Chapter 4
Kyoto… It was the former capital of Japan and one of the largest cities in Japan. Because of its status as the former capital of the country, the city has a lot of old cultural landmarks, shrines, and temples all around the city. Thanks to all of those places, Kyoto was well known as one of the cities in the country for a major tourist destination to visit, whether it is for domestic or international tourist.
After an hour of journey from Tokai by shinkansen, the third-year students of Asahiyama High School finally arrived in the city. Exiting the train, the students were immediately directed and organized by their teachers to gather around in the middle of the station, where they will be briefed about today's schedule, and when and where they should come back to their hotel after their exploration.
"You're free to explore wherever you want as long as it's still within the city," the first teacher said.
"All of the students must come back to the hotel before 5 PM," the second teacher explained. "If you're not present while we do the counting, there will be consequences and disciplining afterwards.
"Also, we will send your luggage and any other large items to the hotel, so take your valuables with you," the third teacher added. "Those are all the announcement we have. Dismissed."
With that final point of announcement, every student immediately exited the train station and went their own way to the destination they wanted to go.
As for the quintuplets, just like what Nino said earlier in the train, they all agreed to follow wherever Fuutaro's group was going. Nino, already set her eyes at Fuutaro and his groupmates ever since the end of announcement, wondering where his group will be going.
"Hmm… I wonder where Fuu-kun's group will be going? It'll be boring if they go to some old and boring temple."
"Well, this is Kyoto and most of the interesting place to visit are either temple or shrine." Ichika checked her phone, looking for interesting places to visit in Kyoto.
"I don't really mind going to a temple or shrine! Last time we were here, we mostly went to those places, right?" Yotsuba cheerfully said.
"I do not care much where we or his group are going. As long as it is an interesting place for our trip report, I will be glad to go," Itsuki said her opinion with a seemingly disinterested expression, but her heart said otherwise. "Ahh, Uesugi-kun's group already left the station! Quick, let's follow them!" She started to walk quickly and followed by the rest of the sisters.
"I wonder where they will be going…" Miku muttered as she followed the four from behind, holding a paper bag of bread that she planned to give to Fuutaro with both of her hands. "I don't know if I will be able to give this bread to Fuutaro… This will be difficult if I can't find an alone time with him…" She thought of the possibilities as she held the bag firmly.
Meanwhile, Fuutaro and his groupmates decided that they will visit Fushimi Inari-Taisha shrine, just like they planned before. The group will go by foot to the shrine, setting aside the option of taking a taxi or a bus in favor of saving money and as well to sightseeing around the city on the way to their destination, which made the journey took much longer to reach.
Maeda, seemingly dissatisfied with the decision to walk because the distance from the station to the Fushimi shrine was quite far by foot. "Why the hell do we have to walk to the shrine, huh?" he complained. "There was a bus stop near the station and we just ignored it. Hell, look at that over there, there is a taxi stop right there that we can easily use." Maeda pointed at the taxi stop across them, around 50 meters from them. "Oi Takeda, you have enough money to pay for the taxi, right? Let's just take the taxi and get to the shrine asap."
"There, there… Paying for a taxi is not a big deal for me, but you missed the point on why we decided to walk," Takeda answered with a smirk, crossing his arm as he continued to tell his reason to walk. "Maeda-kun, you're too short-sighted to see. By walking, not only we can save some money for souvenirs or other things we wanted to buy, but we can also enjoy the sight and atmosphere of Kyoto." He then put his hand on Maeda's shoulder, lightly tapping it to reason with him. "Not to mention, we can get more material to write for our trip report if we can describe the atmosphere of the city and some interesting places that we passed by walking, right?"
"Gahh… I don't really care about all of those stuffs. As long as my trip report is acceptable, I'm satisfied enough with it." Maeda swung his hand away from him, still feeling annoyed. "Besides, knowing you two are the smartest student in the school, I can copy a thing or two notes from your report if I'm busted working on it."
"Heh… We will definitely help you on the report, but don't expect to plagiarize our report since it will bring trouble to us if the teacher noticed," Takeda responded with a playful smirk, seemingly enjoyed teasing his groupmate. "Right, Uesugi-kun?"
