In the late evening, Fuutarou and Yotsuba met up to organize the test of courage. Before the school trip had even started, they were given a box full of costumes, as well as some scary decorations like cobwebs or fake skulls by the theatre club. Also, the teachers gave them a map of the area surrounding the hotel so they could make sure to set a route that wouldn't lead to anyone getting lost or running into any dangerous areas.
The two of them started off by placing a few signs that would guide the students and make them follow the set trail. The path wasn't really that long, so it only took half an hour to wander from the beginning of the test back to the hotel. Good for them, considering they had to place the signs along the entire thing.
While walking down the trail, they would place cobwebs in the trees and bushes encircling it. Sometimes, they would carefully insert the fake skulls and fake bones into the cobwebs to make it even scarier.
At one special place on the path, they would be hiding, waiting for the groups to arrive so they could scare them away with their costumes. Near this particular spot, they decided to prop up a model skeleton against a tree so that the students would stop to take a closer look; only for them to jump out of a bush and terrify the incoming group. Fuutarou was at first against this idea considering it was based on the assumption that no one would miss the prop because of the darkness or maybe break it somehow but Yotsuba still wanted to do it. Not one to fight pointless battles, he followed along.
Apart from the small conversations about how they should decorate the trail and disguise themselves to make the experience more terrifying, Yotsuba remained oddly silent. Normally, Yotsuba would be the noisiest one of the five sisters, but it was as though she had been replaced by Miku. Fuutarou didn't think much of it, after all, it had gotten pretty late and maybe she was just tired.
When the time came for the test of courage to start, the two of them quickly suited up. Yotsuba was wearing a mummy costume covering her whole body bar her face, which was wrapped up halfway so she wouldn't leap out and face-first into the floor. Fuutarou on the other hand had put on a blonde wig, a colorful clown costume, and a frightening mask. To reinforce his appearance, he kept a bloodstained theatre knife at his side. Naturally, it was made of plastic, but no one had to know that.
They sat down behind one of the bushes near the spot with the skeleton lying against the tree. The only thing left to do was to wait for the first batch of students to reach this place.
Some time passed by and the two of them managed to scare away quite a few students. Most of the boys weren't scared at all or were just startled for a moment when Yotsuba and Fuutarou jumped out of the bush but a whole bunch of girls was terrified by them. A great success!
Then, they hear another group walking towards their spot. The duo waits for them to inspect the skeleton and then, all of a sudden, jump out of the foliage. Fuutarou holds the theatre knife in his hand and approaches the two students whilst screaming "I'm gonna get ya!" Yotsuba meanwhile slowly walked towards them, menacingly, with her arms stretched out towards them, just like a mummy.
What the two of them only just realized upon closer inspection was that the two students they were scaring were none other than Miku and Takeda. Miku starts screaming in fear and suddenly runs away from Yotsuba and Fuutarou, straight into the dark forest. As if this wasn't already problematic enough, Takeda turns towards the third Nakano sister and chases after her whilst shouting "Miku, stop!" Unsurprisingly, they had somehow managed to ignore all the signs and escape into uncharted territory.
Yotsuba and Fuutarou were stunned when they saw the two running straight into the forest. Fumbling slightly, Fuutarou quickly grabs the map they were handed and looks at which way Miku and Takeda were heading. He was terrified when he saw that the two were heading toward a cliff, and swore quietly.
"We gotta stop them immediately or the two of them could be seriously hurt. Also, it won't take long until it gets really cold. We should get going!" Fuutarou shoves the map into his back pocket and manages to take three steps before his partner stopped him.
Yotsuba shakes her head and sighs. "It's best I take care of this. I'm pretty fast so I should be able to catch up to them quickly. Maybe I can find them before they end up anywhere near this cliff. And if I can't find them, I'll come back for help." Yotsuba then runs after Miku and Takeda, leaving Fuutarou in the dust.
Fuutarou, whose panic had subsided long enough for logic to reassert its dominance, remembers that there was no way he was going to be able to outpace anyone with his low stamina. He stands there, not knowing what to do while watching Yotsuba's retreating back. Gritting his teeth, the teenager returned to his position, worry festering in his heart.
"Oh god, this is so scary. Did you see that skull on the tree there? I can't do this any longer!" Itsuki sobs whilst clinging to her older sister like a small kid to her mother.
"Yeah, yeah, I saw the skull. It's probably the third one we've seen so far. The first time was a bit scary but now it's getting ridiculous. Couldn't Uesugi and Yotsuba come up with something scarier? They just scattered bones and cobwebs everywhere." Nino sighed, her words showing her crystal clear annoyance about having to walk through the forest at the night with her sister who couldn't even open her eyes without screaming into her ear. She turns to her sister to see the terrified look on her face. Nino's disgruntled expression softens slightly before she shakes her head and sighs once again. "Let's just keep going. We are almost at the end."
