We’re heading to Nagano next. Or more precisely, to Mountain Hotaka, Mashiro’s hometown.

   ‘So, how are we going there?’ I ask everyone’s opinion after we ate our breakfast while Mashiro is sitting on my lap. ‘We can ride trains until we’re near there, but we’re going to have to hike it at one point.’

   ‘We could rent bicycles.’ Ichika suggests.

   Mashiro trembles uncontrollably at the suggestion. ‘Bicycle means exercise. Mashiro hates exercising.’

   ‘There’s such a thing as tandem bicycles.’ I remind her.

   ‘That’s even worse. Mashiro’s legs probably can’t reach all the way down there.’

   ‘Um, yeah. That’s the point. I’m not asking you to pedal.’

   Mashiro shakes her head stubbornly. ‘Mashiro will not just sit back and relaxes as her friends and Akira do all the work.’

   ‘What’s wrong with that? You’ve done so much for us. This is the least we could do.’

   She continues to shake her head.

   ‘We could rent a vehicle from the garage.’ Assaf-sensei suggests instead.

   From what I gathered from the original anime when the original gang was staying a night at one of the bunkers, they also have a garage stored with different types of cars and vehicles. Myself and the audiences never got to see the garage as no one was old enough to drive them. Assaf-sensei is probably talking about one of those.

   ‘Do you have a driving license, sensei?’ I ask her.

   ‘Of course I do. Like my medical license, I renew it every few years too.’

   ‘Well, guess we’re taking a car or something to climb Mountain Hotaka.’

   It would be a real pain to get a vehicle here and returns it once we went to Mountain Hotaka, so we decided to go to one of the bunkers located at Nagano first. We need to stay a night before we go to Kyoto anyway.

   After we got our rooms, we follow the directory so that we could head to the garage. They got small environmental friendly cars, large family cars, fast-looking sports cars, one or two really long limousines. It’s not only cars they got here. They also have different types of motorcycles, jeeps, even freaking tanks.

   Wordlessly, I point at one of the tanks and look at my girlfriends.

   ‘No Akira-kun. We’re not getting one of those.’ Sakuya tells me firmly.

   ‘Aw, why not senpai?’

   ‘Be sensible. How on earth do you expect a tank to climb up and down a mountain?’

   ‘Boo~. Fine, but we’re at least getting one of those.’

   I point at one of those armored cars used by security companies to transport cash around. This particular one is as big as an eight-wheeled truck with the same number of tires and covered with heavily-tinted glass. I seriously think the only reason this vehicle isn’t classified as a tank is due to the fact that there isn’t a cannon attached to it.

   Sakuya thinks it over.

   ‘I guess that’s one of the only vehicles we could use considering the size of our group. Do you think you can handle it, Assaf-sensei?’

   Our teacher nods. ‘The size doesn’t really matter as long as the controls are the same.’

   ‘We shall be renting it then.’

   Right before we depart, I walk to the tank I pointed just now and give it an affectionate pat.

   ‘Don’t worry buddy. When I grow up, I’ll learn to operate and drive a tank. When I do, I’ll come back for you. Until then, wait for me, okay?’ I talk to it like it’s an old comrades I have to abandon for now.

   ‘Boys.’ I hear Sakuya mumbles.

   After Assaf-sensei paid for the rental of the armored car, she got a car key in return. She then goes inside the driver’s seat to insert the car key and start the engine. Desipte the size of the vehicle, the sound the engine makes is surprisingly soft. The rest of us go inside the vehicle as well. I decide to sit down next to sensei.

   ‘Oh look, the seats are made of leather, and they’re high class ones too.’ Saya points out.

   ‘It is quite comfortable inside.’ Ichika adds.

   ‘Everyone settled down?’ Assaf-sensei asks while looking at the rear view mirror.

   Everyone nods.

   ‘Let’s go then.’

   I’m glad that Assaf-sensei isn’t someone who drives like a complete maniac when she’s behind the wheels. As a result, we have time to take in the view around us. Not long after departing from the garage, I realize that we can connect our phone with the radio through Bluet**th, so most of us take turn to listen to our favourite songs stored in our phones.

   ‘Maybe we could do this again after we graduate and have driving license of our own.’ I suggest to the girls.

   ‘That’s a great idea. Maybe we could go to oversea, like America.’ Sakuya adds.