"Yeah…" Fuutaro nodded, seemingly ignoring his two groupmates as he focused on taking some pictures of the streets and buildings around with his digital camera. Through his camera lens, he noticed a seemingly familiar sidewalk across the street and it made him stopped in place.
"This is really nostalgic… I think I passed that street five years ago."
Thanks to his nostalgic feelings, he immediately remembered about that sidewalk because that place was when he met Rena or whatever her name was for the first time. A weak smile appeared on his lips as he stared at that sidewalk, recalling that memorable moment.
"That's true… It was the sidewalk where I met her five years ago. It was really a fun time back then…"
"Hey Uesugi-kun, what are you doing?" Takeda, who already far in front, shouted to the quiet boy who still staring at the sidewalk across.
Fuutaro got snapped back to reality from the shouting and started to catch up to his groupmates. "A-Ahh… Yeah, my bad."
After a seemingly long walk that took so long, Fuutaro and his groupmates finally arrived at their destination, the Fushimi Inari-Taisha Shrine. They were immediately greeted by the sight of shrines, temples, and the famous Senbon Torii as soon as they set a foot in the complex. As expected from a popular tourist destination, the shrine was as crowded as they can imagine, although it was not crowded like holiday season but still crowded than the typical tourist spot. Besides from the usual tourists, there were also some of their schoolmates who also picked this place for their first day destination.
"So this is Fushimi shrine, huh? Interesting…" Takeda looked around the complex and did an approval nod, seemingly interested of the place.
"Heh… It's just like your typical shrine and temple, but larger…" Maeda said with an unenthusiastic tone as he made his way to the nearby vending machine. "Although, I want to see the Senbon Torii because it's the main spotlight for this place. And the academic shrine, to test if your big talk is really true." He inserted a coin to the machine and took a can of soda from it.
"Slow down Maeda-kun, you need to take it slow and be patient to enjoy sightseeing in this place," Takeda responded and he made his way to the direction board, where the map of the shrine complex was posted. He then looked at the map, using his finger to locate the academic shrine. "The shrine is this way, huh? Anyway, let's go to the academic shrine first so Maeda-kun can stop his complaining and get smarter right away." He then started to walk to the academic shrine, followed by Fuutaro and Maeda.
"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Maeda gave him an annoyed look and then drank the soda.
Fuutaro, who was quiet almost the whole time, was not interested in the chit-chat between his groupmates, and slowly following those two from behind. He then let out a small sigh, kind of regretting the decision to form a group with them because he did not know Takeda and Maeda that well, which made the mood kind of awkward for him. Besides, he just got to know them recently, in which a problem for him because he always having a difficulty interacting with new friends, considering his always indifferent attitude towards a new acquaintance and having few to no friends in the past.
Fuutaro was more comfortable sightseeing and exploring places on his own for the serenity and no distraction from the other company. Although, he enjoyed walking around with a company if that company was the people he like or knew well, like his family members or the quintuplets…
Speaking of the quintuplets, Fuutaro wondered where those five went because he had not seen them since this morning where they were still at Tokai train station. He did not ask them of their plan on where they will visit for the first day trip because he was too busy preparing for the trip, and his groupmates, especially Takeda, were keeping his attention full for the past few days.
"I wonder where those five go…"
"I haven't seen them since this morning…"
"If they're in here now, I bet they will be all loud pointing at every direction…"
A little smile appeared on his lips as the image of the first quintuplet appeared on his mind. Fuutaro can imagine her joyful and playful face if she was in here, walking with him.
"Especially you…"
"With that playful expression of yours and you keep teasing me non-stop…"
"I kinda want to walk with you…"
Meanwhile, not far behind from Fuutaro's group, the quintuplets were following the boys all the way from the station to this place. They slowly walked and occasionally hiding in the crowd or behind a statue to avoid being found out by Fuutaro. They all had the same mind of avoiding being found out by him because it might give an impression of stalking him and his group, considering that they did not tell their plan or the place they will be visiting.
"*sigh* Why did he chose a place like this? There are other interesting places to visit and instead, he chooses to explore an old and dusty shrine…" Nino sighed and did a facepalm, feeling dissatisfied by the choice of place their tutor chose.