After a few minutes of Nino complaining and Itsuki nearly getting a heart attack every few meters, they walk up to a skeleton lying against a tree. "Wow, it seems like that one was too heavy for them to dump in the branches like all the previous props? They just left it there like they forgot about it. How scary..." Nino mumbles somewhat sarcastically as the two of them approach the spot Fuutarou and Yotsuba were supposed to wait at. But once they had reached the position, they weren't greeted by a jump scare. Instead, they saw Yotsuba running off into the distance, leaving Fuutarou behind.
Seeing their sister run into the forest on her own surprised the two girls. "Uesugi, what is going on? Aren't you two supposed to scare us?" Nino asks in a very rude tone and walks up to him. Fuutarou turns around sighing as he hears Nino already complaining about something. Internally, he wondered if she only had complaints around him, or was always like that. Wisely, he kept that question to himself.
"Yotsuba needs to take care of something. Just a couple moments ago, Miku ran-" Fuutarou tries to explain the situation but before he could even end his sentence, Nino approaches him and tears the mask he's wearing off his face. "Now take off that stupid mask and..." Suddenly, Nino's eyes start to widen, and a bright smile forms on her face. "...K-Kintarou..?"
"Kintarou?" Itsuki asks, confused about who she was referring to.
Fuutarou, not expecting to hear this name a second time, was also pretty confused until he realises that with the blonde wig on his head, he must look very similar to his younger self that he referred to as "Kintarou".
"Kintarou, is that you?" Nino asks one more time as her cheeks begin to turn pink. Fuutarou, not knowing what to do, smiles nervously and rubs the back of his head.
"Nino, what are you talking about? Can't you see that's-" Itsuki gets interrupted, once again by Nino. "That's Kintarou, Uesugi's cousin. I didn't expect to meet him here!"
"Kintarou, you say?" Itsuki mumbles, puzzled. She could clearly see that this was Fuutarou and not Kintarou but it seemed like her older sister took it pretty seriously.
"Now, tell me, what are you doing around here, Kintarou~?" Nino asks in a very sweet voice whilst inching closer to him. She gently grabs his arm, encircles it with her own, and looks straight into his eyes. Fuutarou turns his head to the side, feeling his face begin to heat up. This side of Nino that he had never seen before somehow reminded him of Ichika and how she would always grab him by his arm. He resisted the urge to move as far away as he could before she figured out the truth.
"We-Well, you know, I live not very far from here and since I knew my cousin Fuutarou would come here for his class trip, I-I just decided to meet up with him."
"Oh, that's so sweet of you, Kintarou. You know, I'm a friend of his. My name is Nino~" "A friend? I wouldn't call her a friend. After all, all she has ever said to me was disrespecting, to say the least." Once again, if Nino could somehow hear the boy's internal monologue, he would have to start writing a will.
"Oh, so you know my cousin?"
"Yeah, he's alright. He can be annoying, always wanting to study. I don't like that kind of stuff. I'm more into good-looking boys with style." Nino clarifies. With every word, her voice becomes softer, maybe even a bit seductive. "You know, boys like you."
Fuutarou's face abruptly goes from mildly flustered to completely embarrassed as he steps away from her. Out of everything that could have happened, why this? Was Nino really trying to seduce him right now?
"You know, I-I really should prepare for the next group now. You know, I-I'm helping my cousin with the test of courage. I normally should be scaring you away! So, if you'd excuse me!" Fuutarou walks towards the bushes where he had previously hidden with Yotsuba. But before he could even step one foot off the path, Nino grabs him by his hand and stops him.
"Stop, there is something I wanna ask you..."
"W-What is it?"
"You know, tomorrow there will be a big bonfire and there will be a dance and...I still don't have a dance partner so I wanted to ask you..." Nino looks up into Fuutarou's eyes again. And even though he normally didn't like her, somehow her soft smile and her shimmering blue eyes made his heart beat faster. "Do you wanna dance with me tomorrow?"
Fuutarou's cheeks turn bright red and he couldn't get a single word out. "N-N-Nino, I'm flattered...I don't know what to say..." It took him a few seconds to calm down again. Remember, this is Nino! "I'm sorry, but I won't be here tomorrow. I'll have to pass. But I promise that I'll make up for it, okay?"
"You won't be here tomorrow, huh?" Nino pouts and crosses her arms, shaking her head while doing so. "You better ask me out next time we'll meet..."
"We'll see about that." Fuutarou chuckles, still surprised that Nino was able to act nicely towards other people. He then walks back towards his spot behind the bushes only to see Yotsuba running at him. "Uesugi-san! Uesugi-san!"
"Yotsuba? You came back pretty quickly. Did you find them already?"
"No, not at all! I looked everywhere but I can't seem to find them! I need your help!"
The two other sisters quickly walk up to Yotsuba and ask. "Is there a problem? Who can't you find?" Yotsuba sighs with a worried expression on her face. "It's Miku and Takeda. We scared Miku away and then Takeda followed her. We are worried they will get hurt or won't find the way back so I went to go look for them but I ran everywhere and they're nowhere to be seen!"
The looks on Nino's and Itsuki's faces quickly turn for the worse when they hear that their sister is nowhere to find, and possibly in danger.