   ‘Oh oh! We could rent one of those large RV things!’ Saya continues.

   ‘While we are travelling, we can just stop at the side of the road and set up a campfire.’ Ichika approves.

   ‘Nothing beats surviving outside without relying too much on modern technologies.’ Madoka nods.

   ‘Campfire means food.’ Mashiro and Kaoru say at the same time. They’re also drooling.

   Assaf-sensei joins in the conversation.

   ‘And we can make love under the starry sky-’

   ‘Right, can we only talk about the wholesome part of the trip, please?’ I interrupt.

   I turn to look at Kuromi who had been quiet the entire time.

   ‘What’s wrong, Kuromi? You don’t like the idea of us having another trip?’ I ask her.

   ‘Not at all, master. IT is just that I have never been to this America, so I do not know what to expect.’

   ‘Well, I guess you can’t be blamed, since America was formed long after Greek became Greece. But you don’t have to worry. We’re going on road trips to have fun and broaden our horizons anyway.’

   ‘If you say so, master.’

   We soon reach the base of the mountain. Thankfully, there’s a road wide enough for cars, so we don’t have to hike all the way there like how Yui and I hiked Mountain Fuji.

   ‘We’re about to ascend a mountain. How fast do you want me to drive?’ Assaf-sensei asks us.

   ‘As slow as possible, please. I want to decrease the chance of getting motion sickness as little as possible.’ I request.

   ‘Got it.’

   The ascending was painfully slow, but at least no one’s getting motion sickness. Since we’re going up a mountain, we also brought out thick clothes suitable for winter times so that we don’t catch a cold.

   ‘Are you all right, Mashiro-chan?’ I hear Sakuya asking Mashiro. ‘Your face is getting paler by the minute. Are you getting carsick?’

   I look at Mashiro’s face through the rear-view mirror. Her face is indeed white as a sheet. She’s even trembling a bit.

   ‘Mashiro is fine. Don’t worry.’ she assures us.

   ‘Mashiro, come and sit on my lap.’ I offer.

   Mashiro unbuckles her seat belt and crawls over quietly. The ceiling of the car is tall enough, so she could just sit on my lap while facing me without any problem whatsoever.

   ‘Hey, it’s going to be fine, alright? All of us will be there with you when you visit the ruins of your clan.’ I tell her while patting her head.

   Mashiro widens her eyes in surprise. ‘You can tell that Mashiro was being nervous of that?’

   ‘Of course I do. I’m your boyfriend, remember?’

   Mashiro looks like she’s about to cry, but she managed to hold back her tears and kisses me on the lips instead.

   ‘Mashiro will enter your room and attack you tonight.’ she declares.

   ‘Oh my, how daring~.’ Sakuya squeals.

   Even though Assaf-sensei drove slowly, we still managed to reach the top of the mountain in less than two hours. It probably help that this mountain is the eighth tallest mountain in Japan instead of the first like mountain Fuji is. The first thing I notice when we got to the top is the ruin which consists of destroyed wooden huts. The only other proof that the Fuyukaze clan ever existed aside from Mashiro.

   Mashiro takes a deep breath and opens the door so that she could get out. I follow suit without a word.

   ‘We’ll just wait inside, Akira-kun. Please take care of Mashiro-chan.’ Sakuya tells me before I close the door.

   ‘Got it.’

   Mashiro is staring at the ruins intently. She’s being expressionless as usual, so I have no idea what she’s thinking right now. But I do know this: she needs someone to push her from behind so that she could face her demons, just like how she faced Itachimaru during the training camp. I take her hand gently.

   ‘Come on, let’s go in.’ I encourage.

   Wordlessly, she nods in agreement.

   The destruction of the village is even harder to look at while we’re inside. Everywhere I look at, I see nothing but houses and their components that got destroyed and wrecked way beyond repair. I just can’t shake off the mental image where everyone in here was alive and happy in one second and got killed in the next.

   Mashiro brings me to an open field where there are lots of makeshift tombstones. The burial ground of the entire Fuyukaza clan, I presume. She stops in front of three tombstones that are right next to each other.

   ‘Underneath those tombstones lie the bodies of Mashiro’s parents and her grandfather. Her grandmother doesn’t have one since she passed away a long time ago.’ Mashiro explains.