"Well… Knowing Fuutaro-kun, I bet he choose this shrine because it has a lot of historical value and background behind it for the school trip report," Ichika answered with a weak chuckle. "You can't blame him since he always focused on academic aspect in almost every occasion."
"Unn… I agree with that. The Fushimi Shrine has a lot of historical stories behind it dating back to the Nara period," Miku nodded. She then explained a brief history behind this shrine thanks to her vast knowledge of history topic. "Did you know the Romon Gate and the giant Torii back at the entrance? It was built in gratitude by Toyotomi Hideyoshi because his prayer, asking for his sick mother recovery, was answered by God."
"Woah! That's cool, Miku! You definitely know a lot of things about history, huh? No wonder you always scored high on Social Studies," Yotsuba awed from hearing the third sister's explanation and as well to praise Miku to raise her confidence.
"Ahh… No, it's nothing…" Miku quickly looked down, feeling bit embarrassed because her excitement for history subject came out of nowhere. Whenever someone was talking about history, especially Sengoku era history, she always got eager and enthusiastic about it. But she always suppressed that eagerness because she was afraid getting called weird for having a big interest in history. Lately, Miku was more comfortable talking about it to her nearest people, although still kind of uneasy. "I've been reading it on the net before and there were also some explanations of it in the lesson book."
"Hmm… I did see you a few times watching a documentary program about Sengoku period on the TV," Itsuki said. "I guess you really love history subject, that much, huh Miku?"
"Y-Yeah…"
"Well, I guess it's a good thing since your knowledge about it can help us write the school trip report," Nino said in a monotone voice, seemingly not interested in what the third sister explanation of this place. "Don't forget to help us, okay?" She looked at her and followed with a small nod from Miku.
The girls stopped once again and hide behind a wall, observing Fuutaro and his groupmates, who were stopping by at a shrine, praying. Since there were not many people around the shrine, they had to hide behind an object to avoid being seen by him or his groupmates. It took around a minute for them to finish praying and they continued walking again. This time, the three made their way upward, the direction to the top of the mountain by climbing the stone stairs.
Following their tutor again, Nino let out a small sigh and a quick yawn as she starting to get bored of this place because she was not interested to visit a temple or shrine in the first place. "It's pretty boring, isn't it? There's nothing interesting to do in this place other than pray and sightseeing old shrines…"
"Now, now… Let's not get all gloomy and boring. I'm sure that there's a certain charm to this place that we're not seeing it yet," Ichika said, opening her phone to find more information about Fushimi shrine. "If I'm not wrong, this place main attraction is the Senbon Torii and lots of review on the net said the Toriis were beautiful and mesmerizing." She looked at a travel website, reading some of the people's reviews that was posted.
"Come on, let's follow Uesugi-kun's group before we lost them." Itsuki picked up her pace, followed by Ichika and Nino as they walked to the direction where Fuutaro and his group earlier went, the path to the mountain where the Senbon Torii located.
With the three sisters walked in front, Miku and Yotsuba slowly walked behind them as the fourth sister cheered up the third sister.
"Don't worry, Miku! I'm sure you will have a chance to talk alone with Uesugi-san and give him the bread!"
"Thank you, Yotsuba," Miku said. "But still, acting in group is my biggest obstacle. I'm not sure I will have a chance of some alone time with Fuutaro as long as we're still moving in group…"
"Hehe…! No need to worry about it." Yotsuba let out a proud chuckle, putting her hands on her hip. She then confidently told Miku that she managed to get another help. "I asked Ichika for some help and told her about your situation, and… she agreed to help us!"
"Ehh… Ichika? Are you sure she's okay with it? Considering… You know…"
"Yup! Don't worry about her. Ichika is cool and I trust her about it," Yotsuba nodded eagerly, assuring her about it. "She already set up a plan on how you will get to talk with Uesugi-san, alone, without any interruption from Nino and Itsuki and also his groupmates too."
"I-Is that so?"
"Yeah… Don't worry about it, Miku. Ichika and I will support you and find a perfect time for you to have some alone time with him!" She let out a big grin and starting to walk faster. "Anyway, let's go catch up to them!"