"Don't worry, we got a map of the surrounding area. This way we can find them more easily and find our way back. I'll go back into the forest with Yotsuba to search for her." Fuutarou takes out the map and shows it to Yotsuba. "They've been gone for maybe 5 minutes. Miku isn't really the fittest girl so they can't be that far away. If we move quickly and make sure that we're covering as much ground as possible, this will be a piece of cake."
Nino is astonished and impressed by the way Fuutarou, or rather Kintarou, handles the situation and inches closer to her sister, whispering into her ear. "Isn't he just cool? Without hesitation, he created a plan on how to find her. And he does this even though he has nothing to do with Miku. Such an altruistic boy..." Itsuki laughed awkwardly, looking away from her sister.
"Okay, let's not waste any more time. Let's go!" Fuutarou and Yotsuba hurry off into the forest, leaving the other two sisters waiting.
Miku stops in the middle of the forest, gasping for breath. She was exhausted because of all the running she had just done and was also still very terrified. Fuutarou's clown costume and the bloody knife were already creepy enough but now that she was in the middle of nowhere, it also was very dark. The sound of rustling came from all around her, causing her to curl in on herself.
But what was even worse was that she didn't know where she was, didn't know where she came from and didn't know where to go. She quickly grabbed her phone and tried to call someone to help her but it had no signal.
Miku, who was only wearing a black dress and tights underneath, quickly got cold as the grass underneath her was pretty wet and the surrounding temperature began to rapidly go down. Why didn't she just take her jacket with her? She sniffled slightly, wrapping her arms around herself.
Not knowing what to do, she just stays where she is, sits down, and tries to keep herself warm. Hopefully, somebody would search for her and find her soon...
It didn't take long until she heard noises from behind her slowly getting louder. It terrified her but she still tried to keep calm. Maybe it was just an animal walking by, nothing to be worried about. She hoped.
"Finally, I've found you." She hears somebody say behind her. Before she could even turn around, the person puts on his jacket around her and giggles. "You're gonna get a cold. I told you to take your jacket with you."
Miku slowly turns toward the person, only to see Takeda grinning at her. She quickly embraces him and sobs silently. "Takeda, I was so scared..."
Takeda carefully hugs her back and softly strokes Miku's hair to calm her down. "I know, I know. But everything is alright now. I'm here and I'll bring you back to the hotel, okay?"
Miku silently nods her head and detaches from the hug. Takeda chuckles and puts his hand on her back, showing her which way to go. The two of them walk beside one another for a few minutes until Takeda speaks up.
"You know, Miku, there is something I wanted to ask you and since the two of us are alone right now, I feel like this is the right moment to ask you." A slight blush forms on his face and he can't stop grinning.
"W-What is it?"
"You've probably heard that tomorrow, there will be a big dance around the bonfire and I thought…that maybe you would like to dance with me?"
Miku suddenly stops and looks at Takeda with surprise and a bit of confusion. "I-I didn't expect you to ask me something like that..."
"So? What do you say?"
But before Miku could even think of an answer, the two of them are interrupted by the sound of more people rushing toward them. It was Fuutarou and Yotsuba, whose worried expressions quickly morphed into relief upon seeing the duo. "Miku! There you are! We've finally found you!" Yotsuba runs towards her sister and gives her a big hug.
"I'm glad we found you this quickly. Otherwise, maybe something bad could have happened." Fuutarou says to Takeda whilst looking onto his map. "You are not too far off the road so it won't take long for us to get back to the hotel."
Takeda looks straight at Miku, awaiting her answer. "What do you say, Miku?"
Yotsuba looks at the two, confused. "Hm? Did we interrupt something?" Miku's face quickly takes on a striking resemblance to a tomato and she violently shakes her head. "No, no! Nothing happened at all!" She then turns to Takeda and sighs. "I'll tell you tomorrow, okay? I need to think about it?"
The group starts walking back to the main path. The mood was pretty weird as both Yotsuba and Fuutarou knew that the other two were just in the middle of something while Miku didn't have the courage to talk to Takeda right now. As such, the entire journey was done in silence which was getting increasingly awkward.
When they finally arrived back at the hotel, Miku was quickly embraced by her other three sisters who had been worried sick about her. Miku was happy to be around her sisters once again but still stayed quiet about what had happened between her and Takeda while they were gone.
Author's Note:
Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed the school trip arc so far!
But it won't take long until it comes to an end since there is only one day remaining!
Will Miku accept Takeda's offer to dance with him?
Will Itsuki finally build up the courage to ask Fuutarou?
Will Ichika be able to sort things out with Maeda?
You'll find out in the final chapters of this story arc!
But don't worry, the story will only get more interesting once they get home!
Also, thanks to my beta reader Teras who still supports me, after all, this time!
If you want, you can join the discord some other QQ Writers (and myself in the past) usually hang out on: discord . gg / V54pcwA
Also, you can message me directly on discord: LucXelf#0906
Thanks for reading my story. See you soon!