   I kneel down in front of the tombstones and put my palms together. Mashiro does the same. We prayed for some time before getting up.

   ‘Father, mother, grandfather. Mashiro is back after all these years.’ Mashiro says to the tombstones with a shaky voice.

   It’s really inappropriate in this situation, but I was half expecting their spirits to come out from the stones. For better or worse, that didn’t happen.

   ‘Um, father and grandfather? Mashiro knows what the two of you said about not letting Mashiro get a boyfriend until she becomes an adult, but she got one anyway. And I brought him here to see you.’ Mashiro says next.

   I bow to the tombstones respectfully.

   ‘Greetings, Mashiro’s father, mother and grandfather.’ I say to the tombstones. ‘My name is Kagenashi Akira, and I have the honor of being in a relationship with your daughter/granddaughter.’

   ‘He’s very nice to Mashiro.’ Mashiro continues. ‘Thanks to him, Mashiro always get good food, she made some friends, and…she even made a contract with the Destroyer that’s possessing Mashiro.’

   As she said the last part, she unlocked the choker on her neck and revealed her now-crimson left eye.

   ‘That said, I have a confession to make.’ I say nervously. ‘I am currently in a relationship with multiple girls other than Mashiro. I know I am multi-timing, but I will swear that I would rather end my own life than making her sad. I may be unworthy, but I hope that I can get your blessings.’

   I bow at the tombstones again. As I’m doing that, I see Mashiro turns around and walks away. Her choker was already at her neck once more.

   ‘You’re done already?’ I ask her.

   She shakes her head. ‘Not yet. Mashiro would like to say one last thing to everyone here.’

   She walks until she can see the entire graveyard and bows at low as she could.

   ‘Everyone. Mashiro knows she has no right to live after all the things she did to you. Mashiro won’t make any excuses on that. However, Mashiro wants to live on for your sake. So please, watch over Mashiro.’

   She starts to choke up at the end, but she didn’t cry out loud. I walk to her side and bow as well. At this moment, a wind blow towards our direction. Contrary to the cold wind we had been getting ever since we got here, this one is very warm and comfortable.

   ‘Well, I guess that’s a yes.’ I tell Mashiro.

   Mashiro nods and wipes her tear-covered face with the back of her hand.

   ‘Thank you, everyone.’ she whispers.

   Once Mashiro has calmed down a bit, she gives me a tour of the village. Granted, it’s a bit difficult considering that everything’s smashed to pieces, but I tried to make do with my imagination.

   ‘This used to be Mashiro’s house.’ Mashiro says while pointing at a spot where there are only a few broken pillars poking out of the ground.

   ‘Was it very big?’ I ask.

   ‘It was for three people and a little girl. The walls were quite thin, though. Grandfather had to carry Mashiro outside whenever her parents were wrestling loudly at night.’

   ‘Wrestling-oh, never mind.’

   She then brings me to the wreckage of another building. Based on the number of broken pillars, this building was huge.

   ‘This was the town hall. All of us gathered here whenever there was a festival. We always eat and drink for the whole night until our stomachs full.’

   ‘That reminds me. I don’t see any farms or well here. How did you people get food and drink?’

   Mashiro points at a wreckage. At first, I couldn’t see anything worth looking at, but I eventually se the silhouette of a small pick up truck underneath all the logs and straws.

   ‘We always had someone to do shopping at nearby towns. Mashiro went with them once or twice. It was fun to get out of the village every once in a while.’ she recalls.

   She then points at a wreckage next to the former town hall.

   ‘That was the library. The place Mashiro went that fateful day before she caused the disaster.’

   I see some bookshelves but no books.

   ‘Where did all the books go?’ I ask her.

   ‘Principal Morifuji told Mashiro that all the books will be stored inside the archives of the Academy.’

   ‘I guess it makes sense. We can’t have some dangerous books fall into the hands of a normal person.’

   Mashiro continues the tour and showed me all sorts of places. There were a few houses she always went to since the residents there always gave her snacks. There was even an observatory so that they could watch the stars. We found a telescope under the wreckage, the entire thing fully rusted with age.

   Lastly, Mashiro brings me to another open field.

   ‘This was where we practiced our summoning.’ she explains. ‘We would summon Destroyers and had them fight against each other.’

   So it’s like P*kemon, but with gruesome alien life forms.