Miku let out a weak smile and nodded. "Unn… Thank you again, Yotsuba." She also picked up her pace to caught up to the other three sisters.
Making their way up to the mountain, the quintuplets were amazed by the Senbon Torii seemingly lining up endlessly in front of them. Torii after Torii kept showing up as they slowly walking up the steps, admiring this amazing view of the landmark. They also occasionally stopped to take a little break from climbing the steps.
"Wow! These Torii just keep going and going." Nino looked in front of her, where the sight of the Torii seems endless, which amazed her. "I take what I said back earlier, this place definitely has some charms. I never thought a Torii can be this cool."
"There are around thousands of Torii lining up from the bottom and all the way up to the top of the mountain where smaller shrines located," Miku told them another fact about this place. "That's why it's called Senbon Torii…"
"Yeah, yeah… You really know a lot of things about history, don't you?" Nino answered with a disinterested voice, again. "Still, I'm not really interested in it. It's not really my thing."
"I had seen these Torii in photographs but they are quite magnificent to see in person," Itsuki said in awe while looking around the enormous Toriis around her.
"Yeah, this view is truly amazing," Ichika nodded as she took a picture of the Torii with her phone. "Last time we were in Kyoto, we didn't have a chance to visit this place, didn't we?"
"Well, it was because of Yotsuba went missing for a whole day which resulting in us being kept in the inn by the teachers." Nino looked at Yotsuba, who was already in front by few steps. "We missed the chance to visit this place because mom and some teachers got all worried and went around the city to find you," she said with an annoyed expression as she remembered that five years ago moment.
"Ahaha… My bad…" Yotsuba only answered with a weak laugh.
"Anyway, now that we're here, let's take some pictures." Nino readied her phone and told the four sisters to line up for a picture. "I'm going to take a picture of you four first, so flash those peace signs."
"Ahh… That reminds me, I think we don't have any picture of five of us together," Yotsuba said.
"Hmm… We didn't take one at the firework festival last year?" Ichika looked at Yotsuba, wondering about it since she swore that they might take some pictures together last year.
Itsuki shook her head. "No, I do not think so. If I remember correctly, we have not taken one since our school trip back in elementary school." She checked her phone for a picture of them together and she found nothing.
"If that's the case, now it's the time for a picture with five of us together." Nino changed her phone camera to a selfie mode and raised the phone in front of her. "Gather around you all, this will be the first time since five years we took a picture together."
"Say cheese…!"
After long minutes of steps climbing, the quintuplets reached the rest area located in the middle of the mountain. There were a small souvenir shop and a traditional Japanese restaurant in the area, with some vending machines located outside of the souvenir shop. Because of the long climb from the bottom of the mountain, lots of people were crowding this rest area, resting after climbing the long steps by eating at the restaurant, buying some stuffs at the souvenir shop, or just sitting on the bench around the area.
This also includes the quintuplets, who were also tired from the climbing so they decided to take a little break before continuing following their tutor.
Yotsuba let out a big groan as she took a seat on one of the benches. "Wahh… That was really tiring."
Miku immediately took a seat next to Yotsuba as she panted from the exhaustion because of her untrained physical condition. "*pant* *pant* My legs are very tired… I don't think I can walk anymore… *pant* *pant*"
"Here… a cold green tea for you." Ichika gave a can of cold green tea from the vending machine to the third sister. "As for onee-chan, an energy drink for her." She opened a bottle of energy drink and immediately drank it. "Wahh… That feels good! I haven't been this tired in a while."
"Yeah, no joke, those climbing really makes my legs numb," Nino said as she massaged and stretched her right leg. "We're still halfway through and I can't imagine the climbing down… This makes me wanted to go back to the hotel already." She stretched the other leg and then went to buy a drink from a vending machine.
For Itsuki, she was looking at her phone. "Hmm… It is already noon, so I guess it is time for lunch…" she muttered to herself after seeing the current time. The fifth sister then turned her attention to the traditional restaurant in front of her. "Hey, let's take a break for a while by having a lunch here! I'm hungry!" She pointed at the place with a bright face, hoping for a lunch as her stomach was now grumbling thanks to the sight of the restaurant.
