their movement was purposeful as they worked inwards as well as along the branches. Soon, the intermediate tipi was engulfed. I glanced over to see that Maeda was watching the whole construction with bated breath.
"Now we wait," he growled. "We'll wait and see if the fuel logs'll catch."
Just as he said that, one of the large pieces of firewood that Yotsuba had chopped began to smoulder, and then the bark caught fire with a crackling sound. The flames began to spread, rampaging across the exterior of the fuel log like they were preparing to conquer the steppes of Asia. Then, as the inferno grew larger and larger, the interior tipi finally collapsed, and the fuel logs dropped with it.
There was a brief moment when it looked like the weight of the larger logs had smothered the fire -- but then the one log that had caught continued to smoke, and the bark re-ignited. I whooped as the fire began to grow again, the fuel logs well and truly beginning to burn -- an unexpected reaction, even from my own perspective. Turning to me, Maeda grinned and raised his fist. While I'd never executed this particular gesture before, I recognized it, and knew what response was expected from me. I raised my own first, and bumped it against his with a grin on my face.
"Aw yeah, my man. We set that shit ablaze," Maeda laughed, the manic look back in his eye. "Damn, I love this -- fire rules."
"It's pretty cool," I acknowledged. "Thanks for teaching me."
"Yeah, no problem," he said, turning back to stare at the fire. "I guess we'd better start making the food, huh?"
"Probably," I said, my attention snapping back to where Second Place-san and the girls had sorted the ingredients and begun prep. "Though it looks like they've got it sorted."
"Yeah..."
There was a moment of silence between us, the atmosphere getting a bit awkward now that the elation of our temporary camaraderie had passed.
"Uh... Uesugi... can I ask you a question?"
"Oh. Sure, what is it?" I asked, frowning slightly and glancing back at the boy, who remained crouched by the blazing fire.
"You... seem kinda close to Nakano-san. Are... you two... y'know."
My frown deepened. "You mean Ichika? No, we're not like that."
"So... you're saying I've got a chance?"
I sighed. "Do you want me to be honest with you?"
Maeda looked up at me with a hard look on his face. "I don't need some pretty bullshit. Tell me the truth."
"No, you don't have a chance. She explicitly told me she has no interest in dating you, or anyone else."
I could see the boy crumple before my eyes, his face sagging -- and I immediately felt immensely guilty, even though I'd done exactly what he'd asked of me. Maeda turned to look back at the fire, studiously avoiding my eye contact.
"Huh. That so?" he muttered, gazing into the flickering flames. "Well... that's that, I guess."
"Yeah..."
The silence re-emerged, and as time went on I felt increasingly awkward. Finally, I decided to say something, just to ease the awkwardness.
"Uh... you know, I'm in charge of the test of courage tonight. Maybe you could ask a girl to go with you on it? Take advantage of the suspension bridge effect, you know?"
"The what?"
"The suspension bridge effect; the technical name is the misattribution of arousal, but-- nevermind, that's not important right now. Basically, you can try getting closer with a girl by having her get scared around you. Don't know if it'll help... but it can't hurt."
Maeda looked up at me for a moment, then sniffed, and looked back at the fire.
"I guess so..." he murmured, and in that moment he sounded almost... innocent. I suddenly got the feeling that under the hard exterior was a boy who was easily injured, and that the rough shell was just that -- a shell.
Our conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Second Place-san and the girls, who began using the fire to make the curry and rice. At first, he tried to recruit Maeda, but he waved him off.
"I'll leave that job to you, sparkles," he growled, stalking away with his hands in his pockets.
We all watched him go, and then I turned to Second Place-san.
"Sparkles?"
"Indeed!" Second Place-san said, his hands on his hips and a grin on his face. "Why, 'tis because of my sparkling disposition!"
I frowned. You can't make fun of someone who experiences no shame.
The rest of us began working on the curry and rice. As we cooked, however, I noticed that Second Place-san was actually surprisingly efficient when it came to food preparation. His chopped ingredients were nearly perfectly even, and his technique in distributing them in the pot was good enough that even I could acknowledge its quality. While I was sure Nino would have found something to criticize, my uncultured eye was duly impressed.
The only problem was that occasionally, he would pause, a faraway look coming into his eye as he stared off into the distance. It was blatantly obvious that something was bothering him, though as soon as anyone spoke to him, he would snap out of it and return to his annoyingly grandiose self. On one occasion, as he paused with a deeply troubled look on his face, I turned to follow his gaze, but I couldn't quite make out what he was looking at -- until it happened that he began to zone out while pointing in a different direction from before.
I followed his line of sight, and to my surprise saw that he was watching a certain redhead leave her group to get more firewood from Yotsuba, who was standing next to a truly alarming pile of logs. As she picked one up, the star pins waved in her hair, and Itsuki returned to her group, dissolving back into the swarm of students.
Frowning, I turned to look at Second Place-san, who shook his head, and got back to work. It made sense that he was worried. His job was on the line, and I doubted his pedagogy or connection to the five girls had improved much over the course of the previous two weeks -- though I'd gotten enough reports from Itsuki and Yotsuba to know that it wasn't quite as bad as it used to be. Nevertheless, the fact he was watching her from afar made me wonder if perhaps he was trying to cook up some hare-brained scheme to get on her good side.
It's a fool's errand, I thought morosely.
Eventually, the curry was done, and we carried it over to the long tables where we were set to have dinner. The table was already set, courtesy of Itsuki and the others on food duty. Pouring out my portion into a bowl, I inhaled deeply, and then sighed contentedly. The curry smelled fantastic -- clearly, despite his numerous faults, Second Place-san knew what he was doing with regards to food.
As we ate, I watched the aforementioned Second Place-san, and I could clearly see that he was distracted, his eyes still occasionally flashing to Itsuki. However, eventually he turned, and caught me staring. I held eye-contact, and he gave me a big, cheeky grin.
"Ahahaha! Uesugi Fuutarou, are you admiring my countenance? My goodness!"
I rolled my eyes. "Sure, let's go with that."
"Now now, it's no good to lie, my dear fellow!"
I buried my head in my arms, sighing. "Why are you always like this?!"
"Hmm? Like what?"
"Nevermind. Forget it."
As I finished my curry and pushed my bowl away, I suddenly felt two hands squeezing my shoulders from behind. They felt light, and somewhat small. Before I even heard any words, I was already pretty sure I knew who it was.
"Uesugi-saaaan! Are you ready to go prep?"
"Yep," I said, grabbing my bowl and swinging my legs out from the bench. "Let's go."
Standing, I left Second Place-san and the rest of the group, and deposited my bowl at a station for dirty dishes. Then, I turned to Yotsuba.
"Well, guess we'd better get started!"
"Shi shi shi," she snickered, holding a hand to her mouth. "We'll scare the heck out of them! They won't know what hit them!"
"Yeah," I smiled. "One of the teachers brought supplies for the test of courage with them, so we can go grab them. They're apparently in a storage room in the lodge -- or at least, that's where they told me they'd be when I asked a few days ago."
"Come on, let's go!" Yotsuba declared, and then she grabbed my hand and started dragging me away.
As she pulled me, I could feel the softness of her hand in mine, and the firmness of her grip. I stumbled off balance, and then hurried to keep up with her as she dragged me away. Despite the amount of work that loomed on the immediate horizon, I couldn't help but smile -- both at her enthusiasm, and her touch.
Maybe getting assigned this job wasn't such a bad thing after all.