   When the tour’s finally over, we get back to the car, but not before bowing at the ruin again.

   ‘Sorry for the wait.’ I tell the girls who were waiting.

   ‘Mashiro gave Akira a little tour.’ Mashiro adds.

   ‘No worries.’ Assaf-sensei tells us.

   Once we descend the mountains, Assaf-sensei parked the car in front of an udon shop so that we could have our lunch. The place must have very little customers frequent it since Kaoru managed to eat up their entire stocks of udon for the day.

   ‘Right, where next?’ Assaf-sensei asks us once we’re inside the car again.

   ‘I have no idea. I’m not trying to be rude to the locals here, but I don’t think there’s anything fun to do at Nagano.’ I state out my opinion.

   ‘We could go skiing.’ Saya suggests.

   ‘Anyone here knows how to ski?’ I ask the girls.

   Only Saya raises up her hand.

   ‘I could teach you all.’ she offers.

   ‘Fair enough. Anyone has any objections?’

   No one has any, so Assaf-sensei uses the GPS installed in her phone to search for the nearest ski resort.

   ‘The nearest one is Nozawa Onsen Snow Resort.’ she informs after searching. ‘It’s at least three hours away from here.’

   ‘Aww, it’ll be nighttime by the time we got there~.’ Saya grumbles.

   ‘It can’t be helped. We’ll just have to go there first thing in the morning.’ I tell her.

   ‘Besides, someone has to save up stamina for the night raid later.’ Assaf-sensei adds mischievously.

   For the first time ever, I don’t have a single comeback to what she said, nor do I plan to correct her.

   There’s still a lot of time until it’s nighttime, so we just drove around and visited random shrines and shopping district to pass the time. After we ate dinner, we head back to the bunker. While everyone else is going inside their respective rooms, Mashiro and I head to mine.

   ‘Have fun~.’ Sakuya says to us before we go in.

   ‘So, a bath first?’ I ask Mashiro once we’re alone in my room.

   She nods. ‘You can go ahead first, Akira.’

   ‘Okay.’

   I took a quick shower and got out. It’s Mashiro’s turn next, and she took a quick one as well. And she came out while having only a towel to cover her tiny body.

   ‘Do you want Mashiro to transform her body into something sexier with the help of a Destroyer?’ she asks me all of a sudden.

   ‘What for?’

   She starts fidgeting. ‘Well, Mashiro’s body is tiny and child-like compared to everyone else. So Mashiro is scared that you might not like it.’

   ‘Hey, I didn’t choose my girlfriends based on their looks and bodies. I love you just the way you are, so be more confident, okay?’

   ‘...Okay.’

   She takes off the towel and shows me her naked body. And I groin reacted accordingly, even though hers is not the first naked body I saw.

   ‘Are you a lolicon, Akira?’ Mashiro asks me after she saw my bulge.

   ‘Not true. I do not have that kind of disgusting fetish!’ I quickly. ‘You’re the same age as me, remember?’

   ‘If you say so.’

   ‘You don’t trust me, do you?’

   ‘Mashiro never said that.’

   I give up and take off my clothes. It took Mashiro some time to get used to the sight of my groin.

   ‘Do all boys have the same size when it comes to that thing?’ she asks me.

   ‘I have no idea. I’ve never seen one belong to another guy, after all.’

   I notice that Mashiro is rubbing her legs together and fingering herself while we’re talking. I guess she’s making preparation. I guess I should do the same.

   After a condom is slipped into my groin and Mashiro’s nether region is wet enough, we climb onto my temporary bed. Mashiro lies down on it and spreads her legs while looking at me expectantly.

   ‘Are you ready for this?’ I ask her while aiming my crotch at her nether region.

   She nods. ‘Please be gentle.’

   ‘Don’t worry. I will.’ I assure her.

   She flinched when her hymen was penetrated, but she didn’t cry out loud. I made sure to wait a few minutes before moving. Even while I was moving, I moved slowly so that I don’t hurt her too much.

   The whole thing lasted around ten minutes. I could still go on, but Mashiro has terrible stamina, so I just pull out my groin and lie down next to her to rest.

   ‘You better take responsibility for taking Mashiro’s first time.’ Mashiro says to me weakly.

   ‘I always planned to.’ I assure her.

   Once she regained some of her stamina back, we took a bath together before sleeping on the same bed.