"Huh? You just had a cup of ramen and some snacks back in the train and now you're already hungry?" Nino looked at her with a baffled, unimpressed face because of this apparent sister seemingly large appetite, which always surprised her. Knowing if they would stop for a lunch, Nino knew that she will miss her chance running into Fuutaro, which was her main goal of this school trip, to spend time with him. "If we're stopping for lunch, I wouldn't have a chance to run into Fuu-kun and it will be a big loss for me."
"W-Wait… About the lunch…" Miku spontaneously blurted out after hearing that they will stop for a lunch.
"What is wrong, Miku? You want to eat something different?" Itsuki asked, looking at her.
"No, that's not it…" Miku answered back with a quiet voice. A worried and nervous expression were all over her face. "It's just…"
Seeing Miku got all nervous, Yotsuba understood the situation because if they were having lunch now, Miku's opportunity to meet with Fuutaro will went away. She did not pay attention on how many minutes had passed since they started climbing up, but she knew that a lot of times had passed and their tutor was probably at the top of the mountain right now. They were already halfway through and the opportunity was still waiting for them, so she cannot afford of blowing this opportunity because she already set herself to support Miku with all she can.
"This is bad…"
"If we're stopping for lunch, Miku will not be able to get her chance to meet with Uesugi-san…"
"I need to talk to Ichika about this…"
Without any more thinking, Yotsuba quickly went to Ichika, who was standing in front of a direction board that display the map of area around.
"Hey Ichika, what are we going to do?" Yotsuba, with an agitated face, talked to her in a quiet voice. "If we're having lunch right now, Miku will miss her chance to meet with Uesugi-san and who knows that he might not be at the top of the mountain anymore by the time we're there."
"Don't worry about that." Ichika gave her a little smile and looked back at the board. "Take a look at this map, Yotsuba."
"Hmm… What about it?"
"There are two paths going up to the mountain." She pointed at the board, which showed the way to the peak of the mountain, consisted of left path and right path. "From what I can see, the left path is the shortest way to the top of the mountain. Meanwhile, the right path seems to be longer and of course, it takes much longer to reach the top compared to the left path."
Yotsuba stared at the map for a while and after a few moments, she repeatedly nodded, seemingly understand from what Ichika said. "I think I'm getting what you mean…"
"Good. So my plan is, we need to get Nino and Itsuki-chan to take the right path and meanwhile, of course, we will take the left path," Ichika explained her plan, raising her index finger as she continued to explain even further. "If this can be done, then our chance to beat those two to the top of the mountain is bigger and I'm pretty sure that Fuutaro-kun will still be up there once we're arrived."
"Wahh! What a great thinking, Ichika!" Yotsuba said in awe, impressed by the detail of the plan.
"Hehe… Thank you. But, there is an obstacle to this plan…"
"What is that?"
"I'm very sure that if we told them to split up, Nino and Itsuki-chan will get all suspicious and definitely refused to do so…" she said her worry. "I've been thinking of a reason for a while, but I can't seem to think of a good reason to persuade them."
"Yeah, you're right… Then, what should we do…?" Yotsuba put her fingers to her chin and closed her eyes, thinking about a reason or a way to make her other two sisters went the separate way. After few seconds of thinking, a solution immediately popped up in her head and a big "Aha" expression was all over her face. She clapped her hand enthusiastically from an important revelation. "Ahh! I just have the perfect solution for it!"
"What is it?"
Yotsuba whispered to Ichika and told her about the solution, "You remember back in the train when I…" she continued whispering and explained the detail of her solution. "And that's it! This should be good, right?"
"Ahh yeah, I forgot about that one." Ichika let out a chuckle, seemingly impressed by the fourth sister's idea. "Good thinking, Yotsuba! I couldn't think of a better way to do it. This will raise a suspicion from them but they will have no choice to follow our plan if you say it to them."
"Unn…! I hope this worked. Miku have been working hard and I wanted to see her get the result of her hard work."
"Yeah, onee-chan wanted to see it too," she nodded. "Anyway, let's go and tell them about it."
"Yeah!"
Yotsuba and Ichika did a high five together with a big grin, feeling ecstatic about their plan and had a high confidence that it will work. Without any more time to waste, Yotsuba immediately went back to the rest of the sisters, to execute the plan. Meanwhile, Ichika still standing in front of the direction board, observing how their plan will pan out.
