Dearest sisters,

We are, as my classmates say 'back on the road' once again. We have left the place Sen'ya Ochiai's mother works at and are equipped with traditional materials of his craft and others. His mother is a lovely woman, very affectionate and clearly proud of her son. Her manner reminds me rather of Mother Li and Mother Xia, and I am sure you'll agree from the photo that she looks a bit like Great Mother Yue-

"Adding more to your scrapbook, Lilian-chan?"

I looked up at Sadie's voice and smiled serenely.

"Yes, that's right. I am looking most forward to sharing the story of our adventures with my sisters. We have travelled globally before but never quite like this."

"They're not coming to the Reiwa party, are they?" Sadie asked, looking sad for me.

"They are not, but such is life," I said. "Sometimes, these things happen. However, I am going to work my hardest at representing them."

"Of course you are! You'll be amazing! And of course, we'll record lots of it so they can see it afterwards-right, Azami-chan, Akari-chan?"

Sadie called over to Azami, who was sitting opposite us, a few seats behind with her sister. Both of them looked up and while Azami immediately beamed back Akari looked quizzical.

"What?"

"We were just saying, that we'd record Lilian-chan's performance so that her commune, her family can see, right?"

Akari's face brightened with understanding.

"Yes, of course we are. That goes without saying."

I thanked them, and then went back to writing, leaving spaces so that I would be able to stick photographs in once there was an opportunity to get them printed. I reminded myself that I would have to ask somebody about that.

I have not mentioned much about how we fill the time while in the minivan, and I am sure you will be curious. You especially, Xiao-Mei, as you always get so restless on our tours. Since, of course, we don't have routines to practice we do not go over any plans, but instead we chat. I learn so much about the wider world that I never imagined I would from these people. For example, there's lots of interesting songs out there-

"Yoooooo, we have the next playlist ready!" I heard Rin call out.

"Yes, let's go, let's go!" Katsuya cheered. "LaoLao, let's see what songs you know from this playlist!"

I tucked my pen into the middle of the book and closed it.

"Of course," I said. "This will be interesting!"

The next half an hour or so was interesting, to say the least. It seemed to me like a lot of modern songs had similar structures, or that singers had similar voices sometimes. Then again, a lot of the thing I grew up with had lots of common points with each other too, so that was no real criticism. But even when I thought that the songs I heard were ones I knew, it turned out that that wasn't the case-though, rather pleasingly, even though I didn't recognise the actual song I did recognise it as being from one of the idol groups that are so popular in Japan. There was also another song that was sung with Vocaloids rather than an actual person singing…but that was all I knew about that one. It was quite a lot of fun, and even though Rin and Katsuya were kind of making fun of me, it was amusing seeing how everybody reacted.

"Alright, alright, next song!" Rin declared.

The next song played, something sparkly with a light, high voice that sung in English.

"The singer," I said eventually. "Is Ellie…Ellie Golding? No, Goulding? And the song…starry something. Something about stars and eyes, I forget the title."

The song was paused. There was dead silence apart from the sounds of the road we were on. And then, Rin craned around his seat to stare at me, narrow eyes bugging out.

"Mate, bruh, friend. How'd you not know who AKB48, One Ok Rock, Mariah Carey or Beyoncé are but know who fucking Ellie Goulding is?"

Almost immediately, everybody stared to laugh, and I couldn't help but laugh too. I laughed and laughed and laughed, and then insisted we had to continue this most marvellous game right until we stopped for a toilet and food break at a service station.

Once I had relieved myself, I joined Sadie, Friede and the Kishinami twins in selecting snacks for us to eat. I knew what I wanted, and was happy to find this convenience store had a whole bunch of onigiri. I dumped a bunch into their basket, along with a bottle of green tea, and then once we'd paid we divided our food up between us and sat on a bench outside the store.

"You really like convenience store onigiri, huh?" Sadie said.

"Mhm," I said. "I think it tastes so much better than anything anyone else could make. I never had such a thing while growing up with my sisters and the mothers. Even the flavours I don't usually like, I like in these onigiri!"

"I…think this has to be the first time I've ever heard anyone profess such a love for a convenience store onigiri." Friede said. "Or convenience store anything."

"Hmm, I don't know. This ice-cream is pretty amazing too." Azami said, sighing contentedly over her chocolate-covered stick ice-cream.

"Yes, your Japanese convenience stores are such delights. Truly your country is lucky to have such great places."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it. Come on now, let's keep eating."

So we sat and ate and talked about lots of other different things. Azami talked a little about recent dates with Eizo, and Akari kept countering that with stories of some of her more impolite and outrageous clients, which of course meant stories of incredibly dramatic weddings. Friede also talked about her own love troubles, including asking us for advice about a crush she had on an upperclassman. Even if I didn't really understand the appeal of boys (after all, being in this class was the first time I'd been up and close to any boys) I lapped up the stories eagerly. Some of them really were very funny. I was on better territory when we stared talking about our outfits for the parties, which we were still discussing by the time we headed back into the minivan and continued our journey.

Sadie and I continued our conversation for a little while, but then she decided to take a little nap. As I was by the window this time, I gazed at the scenery for a while, then took out my book and pen once again. I wrote a little more about what we had been doing and then said.

You know something, dear sisters? I really love these people. Their lives are so radically different to ours, and they are so much more worldly. But they have just expanded their world to include me, and I do feel included. I am glad that I am a part of Class 78-B and I will be loyal to them.

However, do not worry, dear sisters.

I hesitated for a moment, then looked around at everyone else on the coach, listening to the various conversations going on around me. My heart swelled with warmth and affection at these sensations, and the memories I knew they would become. But then I resolved myself, and picked my pen up again to write:

Do not worry, for as a Butterfly Sister, my first loyalties will always be to us.