"Hey, me and Ichika are not hungry yet. So how about we postpone the lunch after we climb back down from the peak?"
"Yeah, I agree with Yotsuba and I'm not hungry yet," Nino said and starting to walk to the left path. "So, shall we continue the walk? I'm sure Fuu-kun is already at the top of the mountain."
"But wait! Before we continue, let's split into two groups," Yotsuba eagerly said, followed with a puzzled expression from the other three sisters. "Ichika, Miku, and I will take the left route. Meanwhile, Nino and Itsuki will take the right route."
"O-Oi! Wait a minute, you can't just go deciding that on your own!" Nino said in a surprise with a visible disapproval expression.
"Y-Yeah! What is the basis of that? Can't we just go together? Why should we even split up?" Itsuki also protested in irritation.
Yotsuba let out a grin and followed with a chuckle. "Hehe… No particular reason about it." She then continued to talk, "Besides, we'll still run into Uesugi-san when we reached the top."
"No, I blatantly refuse… I won't follow your absurd suggestion." Nino shook her head and crossed her arms, still looking at Yotsuba with the same disapproval expression.
"You have to! Because… I won that card round, remember?" Yotsuba reminded them about that card round back in the train where she managed to win. A cheeky and cocky expression immediately replaced the big grin from before to further intimidate the objecting sisters. "So I have the right to give any order I want!"
Nino let out a small, disbelief open-mouthed expression as she got reminded of that disastrous card round where Yotsuba won. It was her chance to bring advantage to her situation where she can use it to get that alone time with their tutor, but instead her luck betrayed her and she ended up with the worst combination of card possible. "Ughh… I forgot about that…" she grumbled and then looked at the fifth sister with a sharp glare, who responded with a weak, guilty chuckle because she was responsible for suggesting that condition in the first place.
"Then, if we're all done here, we three will be going," Yotsuba said in a cheerful voice along with a trace of cockiness in it and then walked to the left path. "See you at the top!" She gave the two sisters a goodbye wave.
"Be careful, you two. If you're in trouble or in need of anything, don't hesitate to call one of us," Ichika said to them and walked to Miku to help her standing up. "Let's go, Miku." She extended her hand to the third sister, who was still sitting.
"Yeah…" Miku accepted the hand and stood up. The two walked to the left path, catching up to Yotsuba who already gone.
With the other three sisters made their way to the top of the mountain through the left route, Nino let out a big sigh and did a facepalm because of this unexpected situation from Yotsuba. Meanwhile, Itsuki was all quiet with an embarrassed and guilty expression, looking down at the ground below. She also did not expect this kind of situation because her suggestion back then was intended for her advantage, but backfired against her when Yotsuba managed to win the card game.
Nino then walked to the still quiet Itsuki and lightly tapped her shoulder. "Good job. Your little game surely screwed things up."
"Ahaha… I'm sorry…"
"*sigh* Anyway, let's make a haste up to the mountain." Nino walked to the right path and then stopped momentarily to look at the still frozen fifth sister. "I know that you wanted to get some alone time with him too, right? Let us go quick before they beat us to him."
"Y-Yeah…" Itsuki did a quick nod and followed Nino through the right path.
A/N:
There's not much for me to say for this chapter since it's pretty similar to the main series but with slight differences of more appearance of Fuutaro and his groupmates and change in the mountain path decision thanks to Ichika's different behavior from the original. As for the next chapter, you can pretty much guess what's going to happen and yes, it didn't have to wait until third day of the school trip for you Miku fan.
Also, I will be using a real-life location for this story since it's going to be weird to use a fictional location for me. So my apologies in advance in this chapter or future chapter if there are any inaccuracies or mistakes about the name, place description, and many other things related since I only used sources from various articles and websites on the internet and Google Maps street view.
For the next chapter, you can expect it on mid-February or the second week of February. February will probably only have one chapter release, but it's "probably", so there will be a small chance for another chapter by the end of the month.
Anyway, thank you for reading this chapter and see you again on February.
If you enjoy the story, feel free to review, follow, and favorite it!